INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE / MEDIA ART
SPECIMENS No. 33-42 :
DRESDEN PLASTICRUSTS
AGIL contribution to FABRICating Circular Systems Conference, HfBK, 2026.
INTERACTIVE MUSIC THEATER
LABORTHEATER HfBK DRESDEN (DE)
This November, the Aquatic Geochemistry International Lab (AGIL) heads to Dresden to study the Elbe River, focusing on microplastic levels and assessing whether all debris from the recently collapsed Carola Bridge has been properly removed.
Their visit coincides with FABRICating circular systems, a conference organised by rescene, the research group behind the pop-up modular textile structures and material archive AGIL collaborates with. On the evenings of 5 and 6 November, AGIL will present their work and demonstrate how they have used their prototypes in real-world research. AGIL will also bring their plastic rocks specimen collection to exhibit at the conference, featuring plastiglomerates, plasticrusts, pyroplastics, and their large plastitar specimen.
A blend of field research, material exhibition, and biodegradation experimentation, AGIL’s presence in Dresden highlights the intersection of science, art, and circular futures along the Elbe.
CONCEPT, DIRECTION, DRAMATURGY, COMPOSITIONAlicia Reyes
CONCEPT AND STAGE DESIGNDesign in Collaboration with rescene
Sonia Hilpert, Vera Loetzsch, Samira Akhavan & Marie Goehler.
CONCEPT, MEDIA, LIGHT, DRAMATURGYDiego Muhr & Lucas Xerxes
COSTUME DESIGN
Marie Goehler
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC & ELECTRONICSAlicia Reyes & Lucas Xerxes
PERFORMANCE
Alicia Reyes, Diego Muhr, Lucas Xerxes & Robin Plenio
PLASTIGLOMERATESAntonia Janosch
PRODUCTIONRobin Plenio
Production supported by:
Rescene
Kulturförderung der Stadt Dresden
Culture Moves Europe
Link to Conference / Tickets:
https://www.hfbk-dresden.de/rescene
ABOUT THE COLLABORATION:
Decomposing Plastiglomerates emerges from a collaboration between rescene and Alicia Reyes, born from a shared interest in exploring the intersections between their respective research practices: rescene’s development of modular, sustainable textile systems, and Reyes’s strategies for moving toward non-anthropocentric methodologies in multimedia performance. This collaboration forms part of her PhD trajectory Non-Anthropocentric Composition: The Decentralization of the Human in Contemporary Performance Practices, which investigates how creative processes can center material and interspecies agencies while rethinking the ethical and relational dynamics that arise within these encounters.
Following rescene’s invitation to participate in their festival at HfBK Dresden in November 2026, the partners have initiated a new work within The Plastiglomerates Series, a body of performances examining recently discovered hybrid rock formations composed of melted plastic and natural sediment. These materials, markers of the weird times we are living (in Morton’s terminology), symbolize both fascination and alarm as we confront the accelerated transformations of our planetary epoch.
This third chapter of the Plastiglomerates series focuses on the theme of decomposition—more specifically, on experimental methods for decomposing plastics and transforming them into organic matter. rescene and Reyes are conducting a joint artistic and material investigation leading to a new performance premiering at the Dresden Conference - FABRICating Circular Systems hosted in HfBK Labortheater.
For the realization of the piece, Studio Noclip and collaborators from previous Plastiglomerate research phases join the team.
The work takes the form of a postdramatic music-theatre performance situated between laboratory, museum, and theatre space. Within this hybrid environment, speculative scientific processes are enacted in real time, turning decomposition into both subject and method of performance.
Sustainable textiles will play a central role in the scenography, used as flexible, transforming structures to shape spatial, tactile, and performative relationships throughout the piece.