A performative archive of the independent theatre
02.06.–06.06., Graf-Adolf-Strasse 49, 40210 Düsseldorf + Online

The digital Impulse Archive ist online.

The Impulse Archive at Graf-Adolf-Strasse 49, 40210 Düsseldorf, is open from 03.–06.06.m 13:00–17:00 h. Please register here.

Since the Impulse Festival was founded, independent theatre has undergone major changes: aesthetically, thematically and structurally. What traces have these left in 31 years of festival history, what remnants are left? What statements do they allow us to make about the past? And what might an archive look like that not only conserves the past but contemporises it? The Impulse ACADEMY originally planned for our 30th anniversary is now established on a temporary basis: a living archive of three decades of festival history will be created in a disused shop unit in Düsseldorf. The Impulse ACADEMY simultaneously represents both an archive of art and the art of archiving.

Selected artists will make research trips to Düsseldorf and devise their own artistic approaches to relics of past festivals. They will examine statistics, objects, photos and audio-visual media, published programmes, press texts and eye witness accounts. In doing so they will search for dominant narratives and utopias and enquire about what is invisible, marginalised and excluded. At the end of the process, the artists will then open up their workshops and allow their archival work to be seen.

At the same time five collectives of artists from NRW that have responded to an open call from the Impulse Theater Festival will explore the question of what archiving their own artistic output might look like. In rummaging through their own archival collections they will experiment with various artistic (self-)archiving strategies on the boundaries of theatre, archives and digital art. They will present interim stages of their research during the ACADEMY. Visitors to the archive may explore the artists’ workrooms independently or on guided tours and participate in their research processes.

In daily Archive Talks, experts from the fields of cultural and media studies, museology, history, oral history and futurology will discuss archiving processes ranging between the culture of remembrance, utopian scenarios and making omissions visible.

Programme Leader: Daniel Richter
Production Management: Susanne Berthold
Concept for 2020: Kolja Burgschuld, Alice Ferl

The ACADEMY #1 — MAKING HISTORY is produced in co-operation with the Initiative für die Archive des Freien Theaters e.V., and the NRW KULTURsekretariat, the Ministry for Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.