Die Lage

The housing market has turned into a war zone. Exploding real estate prices, gated communities as bulwarks against socially deprived areas, residents cleared out of old buildings by gentrification: Everyone is fighting for their own interests. Sons and daughters inheriting capital search for investment opportunities; couples reveal intimate details to get that ultra-desirable loft apartment; flat shares hold inquisitorial auditions with prospective candidates; families, old people and people on low incomes are pushed aside, unable to afford life in the centres of towns and cities; politicians are called on to nationalise parts of the market ...

«Rent is the key social issue of our times,» according to Thomas Melle’s text which explores the general state of affairs. Hyper-poetical yet also overtly political, Melle’s many-voiced composition offers a panorama that encompasses all social classes. Using the example of an urgent social problem he shows how our lives have become a sequence of economic transactions, while the pervasive fear of homelessness leads to an eroding of social achievements, in turn threatening social peace.