“Humorous and imaginative” Susanne Burkhardt (Radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur)
“Mind-blowing”, “Such a clever and hot piece” (Audience testimonies)
Switch is a lecture-performance about global energy politics and sexual power games.
“Switch” describes the act of switching something on and off as a political power move. Take 1948 for example, when during the “energy blockade”, the electricity supply to West Berlin was cut off from the control room of the Zschornewitz power station. Or consider Russia’s recent threats against the European Union to “turn off the gas tap.”
“Switch” also describes a person who enjoys playing both dominant and submissive roles in sexual power games. The petro-masculinity (the intersection of authoritarian desires, climate denial and misogynistic policies of the white far-right movements) of European far-right milieu reveals a surprising paradox to be both dominant and submissive when it comes to dependence on Russian gas.
“Switch” also describes a change of direction, as well as the search for new strategies and ways to navigate global energy politics and power differently.
SwitchCraft Werk produces works of art that shift energy. With every piece, it fuels research on politics, performance and aesthetics to transform our energy culture. Through its first collab with theatre director, writer and performer Ada Mukhina, SwitchCraft Werk strives to make global energy politics sensually tangible.
Premiere – September 12, 2026, at the Zschornewitz power station at the festival OSTEN (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany).
Concept: SwitchCraft Werk / Ada Mukhína
Text, Direction, Performance: Ada Mukhína
Advisor: Dr. Cara New Daggett
Design: Yulia Kondrateva
Text editing, Subtitles: Marit Buchmeier
Cover photo: Evgeniia Chapaikina
Sound design: bar zahlen studio
Costumes: Ada Mukhina
Performance photos: Falk Wenzel, Sergei Balyberdin
Video documentation, Trailer: Yana Isaenko
Production management: xplusdrei Produktionsbüro (Marit Buchmeier + Lisanne Grotz)
THANKS for the inspiration to the following authors and their works:
– Cara Daggett (Petromasculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire)
– Jesse Paul Crane-Seeber (Sexy Warriors: The Politics and Pleasures of Submission to the State)
– Martin Lutz (An Avoidable Dependency? Russian Gas and German Complacency in the History of East–West Energy Relations)
– Anastasiia Fedorova (Second Skin: Inside the Worlds of Fetish, Kink, and Deviant Desire)
– Dagmar Herzog (The New Fascist Body)
THANKS to the Osten festival’s team, especially Martin Naundorf and Aljoscha Begrich for the dramaturgical support and Dominica Julia Homa for technical production support.
And to Karada House | Queer Shibari, Kink & Art Space in Berlin.
SWITCH is a production by SwitchCraft Werk / Ada Mukhina. Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through a residency at the Festival OSTEN. SWITCH is the first part of the trilogy within Ada Mukhina’s PhD artistic research project “Energy. Burnout Artist in a World on Fire” at the Institute for Open Arts (Mozarteum University Salzburg).
Press:
Vladimir Balzer, Susanne Burkhardt. Fazit. Die komplette Sendung (Sondersendung vom OSTEN-Festival) // Radio Deutschlandfunk Kultur, September 12, 2026 (Reportage about SWITCH – 18:10-21:57).
Vincent Koch. Bleiben, jetzt erst recht. Osten-Festival – Auf der Suche nach dem Kraftwerk Zukunft in Zschornewitz // Nachtkritik, September 16, 2026.