Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
Necessary Interruption
Sermon and performance / Commissioned work
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, Necessary Interruption (2021), performance at Palais Attems (courtyard), photo: Johanna Lamprecht
Dates
17.–18.9.2021
Details
17.9., 18.9., 14:00
Palais Attems
Sackstraße 17
8010 Graz
17.9., 18.9., 18:00
Joanneumsviertel (entrance Kalchberggasse)
8010 Graz
Location
Palais Attems & Joanneumsviertel
Graz
Production specifics
Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ʼ21
With the generous support of the Embassy of the United States of America in Vienna
Stop the shopocolypse! That is the message spread by Reverend Billy and the Church of Shop Shopping in their newly commissioned sermon and performance.
Be it drastic climate change or the rapid spread of global pandemics, the reasons for these crises lie in the unbridled demand for ever more consumer products. Resources thus squandered cannot be replaced, as becomes increasingly obvious. Yet despite a widespread sense of gloom and doom, the shopping continues like a party on the edge of a volcano. Capitalism forces us into two categories that transcend nationalism, regionalism, and identity: we are tourists, or we are refugees. Does anyone even notice? Or are we under the spell?
In this apocalyptic atmosphere, The Church of Stop Shopping and their spiritual “leader” Reverend Billy propose what they call a “necessary interruption.” A spectacle unto themselves, flamboyant, loud, American. You will see them as they move through the city of Graz, on the way from one sermon to another, awakening the hypnotized, creating rituals, and enacting muscular exorcisms. They come from the future with a message: we must reclaim ourselves, our choices, our relationship to the Earth, guided by our mentors—superstorms, wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts.
The Church of Stop Shopping: Sunder Ganglani, Kai Pelton, David Yap, Francisca Benitez, Tewodros Tamirat, Killian Sundermann, Savitri D, William Talen
Retrospective
Retrospective