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Gob Squad

Country : Germany

(DE)

Gob Squad company - © David Baltzer

Gob Squad is a group of UK and German artists. They make performances and videos which search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger. They are an artists’ collective, the seven core members working collaboratively on the concept, direction and performance of their work. Other artists, performers and technicians are invited to collaborate on particular projects.
They try and explore the point where theatre meets art, media and real life. As well as theatres and galleries, they place their work at the heart of urban life – in houses, shops, underground stations, car parks, hotels or directly on the street. Everyday life and magic, banality and utopia, reality and entertainment are all set on a collision course and the audience are often asked to step beyond their traditional role as passive spectators and bear witness to the results.
They started the company in 1994 and are now more or less based in Berlin (DE). Their work is regularly shown throughout Europe, and they’ve toured to all the continents apart from Antarctica.

In 2020 the company did a residency at Norfolk & Norwich Festival (UK). This residency provided time and space for Gob Squad members, Sarah Thom and Mat Hand, to reflect on the work Super Night Shot and to consider its legacy.  They considered the role and place of documentation – from archival film to memories of audiences – of site specific performance and how a show/event can exist beyond the moment of performance.  Their core question was whether new work can emerge from the archive and still retain its connection to place and time.