Farewell Publication & New Beginnings Impulse Edition: "Stichworte. Impulse Theater Festival 2013-2017."

15 December 2017

Impulse 2013 – 2017: Theater as a public space

For the past four editions Impulse Theater Festival was especially interested in theater as a public and social space. One in which the relation between art and politics is renegotiated again and again. Some forty guest performances, several site specific adaptations, and commissions for all Impulse cities were accompanied by concerts, conferences and performative discursive formats. The focus of the festival was aimed at cultural influences from all over the world („Under the Influence“, 2013), the question of representation on stage and politically („Gesellschaftsspiele, 2015), on pragmatic utopias and departures („Start cooking… Recipe will follow“, 2016) and the possibilities for artistic and political decision making („Decide or Else“, 2017).

Stichworte (Keywords) – A farewell publication

Reflecting, discussion and theory were always part of the artistic practice featured in the festival. And it also made use of the stage that is the program book to bring this to light: Every edition’s program brought keywords („Stichworte“) by artists and theoreticians that were part of the festival. Over the years a glossary of subjective definitions, associations, and positions was collected delineating the playing field of Impulse 2013-2017.
For our farewell we gathered those keywords, accompanied by some impressions of festival photographer Robin Junicke, in a small volume.
With this small volume we take a look back at what was at the core of the festival for the past five years, but we also try to send out impulses for what moves independently produced theater in- and outside of the German speaking world. Most of all the book is a heartfelt thank you to all participating artists, partners, former team members, and all our audience who were with us throughout our search and for our attempts at answers.

„Stichworte. Impulse Theater Festival 2013 – 2017“ was published in Berlin by Alexander Verlag. It can be ordered in every book shop for 10 Euros or directly on the homepage of the publishing house.

With this news post, after four editions under Florian Malzacher’s artistic direction, the current team says goodbye to Impulse Theater Festival. We’re looking forward to the upcoming editions with the new team around Haiko Pfost. 


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