Gravity - So What!

SCHWERKRAFT NA UND! Autonomous Juggling Group and the 7th European Juggling Convention¶

Gravity - So What!
Gravity - So What!

The autonomous juggling group SCHWERKRAFT NA UND! (Gravity - So What!) from Wiesbaden, or more accurately, the Rhine-Main region, has only existed for a relatively short time.
As late as August 1982, there were only a few jugglers in Wiesbaden who knew little about each other. By chance, the three founding members, Paul, Uli, and Christoph, came together, juggled in Wiesbaden's parks, and decided a few weeks later to travel to the 5th European Juggling Convention in Copenhagen.

Fritz from Frankfurt joined them. Following the motto: "Only what you do gets done," and inspired by the Copenhagen meeting, Fritz wanted to organize the 6th European Convention in Frankfurt. However, he lost the vote in Copenhagen with his spontaneous idea to better-prepared jugglers from France.

Paul and Christoph, still buzzing with the excitement of their three days in Copenhagen, stood thoughtfully but full of ideas on the railing of the ferry back to Germany. The founding of the autonomous juggling group SCHWERKRAFT NA UND! began here.

Since then, the jugglers have met every Thursday from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM, in Nero Park during the summer and at the Haus der Jugend (Youth Center) in the winter, a space provided by the Wiesbaden City Youth Welfare Office.
Within a very short time, the group had grown to 20 people.

New faces appeared each week, but people also went missing and were never seen at the club again. A core group of 10-15 people has since emerged.
The group's open nature and its organization based on personal inclination make it extremely difficult to effectively translate shared potential into performance concepts. Despite jointly acquired juggling equipment, such as 14 unicycles, clubs, rings, rola bolas, devil sticks, etc., and a relatively high skill level, the individual juggling techniques differ significantly, leading to the formation of several smaller, more established groups, such as JOMIPO-Luftiko, Werner WAHNSINN & Christoph CHAOS, Katinka, and the Flohjonglage (Flea Juggling), among others.
The varying skill levels and different performance concepts of these groups make it difficult for complete beginners who join the autonomous juggling group to integrate, while skilled individuals find it easier.

This development has often been discussed within the club, but no concrete steps have yet been taken to implement changes.

Nevertheless, joint performances take place on various occasions. The group has performed at street festivals, during holiday programs and festivals, at weddings, in youth centers, and schools. We also performed at "Artists for Peace" in Darmstadt in May 1983, made a television program with Südwestfunk, and appeared as part of André Heller's "Greatest Fire Theater of the Century" during the Berlin Summer Night's Dream in July 1984.

Meanwhile, Fritz's idea of organizing a European juggling convention matured.
Through negotiations with the City of Frankfurt, we secured coverage for a large portion of the hall rental at the Volksbildungsheim (Community Education Center).
The central location of the venue in the city center and the allure of the "world city Frankfurt" tipped the scales at the business meeting in Laval to host the 7th European Juggling Convention in Frankfurt.
Since that decision, we have made it our mission to make the next convention even more colorful, more diverse, and above all, more publicly engaging. Fritz's original, wild idea was to arrange a spectacular convention culminating in a fire juggling performance with 500 jugglers and their 1500 fire clubs to the intoxicating rhythms of a rock band in front of the prestigious and opulent Frankfurt Opera House, under the glow of the full moon.

It is intended to be an opportunity to disrupt the flair of the banking and business city for at least 4 days, to bring imagination into the concrete canyons and the urban landscape. To introduce the city's inhabitants to a different feeling for life, to make them smile or even laugh. "Chaos is announced. It's meant to be turbulent. It will be colorful." (Frankfurter Rundschau)
We discussed the question of how to plan such ideas for a long time. Many planned actions failed due to the bureaucracy of municipal authorities, but this should not prevent spontaneous ideas from the jugglers.

At the same time, the importance of disseminating these ideas through all media was discussed. The conflict between publication and the perhaps justified fear of exploitation and commercialization of our imagination, ideas, and skills by the media led to the failure of a film project.

We had no objection to mere reporting by the press, radio, and television.
A press release was sent to dpa and all major national and local newspapers. On September 1st, we drew attention to the jugglers' spectacle with a juggling and poster campaign in Frankfurt's shopping streets, and on September 10th, with a press juggling show, poster, wall spray, action conference, which was certainly unusual for Frankfurt.

The feasibility of all ideas must also be guided by the event's objectives. Many jugglers come to meet their juggling friends from all over Europe, to exchange experiences, and to experience a different way of life with like-minded people without feeling pressured to convey this feeling to others. They also meet to be among themselves a little. This aspiration is certainly not arrogant or anti-publicity, as many spend the entire year performing for others' sense of life.

However, the organization of all other, less visible but mostly important aspects also had to be addressed:
Do we have enough sleeping accommodations? Who will provide food? How will the public show be organized? How will we divide the cash and ticket handling duties? Where will we get posters printed? Obtain permits from authorities for every fart released or intended before, during, and after the Juggling Week. etc...

All in all, organizing the 7th European Juggling Convention was fun for us, and we hope that all jugglers and other participants feel the same way, remember Frankfurt 1984 with good feelings, and return home with new impulses and ideas.

Christoph Schmitt