Following its enthusiastically received premiere at PACT Zollverein in summer 2003 and guest performances in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, we're delighted to present Lara Martelli's solo performance for sale once again in Essen. for sale investigates the game rules behind the public retailing, marketing and presentation of the human body and in charmingly seductive scenes exposes the circumstances of power between audience and performer – who's actually manipulating who here is far from conclusive.

Barbie with a scalpel 
... Lara Martelli is a fury... she's a bundle of energy...and a lot more besides: she's an artist with enormous strength of will and expression. And she has something to say. She dissects society's game rules with the precision of an autopsy surgeon. It's just much more fun to watch. Dagmar Schenk-Güllich Tanzjournal 5.03

The path the audience takes across the stage is dark and passes closely by a solitary illuminated object: a vertically standing glass cube, half coffin, half museum's display case... a painful arena of physical exposure - or simply just one side of the performer's reality. The reality's other side, the side of relishing in self exposure, is equally unmistakably when Lara Martelli stumbles from her cube and transforms herself into a provocative Lolita traipsing around in stilettos, blowing up balloons and cheekily releasing them into the audience...

...At the end, Lara Martelli simply walks away from her audience as though she can't think of anything else that can possibly satisfy their silent demands for creativity, fantasy and talent. A self-ironic and flirtatious exit... Nicole Strecker