Open Studio with [in]operabilities

As part of their residency, the collective [in]operabilities is exploring the ‘aesthetics of access’ in musical theatre. Focusing on Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, they are researching new forms of multi-sensory music-making and encounter – between libretto, score and sign language. What does opera mean for people with visual or hearing impairments? What role can it play in society today? The collective will be guests at the L.I.K. – Laboratory for Inclusive Culture by Un-Label studio for two weeks in October 2025.

About the residence

Since 2021, the collective [in]operabilities has been researching ‘Aesthetics of Access’ in musical theatre and searching the canon and cosmos of opera for forms of multi-sensory music-making and encounter – for collective and individual ‘opera-abilities’. Based on the assumption that accessible offerings in the opera house are still primarily conceived as ‘inclusion services,’ they visit and examine the opera during their residency, compile their findings, initiate critical, artistic and multi-sensory dialogues, and thus create a multi-perspective evaluation: How does the Gesamtkunstwerk of opera affect people with visual or hearing impairments? How can accessible operas be created? What might new approaches to opera look like?

Under the heading ‘Opera Landscape,’ the team takes on opera as an institution and reflects on its own forms, experimenting and developing new ones. Using the opera “Fidelio” by the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who later became deaf, they refine and deepen their practice of ‘multisensory music-making’:

How can the rigid template of libretto and score be conveyed in sign language in such a way that the result is more than a translation – indeed, an artistic original? How can sign language poetry and aesthetics be made accessible to a blind audience? And what remains of Beethoven in the process? [in]operabilities would like to explore these questions between canon and creation during its residency and survey its own ‘opera landscape’.

The residency is part of the production development of ‘Fidelio’, a production by [in]operabilities in co-production with Kampnagel Hamburg, Gare du Nord Basel, Radialsystem Berlin and Un-Label. The project is funded by the Performing Arts Fund from funds provided by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

Showing / Open Studio

On Thursday, 9 October, [in]operabilities invites you to an open studio at 4 p.m. and welcomes interested visitors.

What is it about? [in]operabilities researches and experiments with various forms of ‘multisensory music-making’. Is music really only meant to be heard? How can we combine music, audio description and sign language poetry? How can audio descriptions be made musical and sensory?

We would like to share a few experiments with you as part of an open studio!

📅 When? Thursday, 9 October 2025 – 4–6 p.m.

📍Where? L.i.K. Laboratory for Inclusive Culture, Un-Label, Hosterstraße 1-5, 50825 Cologne-Ehrenfeld

Access: Interpreters for German Sign Language and spoken German Language are available on site. Information on how to get to Un-Label can be found here.

Artist

[in]operabilities

[in]operabilities is a polyphonic and interdisciplinary music theatre collective from Hamburg, Berlin and Zurich. In musical theatre productions and workshops, the artists combine the art form of opera with the question of its accessibility and explore the aesthetics of access. Within the canon and cosmos of opera, they search for forms of multi-sensory music-making and encounter – for collective and individual ‘opera-abilities’. As part of the ‘Opernlandschaft’ residency at Un-Label, they are researching and working together in Cologne: actress Athena Lange, access dramaturg and theatre educator Susanne Tod, author, performer, art and literature educator Gunda Schröder, singer Marie Sophie Richter, director Benjamin van Bebber, dramaturg Franziska Henschel, curator, dramaturg and cultural producer Jeanne Charlotte Vogt, dancer and choreographer Sophia Neises, audio description expert Caro Jüngst, composer Leo Hofmann and theatre maker Emil Leske are researching and working together in Cologne as part of the ‘Opernlandschaft’ residency at Un-Label.
https://inoperabilities.net/

About the Un-Label artist residency

Un-Label’s artist residencies offer artists with disabilities the opportunity to realise their own creative projects with targeted support. The Laboratory for Inclusive Culture (L.I.K.) in Cologne-Neuehrenfeld is creating a central location where artists with disabilities can come together, network and work in an inclusive environment. In addition to financial, personnel and logistical support, there is a focus on interdisciplinary and intersectional collaboration. Un-Label also works with network partners to anchor accessibility and the promotion of artists with disabilities in the cultural scene in a sustainable manner.