Backyard [A Field to Search]

Backyard [A Field to Search] – The Lecture

Though Backyard emerges from the crisis of forced disappearance in Mexico, its force lies in form. Through costume, visual composition, dark humor, and a dramaturgy that operates as a critical apparatus, the work constructs a precise aesthetic intervention.

This is not theater “about” violence, but an aesthetic operation that dismantles it through the precision of its own artifice.

The boutique is not just a frame but a device where the aesthetic and the political contaminate each other. Garments, mannequins, and performative actions unfold as hybrid languages between installation, fashion, document, and lecture-performance.

Developed since 2018 by Laura Uribe and Sabina Aldana, Backyard was first presented in 2025 as a performative installation at the Maxim Gorki Theater.

On April 23 at 20:30, in Studio Я, this lecture performance marks the final presentation of Backyard at the Maxim Gorki Theater, revisiting and reactivating materials from the original installation.

As noted by taz – die tageszeitung:

“Backyard transforms the space into a performative boutique where luxury and brutality touch painfully (…)

confronting the European audience with the invisible violence from which the global north continues to benefit (…)

a precise artistic intervention on today’s colonial power structures.”

Backyard [A Field to Search] has been selected for Mehr Drama! — the Drama and Discourse programme of the Theatertreffen 2026, where distinguished playwrights nominate emerging voices in contemporary playwriting.

Part of the Berliner Herbstsalon 2025

Credits

Text: Laura Uribe & Sabina Aldana

Stage Direction: Laura Uribe

Art Direction, Set & Costume Design: Sabina Aldana

Performers: Yanina Cerón, Laura Uribe & Sabina Aldana

Dramaturgy: Johannes Kirsten

Translation from Mexican Spanish: Franziska Muche

Production: Maxim Gorki Theater & L.A.S. Laboratorio de Artistas Sostenibles

TICKETS

www.gorki.de

Laura Uribe and Sabina Aldana have dedicated themselves to the topic of disappeared people in Mexico since 2018. February 2025 the KIOSK of the Maxim Gorki Theater in a performative installation will become a mixture of pop-up store, workshop and archive space in which Uribe and Aldana's research will be told at various stations. In a unique lecture performance, Uribe and Aldana revisit and update elements of the performative installation from February.Part of 7th Berliner Herbstsalon ЯE:IMAGINE: THE RED HOUSEPhoto: Esra Rotthoff