Night Shifts 7
with Cakes of Despair
Performance
21.11., 10:00 am
@Wochenmarkt Harburg-Sand, Hamburg
in cooperation with K&S Seniorenresidenz Harburger Sand and Kinderzentrum Harburg
Slowly, the light begins to rise. As night draws to a close, the air fills with the scent of freshly baked goods. The marketplace is where the city wakes up. Someone has risen early to prepare for the day ahead.
It is late November, and at the weekly market on Sand in the center of Harburg, stalls are still being set up under the streetlights. Tarpaulins are pulled into place, crates set down, and goods arranged. As daylight grows, the façades of the surrounding buildings emerge from the shadows. A calm still hangs over the square, yet activity is already underway between the stalls. With every movement, the market takes shape. The weekly market on Sand, dating back to 1614, remains an integral part of everyday life in Harburg.
On the morning of 21 November, the market's everyday activity intertwines with a participatory intervention by Swedish artist duo Cakes of Despair. Hedda Bauer and Hilma Bäckström's collaboration combines performance with edible sculptural costumes. They use confectionery to explore boundaries between the domestic, comfort, pleasure, transience, and destruction. Their ephemeral, wearable installations, made from meringue, biscuits, and caramel, serve as a tempting invitation for the audience to eat the artworks together, completing the artistic gesture.
In the run-up to the event, the artists will lead workshops in which residents of the K&S Seniorenresidenz Harburger Sand and children from the Kinderzentrum Harburg will design props and costumes. The performance will then take place with the Harburg children.
Historically shaped by local exchange of goods and social relationships, the marketplace becomes a temporary gathering space through the performance, where boundaries between art production and consumption, observation and participation begin to dissolve. As the edible sculptures are not merely looked at but also consumed, the artwork shifts from an object to a social process. Through the collective act of desiring and eating, an anonymous audience briefly becomes a community.
Night Shifts is a year-long artistic program by Rosanna Graf, Lisa Klosterkötter, and Gesa Troch unfolding across Hamburg’s public spaces, structured into eight chapters dedicated to the theme of darkness.
The Night Shifts 7 event is supported by the Harburg District Office.
The Night Shifts program is made possible with the kind support of the Elbkulturfonds of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, the Hamburg Cultural Foundation, and the Claussen-Simon Foundation.
