The full-scale invasion against Ukraine has been going on for more than three years. The global public is beginning to come to terms with the situation. How does it feel when war becomes ‘normal’? The initial outcry is fading, the outrage disappears, the war is increasingly receding into the distance and being forgotten – or is being used as campaign material by populists who want to see an end to any solidarity with the attacked country. The people in the country itself do not have the privilege of forgetting the war – but even for them, the exceptional becomes the norm, with corresponding strategies for dealing with it.

‘Shards of Normality’ is based on research conducted among Ukrainian and Western European artists since 2022/23 – an archive that brings together different international voices and perspectives on the war that as been going on for years. ILE developed a performance in several spaces with live action, audio and film recordings.

Performances: FWT: Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, Cologne/Germany, 26/27/28/29 June 2025. // Heizhaus Uferstudios, Berlin/Germany, 4/5 July 2025.

Co-produced by the FWT: Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, and funded by: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes NRW, Diversitätsfonds NRW, NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln.