Disturbing Death

In the evening a group of artists dealing with the non-human and two artists dealing with the third meaning linger at the entrance of the Summer Academy chatting, giggling, smoking.

Suddenly a very tall man dressed in black approaches the little assembly asking everyone to be quiet. The giant black man is the Death from the play Everyman. He says the loud noise caused by the artist's conversations is disturbing the play and that the artists should instead come see the play. The artists take the occasion and ask how they would get cheap tickets for the play which is known to be expensive. "Just tell them at the entrance that you met the death and you get the reduced price." the Death says.

The artists wonder about the acoustics of the place. Their laughing and chatting up on the castle is disturbing the Everyman play down at the cathedral? When the Death says goodbye he salutes:"Have fun with your art." The artists answer to the Death:"Have fun with your art!" After a while Bärbel Hartje passes the entry of the Summer Academy. The strange encounter is reported to her and she informs the artists that this Death was not the famous Death from the Everyman play downstairs at the cathedral but the other Death from the parallel Everyman that is staged just around the corner up on the castle.

I personally was not witnessing the whole incident but two attendants of Doug Ahsford's course on the non-human have independently narrated it. Being the Summer Academy's blogger in residence I am dependent on other people's accounts for stories. I am sorry for being inquisitive but that is my job here. Yet when I asked why an artist would only come to the Ashford course in the afternoon and she related my inquisitiveness to the Stasi I felt wronged.

We live in peculiar times when the failed working up of the most recent german history leads to the equation of a reporter's work with that of a torturing and murdering secret police.