In 2006 Roberto Paci Dalò realized a series of initiatives within Heiner Muller. Werkstatt, project of the Internationale Heiner Müller Gesellschaft. All Roberto Paci’s initiatives revolve around one of the most complex texts by the German playwright Leben Gundlings Friedrich von Preussen Lessings Schlaf Traum Schrei: ein Greuelmärchen, published in 1991 in Italy by Ubulibri under the title Vita di Gundling Federico di Prussia sonno grido di Lessings, in the volume Germania morte a Berlino and other texts.  From Leben Gundlings, a text that also contains direct autobiographical references to a particular period in the life of the playwright, Roberto Paci Dalò draws inspiration for Greuelmärchen, an “electric” work, as he defines it, which is at the same time a reflection on history, identity and memory.

The artists participating in the exhibition Et in Arcadia Ego: Di Inspektion are, besides Paci Dalò: Lutz Dammbeck, Mella Jaarsma, Götz Loepelmann and Quin Yufen. Each of them is entrusted with an apartment of the Berlin Plattenbau. Roberto Paci Dalò works on the ninth floor of the building at Erich-Kurz-Straße 9.

Jeff Mann, programmer of the Max/MSP device in the Paci Dalò installation, describes the Greuelmärchen setting in this way:

“An open narrative and sensorial installation where the original text and its vision explodes into space and time in an allucinatory way. A video beamer projects  spectrographies (abstract imagery) into the dark corridor. These b/w images are crossed by coloured lighting coming from the rooms. Colours are created only throught filters at the windows and using just the natural light from outside. Vi è un piccolo tavolo in ardesia al centro della stanza dove i  visitatori possono scrivere liberamente i loro pensieri con il gesso. Sul tavolo vi è una lampada contenente una videocamera. che riprende ciò che visitatori scrivono. Su una delle pareti vengono proiettati i videoclip di molti soggetti.  La stanza è munita di altoparlanti che riproducono suoni elettronici, registrazioni di eventi storici e paesaggi sonori nonché i testi di Heiner Müller. A small table in the center of the room is treated with blakboard surface, and message can be written on it with chalk. A lamp hang upon the table, containing a video camera. The camera sees the actions of participants writing. On the  wall, a large projection displays video clips of various subjects, and there are speakers playing the sound of the texts of Heiner Müller, as well other sound from electronics, soundscapes and historical recordings. A motion-tracking system, programmed in Max/MSP and SoftVNS reacts to the actions of writing on the table. The table surface is divided into quadrants. Writing in one quadrant causes the speed of the clip to rise from zero, and play. Another brigs in color, another adds processing effects such as solarization. The fourth quadrant creates edits between the clips, and so on. In this way, several participants must work and interact together to create a video and a sound composition.The room is filled with a thick fog or smoke. There is a light in the room, but someone entering cannot see anything, even their own body, due to the fog. This creates an unusual and disorienting sensation, heightening awareness and curiosity. When the door is opened, fog spills out into the corridor, and combines with projected images there. A clock hangs on the wall, lit lit with a tight spot light. The sound of the clock ticking plays over speakers. When someone enters the room, a video camera senses their motion, and the data is sent to the Max/MSP patch controlling the sound. When they move, the sound of the clock ticking slow down. The viewer’s sense of time becomes directly related to their physical action. The visitor listens to radio broadcasting with voices from athe nazi headquartier announcing the death of Adolf Hitler.”