After the election in Saxony-Anhalt: What happens to my vote?

What does it mean to cast your vote? That's what you do in elections. So is the voice the bearer of democracy? And once you have cast your vote, is it gone? While elections were held yesterday in Saxony-Anhalt and over 40 percent voted for an anti-democratic AfD, the neighboring state of Saxony was dealing with the abstract questions of political participation.

The closing event of the fifth Democracy Weekend took place in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, with the motto “Reading Signs”. Students from the performative arts class at the University of Graphics and Book Arts staged a course for this purpose. The audience was divided into two groups and went through three stations with performances.

Under the title “Eavesdropping State: Manifestations and Relational Spaces,” the students approached the practice of democracy as an open group process. To do this, they worked with the Gewandhaus Choir, which was woven into the performances as a polyphonic structure. In a choir, after all, the voice is shared and not given away. But what does that mean?

That wasn't entirely clear. At a station outside the Gewandhaus, in a square in the middle of Leipzig's city center, many spectators made rather perplexed faces between the loud shouting and the silent, frozen poses of the artists. The performances attracted the attention of those who happened to pass by on the square, and the audience grew larger and larger - also a group process.

Back to the vote: What happens to it when it is symbolically cast in elections? It will be delegated to representatives who will in turn raise their voices. In parliaments, for example. This is ideally how things work in a democracy. But often enough, what politicians advocate for after the election is no longer what people voted for. The voice can also produce empty phrases. For minutes, the artists repeated the words “it tips over”. It tilts - tilts - skips - at some point the meaning seemed to disappear and only sounds could be heard.

So democracy is not that simple. Nor that the Gewandhaus's Democracy Weekend was supported by the Krupp Foundation, among others. This is based on wealth generated in the National Socialist arms industry.

As an event on the topic of political participation, one would usually expect a panel discussion. Approaching questions of democracy in a format that largely lacks coherent speech may provide less clear answers. There may be a feeling for this in the audience. The feeling of sharing the same space with strangers. To be part of the same constellations.

At the end of the course, the two audience groups were brought together in a large hall. Lighting and the sounds of the choir created an atmosphere like a forest at nightfall. At dusk, boundaries become blurred, visibility fades and hearing takes over – a state of eavesdropping.

After a guided exchange between the audience about questions of personal values ​​and fears, the audience is asked to join the sounds of the twilight. Humming, chirping, screaming, shouting, cracking, every person sounds different. The room sounds louder and louder, like a jungle at dusk - not in unison, but together.