„Fürchtet Euch nicht: Vulva lebt!“ – ein Labor für Kunst und Spiritualität

⛪♀️🍑🌙 If you look at the history of women* in the church and the art world, the words “sacred” and “scared” suddenly seem almost indistinguishable. With the advent of patriarchy some 5,000 years ago, our relationship with feminine power went completely off the rails. Suddenly, the Great Goddess was transformed into an esoteric, hysterical witch with a warty nose and a broomstick. What happened? Who stepped on whose toes? And what artistic means can we use to find our way out of this?

To find out, the two artists Philine Velhagen and Felizitas Stilleke are launching a two-week lab during the Indian summer of 2026. Together with eight other “laboratory sisters” from the Cologne and Berlin performance scenes, they’ll venture into the balancing act between art and spirituality, faith and doubt, resistance and creativity. Together, they seek rituals for transformation, crisis, letting go, and other moments they face both in their artistic practice and in life. For one thing is as certain to them as the Amen in church: A resilient society needs rituals of solidarity that transcend denominational affiliations and moralizing sermons!

So they embark on a queer-feminist quest for new collective practices. And what better place for such a quest than the deconsecrated church of the Dominican monastery in the heart of the city? The lab invites you to join in the experimentation over four days. Those who are interested, seekers, and friends can build on what’s been discovered, try things out, and serve as a test community.

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕GIVE US BACK THE WHOLE MOON!

August 27, 2026, 9:00 p.m. – Open End
Meeting point: Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne), later at the Grüngürtel

The first event hosted by the Laborschwestern is quite something: Inspired by August’s so-called “Störmond” (disturbing moon), they aim to reclaim public space as a site for collective nature rituals. Full moon cycles have been celebrated and invoked since time immemorial. Mostly hidden away in the woods or elsewhere in seclusion. Not so for our Laborschwestern: They don’t want to hide, but rather celebrate the full moon right in the middle of it all, in the Grüngürtel, all night long. And they’ll find rituals and tools to protect themselves and their experiments! Including the partial lunar eclipse at the crack of dawn. So: Don’t forget your sleeping bag, herbal blend, and pepper spray!

🕊️👼🧎‍♀️📿 TREIBHAUS with GERTRAUD KLEMM

August 31, 2026, 7:30–9:30 p.m.
​​​​​​​Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

Since publishing her polemic *Farewell to the Phallocene*, Viennese author Gertraud Klemm has made a name for herself as a feminist free thinker. Now she is exploring how religious communities might function beyond patriarchal structures and, together with the Laborschwestern, is inventing forms, words, and gestures to fill the void left by missing rituals. Together, they are creating a language for the void, for the supposedly greater whole, formerly known as God. Featuring a reading, discussion, and the first (rather than the last) Last Supper.

🧹🧙‍♀️🔥✨ THE DAUGHTERS OF THE WITCHES

September 4, 2026, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
​​​​​​​Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

The sisters are not alone in this project. There have been—and continue to be—many women artists, healers, fighters, and champions of faith and art. Not all were heard. Not all survived. This project invites you to the Dominican Monastery for a ritual of remembrance, tribute, and gratitude. After all, it was two Dominicans who, in the 15th century, wrote the so-called “Malleus Maleficarum”—the most influential and deadly handbook for justifying and carrying out the witch hunts. A performative séance for all the inspiring FLINTAS—in art and in the world!

🍹🎉🙏 CELEBRATION “It’s never done!”

September 6, 2026, 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Dominican Monastery (Lindenstraße 45, Cologne)

To mark the end of their time together, the Laborschwestern call for the harvest and generously share what they have. Hey, hit the road! Here come rituals for transition, dance and song flowing freely, queer-feminist creeds, altruistic cyclical art practices, children of their creation, Shadow Songs, and free Bloody Marys! The Lab, aka the Dominican Monastery, opens its doors and lets the art community get a taste. Amen!

By and with: Philine Velhagen & Felizitas Stilleke (Drama Köln) // Julia Dick & katharinajej (katze und krieg), Nadja Duesterberg & Svea Kirschmeier (TIGERS’ KITCHEN), Justine Hauer, Cordula Körber, Maren Schlüter, Esther Struck (SEE!), and Béla Bisom, neurohr & andrä, among others.

Special thanks to Ralph Elster and the Friends of Theater der Keller.

A production by Drama Köln e.V.

Supported by: the City of Cologne’s Office of Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the NRW State Office for Independent Performing Arts.