Which births and deaths have so far impacted or changed your life? These are the existential experiences that Mats Staub explores in his new long-term project of interviewing two people at a time. Many of his interviewees have known each other for decades, while others will be meeting for the first time. They will be filmed both when they speak and when they listen to the other person speak. Outside of the constraints of everyday conversation, the listener will not ask any follow-up questions nor will they take an active interest by providing well-meaning statements – so the script says. We too will simply listen, will turn our attention to the conversation and will engage with it: two screens will simultaneously show us both the face of the person relating the story and that of the listener.

With his installation set in the field of tension between video and exhibition, Mats Staub creates a communal space that reaches into the corner points of life. The individual stories about the two experiences that connect us all come from the heart and speak from the soul. We invite you to come really close.

In August 2020 Mats Staub received the Swiss Theatre Award from the Federal Office of Culture.