Helgoland. Here, on Germany's only offshore island, a small community of survivors of an apocalypse that has overrun the rest of the world and plunged it into chaos is holed up. But the price of their survival is high. The resources on the rocky island are scarce, so that an inhumane "social ranking" system determines the lives of the 513 inhabitants: each islander is evaluated according to his usefulness. The only doctor is high on the list, others are far behind, and they have to fight for their place on the list and their survival. Meanwhile, people from the mainland are trying to get to Helgoland and the Helgolanders have to defend their island.
We look back at more than half a century of mysterious artistic creation while trying to crack a unique artistic code. Why are people moved to tears when Robert “Bob” Wilson puts minimalistic petrol pumps into a production of Shakespeare’s sonnets? Why does merciless repetition change our understanding of something? Together with Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe or Marina Abramović we trace back our own experience of Bob’s art. Is it true what Philipp Glass the collaborator of the milestone piece “Einstein on the Beach” laughingly and with apparent pleasure exclaims “what does it mean? It doesn’t mean anything!”?
Traute Hoess was born on May 24, 1950 in Weilheim in Oberbayern, Bavaria, Germany. She is known for her work on Reine Geschmacksache (2007), Sommer vorm Balkon(2005) and Otomo (1999). She is married to Waldemar Kobus.