Aino Laberenz: "I never feel completely"

We meet for the first time at the beginning of the year during a shoot of the photographer Andreas Mühe. It's about favorite clothes, and Aino Laberenz brings a bag full of vintage and designer clothes. At the end we take a picture of her in a worn-out men's cardigan, burgundy with black stripes. It belonged to Christoph Schlingensief, the busy action artist, director, Bayreuth stager. Her man. Aino always wears the jacket when she needs an extra layer of protection. And that is often. She has the stature of a ballerina, narrow and filigree, long light brown hair, which she carries negligently to the middle parting. She has no face, but a face: finely cut, with slightly oblique gray-green eyes. Schlingensief died at age 49 in August 2010 after battling lung cancer for two years. There was a breather, but the metastases came again and again - Aino cared for him, drove him to the doctor every day and finally stayed by his side.

After his death, her younger brother temporarily moved in with her because she could not be alone. Or wanted. "That was beautiful, and yet no one could console me, for the one who could do it is dead." For nights she lay awake and watched hospital series. That sounds quirky, she says, but it calmed her down. "The environment felt familiar, after all, I had spent an incredible amount of time there for the past two years." At the age of 31, Aino is far too young to be called a widow. She has decided to continue the creative legacy of her husband, perhaps an insane task. "In the first year after his death, I hardly had time to be sad. I only worked because I had to, because there was so much to do." Aino designed together with the curator Susanne Gaensheimer the Schlingensief Pavilion at the Biennale. There was recognition, but also plenty of criticism ("Well-intentioned pathos" wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung). She supervised the performance of his last play "Via Intolleranza II" at the Theatertreffen.

And then there's another heirloom: Schlingen-sief's big dream of an opera village in Africa. When he was already undergoing chemotherapy, he sought a place in Africa for his dream and found his place in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world. He still experienced the laying of the foundation stone and the start of construction. What at first sounds like a crazy artist's fantasy is an unusual but highly decent development aid project that is constantly growing and for which a lot of donations have to be organized. Young people from Burkina Faso are supposed to come here to live, to go to school and to try their hand at art. Now, Aino Laberenz is the heir to Schlingensief's oversized dream and responsible for ensuring that the infirmary and Festspielhaus that he announced are actually realized.

The opera village, Schlingensief's project in Burkina Faso, now has 16 houses, a canteen and a school, but there is still a lot to do

"Of course, I can not replace Christoph, and I do not want it, he was a charismatic person who could inspire people for the project differently than I can." Schlingensief, the idea machine, even staged from the sickbed. In the seven years the couple has lived and worked together, he has always been focused on the charismatic provocateur and Laberenz, the reserved costume designer, in the background. The actress Fritzi Haberlandt, whom Aino met at a production at the Maxim Gorki Theater, is close friends with her. She describes Aino as a creative whisperer, who likes to take back so that others can shine. Nevertheless, she should not be underestimated: "Aino is fragile, but she is a strong personality, she has not once cried in public, she makes the most of her grief, she will never become a Schlingensief-style ramp-down is not at all her temperament, it's all about her, not about producing herself. "

Aino, born in Turku, Finland, and Schlingensief met in 2004 in Zurich. She was an assistant at the time, he staged. There was a change of scene on the theater floor and on Aino's side no idea who the tall man with the tangled hair and the sparkling button eyes is. It was then clicked, you spent a weekend in the mountains. Aino remembers that they immediately confided everything. The attraction was the difference. "The illness has brought a lot more to the point, was like a catalyst of emotions," says Aino. "He really wanted to marry, it was not about the paper, more about the idea of ​​growing old, despite the illness."

They married in August 2009 at Schloss Hoppenrade in Brandenburg. Schlingensief has worn his wide, golden wedding ring for just a year, now he is hanging on a chain around Ainos neck. On a gray Berlin March day we meet again. Aino Laberenz is waiting in front of the "Hamburger Bahnhof". She wears a long, dark coat, big black sunglasses and high boots. She pulled the cap deep in her face. "Sometimes I find it outrageous that everything goes on without him," says Aino, shrugging. "Spring is always hard again, everything is turning green again, the birds are starting to sing, and Christoph is still dead. Especially bad is August, the month in which he died and in which we got married to have." Will not the pain be less? "No, he will not, just different, I'll learn to handle it."

We walk through the exhibition rooms, where the 70 pictures hang, which are to be auctioned the following evening in favor of the opera village in Burkina Faso. Aino tells how on a sleepless night in the cell phone of Christoph, she searched for the mail address of the well-known American artist Matthew Barney and spontaneously wrote him. Matthew Barney replied a few minutes later and sent a picture with a tiger cat, a collector will bid for 22 000 euros. "His mail was my starting shot, and I suddenly realized that for many, Christoph is still alive and will support his vision beyond his death." She smiles and says: "The new responsibility releases unimaginable qualities, since Christoph's death I am doing things I never thought I would: travel alone to Africa, negotiate with politicians, monitor financial plans or talk to more than two people." In the evening she enters the big stage in a chic mini dress with floral prints. She almost disappears behind the lectern, but tells us in a clear, firm voice how much she will fight for the people in Burkina Faso not to be left hanging. The well-known patron and lawyer Peter Raue wields the hammer, Patti Smith sings an a capella song, a gouache by Sigmar Polke changes hands for 66,000 euros.

"Since Christoph's death, I do things I never thought I would," says Aino Laberenz

In the end, the benefit auction will bring together more than one million euros. The people donated for Christoph Schlingensief that evening, the event has organized his widow. As well as the completion of 16 houses, a canteen and the school. Schlingensief has always staged a panic on the neck and big "Kawumms", Aino pulls the strings quieter and more effective. A few months later, summer is finally here in Berlin. A very hot summer. Aino has since moved. It was difficult for her to dissolve the flat together, but it had to be. Who wants to live in a mausoleum? In the through-room, a stage piece from Schlingensief's production "Kaprow City" leans, in the bathroom are a small and a large pair of slippers, on the piano not only Ainos, but Schlingensief's collected finds. Above the bed hangs a note with black ink on it: "Always on the heart, especially when it gets difficult!" Fortunately, Ainos world is also unmistakably present, otherwise the new apartment would be a Christoph Schlingensief shrine full of memories.

But there are: the sewing machine, the cans full of paintbrushes and paints, Aino's collection of pretty clothes hanging decoratively in front of the closet, and the many fashion books. Can she imagine falling in love someday? "Maybe, I'm still young," replies Aino Laberenz hesitantly. "Although it will be difficult, I just know it's us." She was in Africa just to push the construction of the infirmary, and in autumn the second elementary school class will start. This time she left Christopher's cardigan in Berlin. "He's always with me anyway, floating like a good ghost over the village." But she also knows that the longer Christoph dies, the harder it will be to raise funds. Aino works again as a costume designer, currently at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, and in October the new play by Schorsch Kamerun is premiered there. So it's progressing - and then not again. "Time does not heal the wound, new people come into my life, beautiful things happen, things move forward, but I always feel halfway, not completely."

KNISTERN DER ZEIT [Official Trailer] German (May 2024).