From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Der Flügel, die Chirurgie: A Phenomenological Performance
**Der Flügel, die Chirurgie: A Phenomenological Performance** is a 2016 German experimental durational theatre work choreographed and directed by ██ , premiered at Documenta 15 and subsequently developed in studio residency at ██ kunsthalle. The piece stages Leif's eruption of wings—the climactic moment of *Beach Surgery* (Ch. 6)—as a lived phenomenological emergence, using Heideggerian and Merleau-Pontyan frameworks of embodied consciousness.
The performance lasts approximately , with a single performer occupying a sealed, temperature-regulated space and undergoing an sustained choreographic sequence combining elements of , Tanztheater, and contact improvisation. The performer's shoulder-blades are instrumented with pressure sensors and thin silicone-membrane wings; as the performance progresses and the body fatigues, the wings grow increasingly unstable, finally rupturing or separating in the final third.
The work brackets sound entirely: no dialogue, no music, only the amplified breath of the performer and the ambient hum of the temperature-regulation system. Subsequent performers report inability to recall the sequence in order.
Dramaturgically, the piece refuses narrative resolution: it loops and restarts across different bodies and seasons. No two performances are documented as identical; archival records suggest the choreography drifts with each iteration. A 2019 touring version was cancelled mid-rehearsal following performer injury. Only fragmentary video documentation and performer testimony survive; critical reception in German art-theatre circles remains split between treating it as a breakthrough in staging ontological incompleteness as lived principle or as a technical study in durational refusal.
Status: inactive since 2019. Rumoured revival under discussion as of ██ .