Love est. 2023. How does Hamburg love?

To stand on stage in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall one day – this dream comes true for a group of Hamburg people on 14 May 2023. In keeping with the motto of this year's music festival, »Love«, the Elbphilharmonie launched a community project in several parts in 2022 and invited everyone in Hamburg to participate. The results will be presented in May together with Ensemble Resonanz. Under the heading »Love est. 2023. How we love«, the participants set out to get to the bottom of the mysteries of love, and tried to find an answer with the help of experienced artists and teachers to the age-old question »What is love?«

After a kick-off meeting in the autumn, all the participants got together again in the Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall on 20 January 2023 to present their project results and share their experiences. As varied as Hamburg people are, their stories and thoughts about love are no less so. Some people connect special individuals with love – their family or friends, or their partner. Others love their pet, a hobby or an object that they attach particular importance to. And then there are the people who love their home country and nature. No less diverse than love itself are its manifestations. Some people express their affection in words, but sometimes a brief glance, a slight movement or a charming melody suffices. That's why we chose to put on a variety of workshops featuring different art forms.

One of the 118 participants is Pavlo Kruzhnov. The 31-year-old with the curly blond hair fled from Kyiv to Germany in March 2022. Since then he has been trying to settle in Hamburg, attending language courses and presenting the news from a Ukrainian point of view as a newscaster with the Ukrainian-German radio station »UVoice Radio«. When he thinks of love, he has thought a lot in recent months about his family, his mother and his 12-year-old sister, who are still in the Ukraine, living in occupied territory in the east of the country. It's hard to stay in touch with them. But Pavlo's love for his family prompted him to register for the Elbphilharmonie's community project. As a trained actor, art is the elixir of life for Pavlo, and the best way to take a critical look at his feelings. »I believe that art is always a kind of emotional therapy,« he says in English. »You need to ask a lot of questions: ›Who am I? How do I feel? What do I want to express? How am I supposed to make other people understand me?‹«

Pavlo decided to take part in the workshop »Body & Soul«, which focuses on the human body as a means to express our emotions: body language, after all, can  be understood by everyone and knows no language barriers. This was an important point for Pavlo: although he has made a lot of progress in learning German, he still finds the new language challenging in everyday life. »The first information session about the project was entirely in German,« he recalls. »I thought, OK, I'll just stay for ten minutes.« But once the workshop was presented, his reservations vanished. »The teacher asked me: »Have you got a body? Have you got a soul? Yes? – In that case, this is just the right course for you«. And as it turned out, the teacher was right. Most of the communication in the workshop was non-verbal. Pavlo remembers one crucial experience that he had at the beginning of the workshop: »There was one exercise where we were just meant to imitate the other person's movements.  But the other participant and I started to improvise and tried out different gestures, felt our way towards our limits and touched each other. At some point I carried her around the room on my back. When the background music stopped, we were both overcome by our feelings and burst into tears as we realised that we had engaged in a profound dialogue without speaking a single word – a dialogue using the body alone! I had no idea I was capable of that: it was wild!«

But Pavlo connects the most intense moment of the workshop with his mother. For a different exercise, every participant had to bring a particular object with him that is inseparably linked to love. Pavlo brought a cloth giraffe with him that his mother sewed as a gift for his 30th birthday. As a child, he thought he was a giraffe for a while, with the freckles on his back reminding him of the dark spots of these tall animals. The cloth giraffe is one of the few items he still has that remind him of his mother. But the distance that separates himself from his family has changed his understanding of love. »Up to now,« he says, »I always saw love in terms of the feelings between two partners. But during the project I learnt that for me, and for many others, it's first and foremost about love in the family.« He doesn't know yet when he will see his mother and his sister again. But he is sure that the family will be reunited one day, and until then he is doing his best to live his new life in Hamburg and to support his family back home as best he can. He has the giraffe on the shelf in his room as a symbol of hope to remind him of his loved ones.

Sanjana Rastogi (30) is  another participant in the »Body & Soul« workshop. Born in Lakhnau in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, she grew up in Ghana, and her family is spread over several continents. But she is used to the long-distance relationship with her family; Sanjana has been living in Hamburg for eight years, and works for a public housing company. When the community was presented in one of the housing units, the keen amateur dancer immediately got itchy feet: »I'm not a famous singer or dancer, but suddenly here was the chance to appear on stage – and in the Elbphilharmonie, no less! A place where the stage is not reserved for big stars: it's open to normal people like you and me as well.« This brought about a change not only in her relationship to herself, but to other people too. »The project has shown me that I can exceed my boundaries and achieve a lot, and that everyone is a star in his or her own way.« She would put it like this: »You can only love other people if you're at peace with yourself and love yourself.«

Sarah Schneider (29) likewise loves dancing. That's why she turned her hobby into a profession after school and studied to be a dance teacher. Today she works as a freelance dance teacher for children and young people. She has also been working part-time since 2017 in the backstage section of the Elbphilharmonie, so she was able to take part in the »Elphi« workshop targeted specifically at members of staff to strengthen their team spirit. And it turns out that Sarah is regularly surprised by the size of the company, even though she has been working there for years. »I've got to know people that I'd never seen before, although we all work at the Elbphilharmonie,« she admits. That alone made the workshop worthwhile for her: she found that making music together really improved the contact between colleagues and made people more warm-hearted towards one another. She adds: »In a while I'll be standing on stage in the Grand Hall – wow! I've had so many different experiences at the Elbphilharmonie, I've seen so many corners of the building and met so many people, but I've never been on the stage up to now.«

Ulrike van der Ven, on the other hand, recently retired. After working in dentistry in Hamburg for more than 35 years, the 65-year-old finally has time for her hobbies again. She used to play the flute, but at »Love est. 2023« she wanted to try something different and chose the »Lyrics« workshop, where she composed songs of her own together with other music enthusiasts. She found the exchange between generations particularly valuable. »It really touched me that young people ask quite different questions about love. For example: ›How can we learn something so complex?‹« She adds with a smile: »People of my age were a bit more worldy-wise at that age.«

But even Ulrike can't provide any easy answers where love is concerned, her experience of life notwithstanding. »I'm regularly amazed that classic romantic love is always glorified in love songs and films. People like that, so they must have a longing for it. But when you ask them to describe love itself, it's not as simple as that.« The bottom line is that everyone has to find his or her own individual understanding of love. But she does share a couple of ingredients that she thinks are especially promising: »With curiosity and imagination, perseverance and discipline you can achieve quite a bit.«

If we ask Sheida Mohammadi what she would add to this list, she would say »courage«, as the project made her overcome several obstacles. In the »Expression« workshop she worked out a choreography that reflects the individual's relationship to society. At the beginning, she found the close body contact rather disconcerting, although she enjoyed plenty of physical affection as a child. Sheida grew up in Iran, close to Teheran, and has been a student of cultural studies in Lüneburg for three years. The 23-year-old also works part-time in a Hamburg restaurant, where she says she has noticed the biggest change in herself. »I am generally a fairly introverted person, but the project helped me to open up more to strangers. I used to collect people's money at the table and then leave as fast as I could. Now I enjoy some small talk and even make a joke or two with the guests!« The workshop helped her to open up, and she now approaches people with self-confidence and candour – for Sheida this is also a facet of love.

Another of the participants in the »Expression« workshop was Jamil Alhamo. Jamil came to Hamburg from Syria with his family in 2017, and went on to take acting, dance and singing lessons. This year he sat for his A levels at the local school in Hamburg Mitte, and he has also developed a lot as an artist. He is very proud that he managed all this by himself. »I always wanted to managed everything on my own. That made me invulerable – on no account did I want to let anyone get close to me,« he says looking back. But the »Expression« workshop called for team spirit, and Jamil actually managed to let himself go and trust other people. »It was a completely new feeling for me to know that I didn't need to carry the whole load myself – new, but at the same time totally liberating.« He wants to preserve some of this feeling in the future, though he is well aware that he needs to give himself some time. »It really is great that an institution like the Elbphilharmonie has space for low-threshold programmes where everyone can take part, in addition to performing music at the highest level.«

After the workshop phase and the big get-together in January, the participants are eagerly anticipating their appearance at the Elbphilharmonie. Of the 118 people who took part in the workshops, 84 chose to stay to the end, Pavlo, Sarah, Ulrike, Sheida and Jamil among them. They are all happy to attend the many rehearsals leading up to the concert – especially as they have grown fond of their fellow participants in the course of time. »I like this mixed group,« Sarah says. »We immediately established a great community feeling, and had cool conversations.« Sanjana unfortunately won't be with them as she is visiting her family in Ghana during the rehearsal period. But she plans to be back in Hamburg in time for the concert on 14 May, when she is looking forward to appearing on stage with the other workshop participants under the motto »So liebt Hamburg!« (This is how Hamburg loves!)

Text: Dominik Bach, last updated: 13 February 2023
Translation: Clive Williams