Photo: GBG FRINGE/ Uros Hocevar / kolektiff
His Serene Highness Prince Frei of Lorenzburg – gave a welcoming address at the splendrous House of Börsen, at the opening of Gothenburg Fringe Festival. Guests were invited to put on a mask, and glimpse hidden and arcane rituals and of power and desire in this building, which is Gothenburg’s political heart. It was Prince’s pleasure to receive the esteemed guests with due pomp and pageantry.
With: His Serene Highness Prince Frei von Fräähsen zu Lorenzburg, and Aide-de-camp the Right Honourable the Baroness Anita Doom und Herzdämmerung
H.S.H. Prince Frei’s welcoming address
Most esteemed noble guests,
Welcome to Börsen: A center – of power and hidden desire – in Gothenburg. We gather in these magnificent halls, as the Gothenburg Fringe Festival celebrates a full decade of bravado and daring creativity. You do not enter here as casual spectators, but as initiates – members of the order of the masquerade – chosen witnesses to an exquisite sequence of visions and tableaux that unfold at the borderlands between authority and surrender, between discipline and ecstasy.
A Fringe is a realm of thresholds. You come here this evening seeking an edge – a crossing over from the mundane to the carnivale. You come – masked / curious – to peek behind doors that are closed to everyone else… …but you. What you will see in the coming half hour is not mere spectacle or vulgar performances. They are rituals, offerings, fragments of a liturgy of play and pleasure. Don’t be ashamed to look; you want to be tickled. Perhaps, even, a little seduced…
So lean into your masks… set aside titles and identities – we are all equals here – Princes and people alike. On behalf of Gothenburg Fringe, on behalf of the artistes who are sooo inflamed with an appetite for your gaze, on behalf of wonder itself: It is my great delight to cut the ribbon and bid you both welcome and good luck – may you make it through to the other side!
