Off the record Performance by Olga Hohmann

Olga Hohmann’s performance Off the record probes the less formal settings that exist alongside official conference proceedings and the unspoken rules that govern them. Together with the costume designer Sina Manthey she explores the politics of informal encounters at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, the traditional venue for the Munich Security Conference.

While key decisions are usually taken around large tables behind closed doors and announced at lecterns in a formal choreography, important information informing and influencing those decisions is exchanged in more informal settings and in-between spaces. Whether during breakfast, a drink at the bar, or in the hotel corridors, this information exchange operates according to formulas of inclusion and exclusion. The economy of knowledge transfer likewise follows the principles of profit maximization. Olga Hohmann uses historical and local references as well as music to create a site-specific performance in the ministers’ room of the hotel, tracing the codes and strategies of diplomatic rhetoric.