8.–18.6.2023 in Düsseldorf, Cologne and Mülheim an der Ruhr
DE / EN
Programm-PDF
Newsletter
Contact

Calendar

June

Thursday, 08.6.
11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

17:00 – 20:00, Academy Academy #1: HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN? Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress (registration required) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

Theater for a world in a spin
Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress
8.–11.6.2023

© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi

The basis of our life together are currently undergoing fundamental change: ecologically due to the climate emergency; politically due to the sharp realignment of international relations in response to the Russian war of aggression; culturally due to the ubiquity of digital communication and decisions increasingly being outsourced to Artificial Intelligence. In each case, these are not temporary crises but lasting changes – watershed shifts that interact to overwhelm us with their complexity.

What are the social consequences of these shifts? And what does this mean for the way in which we think about and make theatre: how do we talk about a world that’s in a spin? How can we look to the future? And how do these new circumstances change our sense of global cohabitation? At the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress, theatremakers, academics and activists will meet for keynote speeches, table talks, panels and workshops to analyse various key aspects of a rapidly changing world and to devise new perspectives on these changes.


Congress fee: 90 € / 40 € concessions.
Free of charge to Dramaturgische Gesellschaft members.

Detailed programm and registration (in German)

The ACADEMY #1 is a co-operation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of KULTUR.GEMEINSCHAFTEN in the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.

20:00 – 21:30, Showcase Müller / Gurrola / Diallo / Selimović
JUSTITIA! Identity Cases
FFT Düsseldorf

Can it be an advantage to belong to a group that faces discrimination? For some jobs and subsidies, yes. But matters become heated when people from the majority community claim to be part of a group facing discrimination. Is that a case for the courts? Or the online pillory? And what is at stake in the theatre? Four activists discuss these questions in a fast-paced show about the relationship between theatre, court and social media.

08.06., 20:00–21:30 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 21:00–22:30 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English, a handout is availabe in English

10.6. after the show: Audience discussion in German with the artists and Mithu Sanyal, cultural scientist and author Mithu Sanyal. Chaired by Katja Grawinkel, dramaturg FFT Düsseldorf

© Christine Miess
© Christine Miess
© Christine Miess

A tweet reveals an Indigenous activist to be a white woman from a rich family. Is she allowed to claim to be something she is not? Not only did she deceive the Indigenous community, she also received grant funding that was earmarked for marginalised voices. ‘JUSTITIA!’ looks at what is and is not fair in a variety of show formats such as a court-room drama and a musical, in a TV news feature and in Twitter posts that bombard the audience from video walls. The performers continually swap roles: sometimes they will appear as activists, then as court-room figures ranging from the accused to the judge. What is real in all this, and what is only fiction?

At least the case of the fake Indigenous woman appears to be clear. But what about the activist, a trans man, who applied as a woman in a process that had a female quota, even though his transition was complete? And if gender boundaries are gradually dissolving, does the same apply to race? This is a show with no easy answers. And that’s why identity politics have rarely been as much fun as they are here.


“The evening asks weighty questions in a surprisingly light-footed way.”
Petra Paterno, Wiener Zeitung, 25.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Performance: Gin Müller
Performance: Edwarda Gurrola, Mariama Nzinga Diallo, Sandra Selimović
Dramaturgy, Direction: Gin Müller, Natalie Ananda Assmann, Selina Shirin Stritzel, Andreas Fleck
Visuals: Sabine Marte
Sound/Music: Lisa Kortschak
Social Media: Hicran Ergen
Assistant: Ines Kaiser
Video Patches: Oliver Stotz
Stage Design: Rupert Müller
Costume Design: Noushin Redjaian
Graphic Design: Georg Starzner
Photos/Video Documentation: Magdalena Fischer
Sound Technician: Lisa-Maria Hollaus

Production

A co-production between the Verein zur Förderung der Bewegungsfreiheit and brut Wien. With kind support from the City of Vienna Department of Cultural Affairs.

Biographies

Natalie Ananda Assmann (*1988, she/her), is a freelance artist, director, curator and performer. Her works operate in the crossover between theatrical interventions in public spaces and the production of queer-feminist, anti-fascist images. From 2019 to 2020 she was a member of the Artistic Leadership Team for the Wienwoche – Festival for Art & Activism in Vienna. She produced her most recent work together with Nora Aaron Scherer, Janoushka Kamin and Magdalena Fischer for the Britney X Festival at Schauspiel Köln. Her last major directing work was ‘City of Whores’ as part of Red Rules Vienna at F23 in Vienna, a collaboration with Red Edition – Migrant Sex Workers Group. Together with Marlene Engel, Bahar Kaygusuz and Leonard Neumann she created ‘NONBINARY – A Tribute to Genesis P-Orridge’ last year at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. Further projects have been seen at the Spectrum Festival and the Impulse Theater Festival. In 2022 she curated the Impulse ACADEMY ‘Ar/ctivism – Art and Activism in the Independent Theatre’ in Cologne together with Gin Müller. She lives with her partner and her dog in Berlin and Vienna.

Mariama Nzinga Diallo is a migrant, an activist and a Pan-African. As an artist, photographer and performer, she studied Contextual Panting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Born in Guinea, she works in visual arts and transformation and her art is political in origin. She is currently working at the University of Vienna and is part of the collective Schwabinggrad Ballet & Arrivati in Hamburg.

Andreas Fleck, born in Graz in 1985, studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna and Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Université libre de Bruxelles. He has worked as a Production Manager and Dramaturg for a variety of theatre institutions (including brut Wien, workspacebrussels, Schauspielhaus Vienna) and independent theatre companies (including Nesterval and Gin Müller). He is the leader of the male* cheerleading group Fearleaders Vienna, with whom he collectively devises party events, choreographies and workshops. He will be Artistic Director of WUK performing arts from May 2023.

Edwarda Gurrola (*1979 in Mexico) began working professionally for theatre, film and television in 1987. She has worked together with a number of acclaimed Mexican film and theatre directors. She has performed regularly at brut in Vienna in productions by Gin Müller since 2009. She is currently preparing a variety of projects in Mexico and Austria.

Ines Kaiser was born in Linz in 1998 und studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna. She worked as a Project Assistant at the Vienna Volkstheater in the 2019/20 season, where she ran the acting club ‘Ministerium für schlüpfrige Angelegenheiten’. Since 2020 she has worked as an Assistant Director, primarily in the independent sector at venues including Werk X. She has also been Production Manager of the frame[o]ut Open Air Cinema in Vienna’s Museumsquartier since 2021. As a performer, she has already been seen in ‘Cumernustag’ (Wienwoche 2021), works by Claudia Bosse (‘Thyestes Brüder! Kapital’ and ‘Oracle And Sacrifice in the Woods’) and at LOT Vienna. She also develops her own artistic works, partly as part of the Raw Matters Tender Steps Residency (January 2021).

Lisa Kortschak lives and works as a transmedia artist specialising in video, video installation and performance in Vienna. Sound and sounds play a major role in all her works. She is active as a musician and singer in bands such as Half Darling and In The Hills, The Cities. She has composed sound or music for her own live and video projects and together with Elise Mory for theatre productions by Lisa Hinterreithner.

Sabine Marte is a video artist, performer and musician. In her video works, in which she often appears herself as a performer, a significant role is played by perceptions of the self and others. Marte uses the camera to focus on herself and her immediate surroundings. In her existential confrontations, she places the self-observing subject in relation to her immediate environment by integrating the real and filmic space. Language – her voice often provides off-camera commentary – and music are central elements of her work. They provide its rhythm or reflect what is shown. In addition, Sabine Marte distorts and deconstructs her video images or generates them from unconventional recording angles. Once they are reassembled, this creates a special and at times trashy visual aesthetic that is both confusing and attractive while having a liberating effect.

Gin Müller is a dramaturg and ar/ctivist who works in the field of Theatre/Performance/Queer Studies. He is a Lecturer at the University of Vienna (Theatre, Film and Media Studies). At the same time, he creates his own theatre and performance works in Vienna (brut) and Mexico City, including: ‘Fantomas Monster’ (2016/17), ‘TransGenderMoves’ (2014/15), ‘Melodrom/Rebelodrom – NoborderZone’ (2012/13), ‘the que_ring drama project’ (2018/19) and ‘Sodom Vienna’ (2020/21). He also co-founded the noborder VolxTheaterKarawane (2001–2004) and the band SV Damenkraft (2003–2008). He has been actively engaged in ‘Refugee Protest Vienna’ (2012/13) and ‘Queer Base’.

Noushin Redjaian was born in 1988 and studied Design/Fashion with Prof. Bernhard Wilhelm and Prof. Hussein Chalayan at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 2010–2017. From 2012–2015 she also studied Graphic Design and Graphic Printing with Prof. Jan Svenungsson, and in 2015–2016 Transmedia Art with Prof. Brigitte Kowanz. She lives and works as an artist and fashion designer in Vienna. In her art, Noushin Redjaian engages with the transcendent nature of symbolic language and its conservation. Inspired by cultural history and poetry, she forms objects and sculptures that are confronted with their past and future.

Sandra Selimović is an actor, director, rapper and activist. Born in Zaječar, Serbia in 1981, she first appeared on stage in 1994. She is currently appearing at the Burgtheater Vienna in ‘The Doctor’ by Robert Icke and at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in ‘Roma Armee’ directed by Yael Ronen. She has worked as a freelance actor and director at the Volkstheater Vienna, Schauspiel Essen, Staatstheater Kassel and in the independent theatre sector in Austria, Germany and Romania. She acted in her first television series for ORF, ‘Operation Dunarea’, at the age of 12. Together with Tina Leisch, she co-directed her first documentary film ‘Gangster Girls’ in Schwarzau women’s prison, which was screened at the Viennale and the Munich Documentary Festival. In 2010 she founded the first ever feminist Roma theatre organisation Romano Svato together with her sister Simonida Selimović – at the same time the two of them started making music as the rap duo Mindj Panther. Their productions examine racism, sexism, identity, feminism and exclusion while shattering stereotypical images and clichés of the Roma as an ethnic group. As a self-aware and queer romni, Sandra Selimović is both a pioneer of women’s rights within the Roma community and also an activist against discrimination against gypsies. In 2013 her debut work as a director at the Vienna Akademietheater won her the Junger Burg’s audience award.

Selina Shirin Stritzel is a freelance theatre-maker, political education worker, cultural scholar and transmedia artist. She is studying for a Masters in Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with a thesis on ‘Post-migrant Identities – the things we do for love.’ She is a co-founder of the association Vielmehr für Alle! and the project PROSA-Projekt Schule für Alle!. From 2014 to 2017 she worked at Ballhaus Naunynstraße Berlin in a range of capacities including Assistant Director, Dramaturg, Co-Director and Head of the ‘akademie der autodidakten’. In 2018 and 2019 she worked with Gin Müller and Radostina Patulova at brut Wien on the ‘que_ring drama project’. She also worked as Project Co-ordinator for ‘Akademie geht in die Schule’ at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. As an art outreach worker, she currently works on KÖR NÖ’s INVENTOUR and Graz University’s DERLA project in co-operation with the OeAd. Her artistic works in the form of paintings, performances and films, have been seen at venues including mumok and Exhibit Eschenbachgasse.  

22:00, Showcase Open End with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther FFT Düsseldorf

8.6., 22:00
FFT Düsseldorf
OPEN END with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther
Noushin Redjaian, the costume designer of JUSTITIA! Identity Cases transforms into DJ Noushin, and the performer Sandra Selimović turns into Mindj Panther. Musical spheres such as soca, hip-hop, R’n’B and dub meet a live political rap act. The ‘Identity Cases’ go on.

9.6., 22:00
“Secret Location” to be disclosed at the festival
OPEN END with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman
subbotnik and Rotterdam Presenta lie cosily side by side at our “secret location.” While subbotnik await you with a live music act, Rotterdam Presenta will open up their Gravity Bar in the middle of a building site to serve drinks and tunes of all flavours. Gravity says: Drop the hammer wherever you’re standing!

10.6., 23:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT

Tradition tells us this is one duo Impulse cannot do without. Çakey Blond may be taking a creative break but their drag alter egos ÇAKEY BRÜNETT are going to throw a drama party. Minti von Monaco and Wilhelmine Wollnwamal sweeten the evening at the Theatermuseum with the best cover versions of their young lives. Let’s drama, baby!

15.6., 22:00
WP8
OPEN END with Henrike Iglesias

After being on stage at the FFT the night before, on Thursday Henrike Iglesias take over the turntables at WP8. An evening that’s like a magic ball, simply bursting with musical miracles!

17.6., 22:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina

A balmy summer night, cool drinks and chilled music. On the edge of the Hofgarten, the Impulse DJs along with Romano Soresina crown the end of the SHOWCASE in fitting style in the august halls of the Theatermuseum.

18.6., ab 15:00
Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz
OPEN END/ABSCHLUSS with Kidical Mass Cologne, Turbo Pascal, a surprise band and roller disco with DJ Sveamaus
Before the lights finally go out in our UPSIDE DOWN WORLD, for one afternoon at the end of our CITY PROJECT, the dodgem rink turns into a roller disco. Roller skates are available for hire at the venue.

Friday, 09.6.
9:00 – 17:00, Academy Academy #1: HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN? Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress (registration required) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

Theater for a world in a spin
Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress
8.–11.6.2023

© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi

The basis of our life together are currently undergoing fundamental change: ecologically due to the climate emergency; politically due to the sharp realignment of international relations in response to the Russian war of aggression; culturally due to the ubiquity of digital communication and decisions increasingly being outsourced to Artificial Intelligence. In each case, these are not temporary crises but lasting changes – watershed shifts that interact to overwhelm us with their complexity.

What are the social consequences of these shifts? And what does this mean for the way in which we think about and make theatre: how do we talk about a world that’s in a spin? How can we look to the future? And how do these new circumstances change our sense of global cohabitation? At the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress, theatremakers, academics and activists will meet for keynote speeches, table talks, panels and workshops to analyse various key aspects of a rapidly changing world and to devise new perspectives on these changes.


Congress fee: 90 € / 40 € concessions.
Free of charge to Dramaturgische Gesellschaft members.

Detailed programm and registration (in German)

The ACADEMY #1 is a co-operation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of KULTUR.GEMEINSCHAFTEN in the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.

11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

16:00 – 17:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

19:00 – 20:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

19:00 – 20:00, Showcase Theater im Bahnhof
DUDES halten endlich die Klappe
FFT Düsseldorf

Finally – a play about old white men! Featuring two examples of the species and two twelve-year-old girls. Only this time the usual order of things has been reversed. The girls say what’s what and the dudes keep their mouths shut.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

10.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German, very little language

© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner

On stage, a couple of men in their mid-fifties in checked shirts do what dudes do: drill holes in things and do stuff that involves beer. Skilfully seasoned with piano music and elegant slapstick. The girls watch, give direction and comment on what is going on.

One thing is clear: the dudes have given up control. Looking for a prototype man of the future, the Theater im Bahnhof has turned to the next generation. What do the girls see when they look at these dudes: two representatives of a group that still clings on unjustly to the levers of power? Two blokes who simply ought to vanish into thin air? Or something else again? Sometimes they have mercy on the dudes, sometimes they don’t.


“A successful parable for the tiresome redundancy of meaningless rituals and patterns of behaviour that are the way they are simply because someone once persuaded themselves that that was how they had to be.”
Lydia Bißmann, kuma.at, 3.12.2022

Credits

Direction: Sahar Rahimi
Concept: Ed. Hauswirth, Rupert Lehofer, Sahar Rahimi
Performers: Florentina Piffl, Emilia Thelen, Ed. Hauswirth, Rupert Lehofer
Design: Helene Thümmel
Technical Direction: Moke Rudolf-Klengel
Production Manager: Christina Romirer

Production

Funded by the City of Graz, the Regional Government of Styria and the Republic of Austria’s Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

Biographies

The Theater im Bahnhof Graz identifies as a contemporary folk theatre. Its theme is Austrian identity, by which it means self-identification, self-image and images of others, consensus and dissent in the reality of current society. These require constant negotiation, which is why the Theater im Bahnhof is continually altering its practices. It is permanently improvising its own existence. The TiB is an alternative institution and runs its own production space and venue in Graz. It operates locally, regionally and internationally. It is also the largest full-time, professional, independent theatre company in Austria. It conducts its work as a collective of highly accented, sought-after individual artists. Feedback within the ensemble plays a role in all its creations. TiB actors are theatre-makers. For over 30 years, the TiB has primarily produced its own productions, which are devised as a collective.

Ed. Hauswirth, born in Styria, is a director, performer and founder member of the Theater im Bahnhof Graz. From 1990–2005 he was Styria’s Regional Adviser for Non-Professional Theatre. Since 2006 he has been Artistic Director of the Theater im Bahnhof. He has directed numerous productions for the Theater im Bahnhof, the Rabtaldirndln, the Volkstheater, Schauspielhaus Graz, Schauspiel Dortmund and the Vorstadttheater Graz. His work has been presented at steirischer herbst, Wiener Festwochen, Theater der Welt and the Impulse Festival, and he has also worked as a guest director at numerous theatres in Austria and Germany. He has won several awards.

Rupert Lehofer, born in Graz, is a founder member, actor, dramaturg and writer with the Theater im Bahnhof, Graz. Since 2003 he has also formed part of the performance group Umherschweifende Produzenten together with Seppo Gründler. He has worked as a performer and content producer with Zinganel/Hieslmaier, Oleg Soulimenko, Zobel & Schneider and others. He is an improviser and previously appeared as a clown with Rote Nasen Österreich. He has also worked on several films.

Florentina Piffl-Percevic (13) lives with her parents, three siblings Philomena (15), Ferdinand (11) and Severin (8), and golden retriever Emil on the outskirts of Graz. Florentina has been in the same class as Emilia Thelen since their first year at primary school and is now in Class Three at Gibs – Graz International Bilingual School. Florentina has experimented on stage for a number of years with the theatre club of the Graz children’s theatre Next Liberty. She has also performed as a child extra in the operas ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Morgen und Abend’. She loves athletics (Styrian Under-14 pentathlon champion in 2022 and, with Emilia, Styrian Under-14 80m sprint relay champion), skiing, mountaineering, reading and chilling out in her hammock.

Sahar Rahimi, born in Tehran, is a director, writer and performer, who currently lives in Munich. She studied at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen and is a co-founder of the performance group Monster Truck. She works in the disciplines of theatre, performance, installation and video in both the independent sector and in city theatres. At the heart of her work lies her interest in the ambivalent areas on the boundary between power and powerlessness.

Christina Romirer has worked with the Theater am Bahnhof in a variety of different roles since 2009. She often travels with TiB on tour, e.g. with ‘Black Moonshine’ to Eisenerz and Vordernberg, ‘Friedhof der Eigenheime’ to Murau and ‘My Life in the Bush of Sarajevo’ to Sarajevo and Salzburg. She studied Transmedia Arts at the University of Applied Arts and Stage Design at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). Her work and projects move between the fields of theatre and film design, interior design, the design of public spaces and the visual arts.

Moke Rudolf-Klengel was born in Graz, is a co-founder of Radio Helsinki, the independent radio station in Graz, and until 2019 was part of the artists’ collective ekw14,90. Musician. Technician at the Theater im Bahnhof.

Emilia Thelen was born with a talent for appearing in front of people without embarrassment. Her father has written and performed musicals for many years and her mother is a journalist with ORF. When she was at kindergarten, she volunteered to pose in children’s clothes for a fashion house. Her empathy has always been high enough to make group dynamics “explode.” She also enjoys travelling. She has been an active cheerleader for several years, and participated in international competitions. She believes it is important to set herself ambitious targets, at school as well as in athletics competitions. She also enjoyed amateur stage performances at primary school. Emilia can also contribute a few bars on the guitar to a social gathering: an instrument she found quickly at the age of 8: "I’m learning the guitar because I can always have it with me when I’m travelling through Europe, you can’t do that with a piano…" She has joined the theatre group at the International School in Graz and then auditioned for the Theater im Bahnhof and was cast in the play ‘Dudes halten endlich die Klappe’, even though they were looking for an older girl. Emilia has given numerous interviews to Austrian newspapers and public television. Here too, one can sense the ease and seriousness with which she approaches acting.

Helene Thümmel (*1990) studied Architecture (BA) in Graz, Austria, and Media Arts/New Media (MA) at the School of Arts in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. She has worked as a stage and costume designer for theatre and film productions since 2010 and is and has been part of a wide range of artistic co-operations and alliances. As an artist, Helene Thümmel moves between analogue and digital media. Inspired by science, politics and society, she attempts to understand wider connections and examines concepts such as distance, space and borders in social and political contexts. To do this, she employs tools including video, objects, text and photography in her installations. She has participated in numerous group and individual exhibitions in cities including Vienna, Graz, Nova Gorica, Trbovlje, Brussels and Rijeka. In 2020/2021, Thümmel was awarded the City of Graz’s Foreign Travel Scholarship and the Region of Styria’s Kunstraum Steiermark Scholarship.

20:30 – 23:00, Showcase Nadja Duesterberg im Rahmen von HAUS/DOMA von subbotnik
EXPECT A TIGER
Geheimer Ort ('Secret location')

Within the dark space stands a brightly lit kitchen with a long table in front of it for the audience. On the menu: four courses together with stories about the hard work in the kitchens of top restaurants. How can the evening be made unforgettable and everyone’s efforts be recognised in equal measure?

09.06., 20:30–23:00 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

11.06., 20:00–22:30 Schedule

no seats available at the moment

12.06., 19:00–21:30 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

Registration required at expectatiger[a]impulsefestival.de.

Venue will be given when booking.
Language: German

© Robin Junicke
EXPECT A TIGER © Robin Junicke
© Atacan AK / subbotnik

The tiger is in every restaurant, prowling among the kitchen staff. One tiny moment of carelessness and it will pounce: if something goes wrong, the perfect choreography in which everyone knows what they have to do will be out of time. The pressure, already huge, will become unbearable. Everyone knows this moment will happen every evening, but no one knows when.

Nadja Duesterberg is an actor and cook. In this performance she makes visible what otherwise remains hidden: how much work it takes to give your guests a great evening – either in the theatre or in a restaurant. At the same time, she also shows how much potential such a gathering has: in all those present, in every move, in every gesture. Cautious connections are formed. Strangers become allies, colleagues become friends and the public become a community.

Credits

Concept, Direction, Text, Food, Performance: Nadja Duesterberg
Composer: Svea Kirschmeier
With: Nadja Duesterberg, Kornelius Heidebrecht, Lisa Hinz, Svea Kirschmeier, Zeynep Topal, Oleg Zhukov
Dramaturgy: Felizitas Stilleke
Dramaturgical Consultant: Anna Bründl

This production was created as part of the project HAUS/DOMA.
Artistic Direction, Scenography, Music: subbotnik
Management: Béla Bisom/transmissions
Assistant: Lisa Hinz
Production Manager: Nora Vollmond
Dramaturgy: Anna Bründl

Production

Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, #TakeHeart Residency Funding at the FFT Düsseldorf and the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Biographies

Anna Bründl is a dramaturg and curator. She has worked across Germany for international festivals including SPIELART and DANCE in Munich in a variety of roles, was Artistic Assistant at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts Dresden from 2010 to 2018 and Dramaturg and Project Co-ordinator of the new theatre alliance vier.ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr from 2019 to 2021. She works as a freelance dramaturg together with subbotnik, KGI – Büro für nicht übertragbare Angelegenheiten and the performance and media collective LIGNA. Since 2023 she has also been Dramaturg for the Impulse Theater Festival.

Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has been working as a freelance actor/performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009 and as a chef since 2007. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. She devised her first original performance in 2019 as part of ‘Homesick’ at FFT Düsseldorf (conceived by Michikazu Matsune). This was followed the same year by an international co-production by Jun Tsutsui with the Kyoto Art Center at FFT Düsseldorf. Nadja Duesterberg asks: Who is visible where and why? Where is our story? And who is telling it? In 2020 the #TakeCare residency of the Fonds Darstellende Künste gave her the opportunity to research patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

Lisa Hinz came to Cologne after graduating from high school in 2021 and completed federal voluntary service here in the Press and Public Relations Department at the COMEDIA Theater. Since the summer of 2022 she has worked freelance as an Assistant Director and Project Manager in the independent theatre sector in Cologne and Düsseldorf, for the COMEDIA Theater, subbotnik and the Sommerblut Festival, among others.

Svea Kirschmeier is a freelance musician, actor and performer from Cologne. Since 2018 she has played and composed for venues including the COMEDIA Theater Cologne and JES Stuttgart and also with the independent performance collective subbotnik. With the production ‘Zuhause’ by the performance collective subbotnik she won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021. In 2022 she was nominated for the FAUST Theatre Prize with an acrobatics and dance production by the theaterkohlenpott Herne and with other productions she has been invited to festivals across Germany, notably the Augenblick mal! festival in Berlin.

Felizitas Stilleke is a freelance dramaturg, artist and curator. She works as a festival dramaturg (Berlin Theatertreffen 2018, Impulse Theater Festival 2017 and FAVORITEN 2014 as Co-Director) and directs performance conferences, such as Branchentreff 2019–2021 and B.A.L.L. 2022, as well as working as a production dramaturg in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Zurich and the Netherlands. She holds a B.A. in German Literature/Narrative Studies from Bochum and an M.A. in Cultural Poetics from the University of Münster. In 2020 she started a series of podcast sessions at Ballhaus Ost entitled ‘The Mother in Me is the Mother in You’, in which she readdressed the discourse around the issue of not/not yet/no longer/perhaps/becoming a mother in conversation with friends. In all her work she is concerned and motivated by the search for radical intersectional/feminist change and the cultivation of collective knowledge.

The ensemble subbotnik operates on a project basis and is consistently extended by new artistic positions. It has developed artistic projects in North Rhine-Westphalia continuously for more than ten years. As theatre-makers and musicians, its members work where performative storytelling meets concerts and live audio drama. Their works have been seen at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf, studiobühneköln, the Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, Schauspiel Köln, the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, Schauspiel Leipzig and Nationaltheater Mannheim. Their first award was the City of Düsseldorf’s Development Prize in the Performing Arts in 2013 for ‘Die Sehnsucht des Menschen ein Tier zu werden’. Three of their works were then presented at the NRW theatre festival FAVORITEN in 2014. The trilogy ‘Götter – Helden – Städte’ gained several prizes and festival invitations: WESTWIND 2016/ 2017/ 2018, Spurensuche Berlin 2018 and Augenblick mal! 2019. subbotnik won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021 for the production ‘Zuhause’. Their most recent work ‘Lyriks’ has been invited to Augenblick mal! 2023.

Nora Vollmond works together with artists and collectives between Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia as a producer, dramaturg, performer and speaker. Nora has worked regularly with the theatre collective subbotnik (32nd Cologne Theatre Prize, Augenblick mal! 2023) since 2020. As part of the #TakeHeart Residency at PACT Zollverein, she investigated transgenerational power relations and family narratives. Nora is currently a participant in the Academy for Performing Arts Producers #6 run by the Alliance of International Production Houses.

21:00 – 22:00, Showcase caruso + avila
MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO
tanzhaus nrw

‘MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO’ documents an involuntary return to Argentina and the distress that follows. caruso + avila mould this into an affectionate dialogue about depression and hope that bridges thousands of kilometres of separation and the borderline between the real and the virtual.

09.06., 21:00–22:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule

tanzhaus nrw
Language: German with English surtitles

© Ralph Kuehne
© Ralph Kühne
© Ralph Kuehne
© Ralph Kühne

This project is based on the friendship between Elvio Avila and Savino Caruso. They stand on stage together: Savino in person, Elvio on screen, in a live link from Argentina. The two friends simultaneously talk to the camera, to the audience and with each other. They talk about vulnerability and about not wanting to live any more but being unable to die. They sing and dance with each other. And they ask what all this has to do with them as men who, when they were children, used to admire Western heroes for how strong, lonely and emotionless they were. 70 per cent of suicides in Germany are committed by men. But on this stage, the darkness turns into light and loneliness is replaced by a bond. For the two friends, their search for a viable future has found an important intermediate goal in a joint artistic project: Yes, art can save lives!


“‘Mi vida en tránsito’ is documentary theatre that deals with the socially important and highly personal theme of male depression in a way that is never voyeuristic.”
Laudatio Jury Premio

Credits

Performance, Artistic Direction: Savino Caruso
Performance, Concept: Elvio Avila
Video: Eleonora Camizzi
Graphics, Costumes, Scenography: Isabelle Mauchle
Sound Technician: Lena Brechbühl
Dramaturgy: Sebastian Gisi
Artistic Support: Beatrice Fleischlin
Production Manager: Gilda Laneve

Production

A co-production with Südpol Luzern. With support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Migros Culture Percentage, the Canton of Lucerne Cultural Funding in association with Swisslos, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Stiftung Monika Widmer, the Landis & Gyr Foundation and the City of Lucerne’s funds for the Promotion and Development of Cultural Activities (FUKA). Thanks to ROXY Birsfelden.

Biographies

Elvio Avila is an artist who operates in constant conflict between conservatism and innovation, usually ending in absurdity. Elvio began an intense training in Argentinian folk dancing at the age of five. When he was fourteen, he started studying contemporary dance in Buenos Aires. In 2010 he moved to Switzerland, where he studied Advanced Studies in Modern Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts. This was followed by a B.A. in Physical Theatre at the Accademia Dimitri in Ticino and an M.A. in Expanded Theater at Bern Academy of the Arts. Elvio currently lives in Argentina.

Savino Caruso is a freelance stage designer, artistic director and performer. In addition to his artistic work, he is also an activist. He studied Film at Zurich University of the Arts and Photography at CEPV in Vevey and at the F+F School in Zurich.

22:00, Showcase Open End with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman Secret location (venue will be given at the festival)

8.6., 22:00
FFT Düsseldorf
OPEN END with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther
Noushin Redjaian, the costume designer of JUSTITIA! Identity Cases transforms into DJ Noushin, and the performer Sandra Selimović turns into Mindj Panther. Musical spheres such as soca, hip-hop, R’n’B and dub meet a live political rap act. The ‘Identity Cases’ go on.

9.6., 22:00
“Secret Location” to be disclosed at the festival
OPEN END with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman
subbotnik and Rotterdam Presenta lie cosily side by side at our “secret location.” While subbotnik await you with a live music act, Rotterdam Presenta will open up their Gravity Bar in the middle of a building site to serve drinks and tunes of all flavours. Gravity says: Drop the hammer wherever you’re standing!

10.6., 23:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT

Tradition tells us this is one duo Impulse cannot do without. Çakey Blond may be taking a creative break but their drag alter egos ÇAKEY BRÜNETT are going to throw a drama party. Minti von Monaco and Wilhelmine Wollnwamal sweeten the evening at the Theatermuseum with the best cover versions of their young lives. Let’s drama, baby!

15.6., 22:00
WP8
OPEN END with Henrike Iglesias

After being on stage at the FFT the night before, on Thursday Henrike Iglesias take over the turntables at WP8. An evening that’s like a magic ball, simply bursting with musical miracles!

17.6., 22:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina

A balmy summer night, cool drinks and chilled music. On the edge of the Hofgarten, the Impulse DJs along with Romano Soresina crown the end of the SHOWCASE in fitting style in the august halls of the Theatermuseum.

18.6., ab 15:00
Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz
OPEN END/ABSCHLUSS with Kidical Mass Cologne, Turbo Pascal, a surprise band and roller disco with DJ Sveamaus
Before the lights finally go out in our UPSIDE DOWN WORLD, for one afternoon at the end of our CITY PROJECT, the dodgem rink turns into a roller disco. Roller skates are available for hire at the venue.

Saturday, 10.6.
Showcase Open End with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT Theatermuseum

8.6., 22:00
FFT Düsseldorf
OPEN END with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther
Noushin Redjaian, the costume designer of JUSTITIA! Identity Cases transforms into DJ Noushin, and the performer Sandra Selimović turns into Mindj Panther. Musical spheres such as soca, hip-hop, R’n’B and dub meet a live political rap act. The ‘Identity Cases’ go on.

9.6., 22:00
“Secret Location” to be disclosed at the festival
OPEN END with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman
subbotnik and Rotterdam Presenta lie cosily side by side at our “secret location.” While subbotnik await you with a live music act, Rotterdam Presenta will open up their Gravity Bar in the middle of a building site to serve drinks and tunes of all flavours. Gravity says: Drop the hammer wherever you’re standing!

10.6., 23:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT

Tradition tells us this is one duo Impulse cannot do without. Çakey Blond may be taking a creative break but their drag alter egos ÇAKEY BRÜNETT are going to throw a drama party. Minti von Monaco and Wilhelmine Wollnwamal sweeten the evening at the Theatermuseum with the best cover versions of their young lives. Let’s drama, baby!

15.6., 22:00
WP8
OPEN END with Henrike Iglesias

After being on stage at the FFT the night before, on Thursday Henrike Iglesias take over the turntables at WP8. An evening that’s like a magic ball, simply bursting with musical miracles!

17.6., 22:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina

A balmy summer night, cool drinks and chilled music. On the edge of the Hofgarten, the Impulse DJs along with Romano Soresina crown the end of the SHOWCASE in fitting style in the august halls of the Theatermuseum.

18.6., ab 15:00
Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz
OPEN END/ABSCHLUSS with Kidical Mass Cologne, Turbo Pascal, a surprise band and roller disco with DJ Sveamaus
Before the lights finally go out in our UPSIDE DOWN WORLD, for one afternoon at the end of our CITY PROJECT, the dodgem rink turns into a roller disco. Roller skates are available for hire at the venue.

9:00 – 17:00, Academy Academy #1: HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN? Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress (registration required) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

Theater for a world in a spin
Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress
8.–11.6.2023

© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi

The basis of our life together are currently undergoing fundamental change: ecologically due to the climate emergency; politically due to the sharp realignment of international relations in response to the Russian war of aggression; culturally due to the ubiquity of digital communication and decisions increasingly being outsourced to Artificial Intelligence. In each case, these are not temporary crises but lasting changes – watershed shifts that interact to overwhelm us with their complexity.

What are the social consequences of these shifts? And what does this mean for the way in which we think about and make theatre: how do we talk about a world that’s in a spin? How can we look to the future? And how do these new circumstances change our sense of global cohabitation? At the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress, theatremakers, academics and activists will meet for keynote speeches, table talks, panels and workshops to analyse various key aspects of a rapidly changing world and to devise new perspectives on these changes.


Congress fee: 90 € / 40 € concessions.
Free of charge to Dramaturgische Gesellschaft members.

Detailed programm and registration (in German)

The ACADEMY #1 is a co-operation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of KULTUR.GEMEINSCHAFTEN in the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.

11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

14:00 – 15:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

16:00 – 17:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Performance K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

18:00 – 19:00, Showcase Theater im Bahnhof
DUDES halten endlich die Klappe
FFT Düsseldorf

Finally – a play about old white men! Featuring two examples of the species and two twelve-year-old girls. Only this time the usual order of things has been reversed. The girls say what’s what and the dudes keep their mouths shut.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

10.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German, very little language

© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner
© Johannes Gellner

On stage, a couple of men in their mid-fifties in checked shirts do what dudes do: drill holes in things and do stuff that involves beer. Skilfully seasoned with piano music and elegant slapstick. The girls watch, give direction and comment on what is going on.

One thing is clear: the dudes have given up control. Looking for a prototype man of the future, the Theater im Bahnhof has turned to the next generation. What do the girls see when they look at these dudes: two representatives of a group that still clings on unjustly to the levers of power? Two blokes who simply ought to vanish into thin air? Or something else again? Sometimes they have mercy on the dudes, sometimes they don’t.


“A successful parable for the tiresome redundancy of meaningless rituals and patterns of behaviour that are the way they are simply because someone once persuaded themselves that that was how they had to be.”
Lydia Bißmann, kuma.at, 3.12.2022

Credits

Direction: Sahar Rahimi
Concept: Ed. Hauswirth, Rupert Lehofer, Sahar Rahimi
Performers: Florentina Piffl, Emilia Thelen, Ed. Hauswirth, Rupert Lehofer
Design: Helene Thümmel
Technical Direction: Moke Rudolf-Klengel
Production Manager: Christina Romirer

Production

Funded by the City of Graz, the Regional Government of Styria and the Republic of Austria’s Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.

Biographies

The Theater im Bahnhof Graz identifies as a contemporary folk theatre. Its theme is Austrian identity, by which it means self-identification, self-image and images of others, consensus and dissent in the reality of current society. These require constant negotiation, which is why the Theater im Bahnhof is continually altering its practices. It is permanently improvising its own existence. The TiB is an alternative institution and runs its own production space and venue in Graz. It operates locally, regionally and internationally. It is also the largest full-time, professional, independent theatre company in Austria. It conducts its work as a collective of highly accented, sought-after individual artists. Feedback within the ensemble plays a role in all its creations. TiB actors are theatre-makers. For over 30 years, the TiB has primarily produced its own productions, which are devised as a collective.

Ed. Hauswirth, born in Styria, is a director, performer and founder member of the Theater im Bahnhof Graz. From 1990–2005 he was Styria’s Regional Adviser for Non-Professional Theatre. Since 2006 he has been Artistic Director of the Theater im Bahnhof. He has directed numerous productions for the Theater im Bahnhof, the Rabtaldirndln, the Volkstheater, Schauspielhaus Graz, Schauspiel Dortmund and the Vorstadttheater Graz. His work has been presented at steirischer herbst, Wiener Festwochen, Theater der Welt and the Impulse Festival, and he has also worked as a guest director at numerous theatres in Austria and Germany. He has won several awards.

Rupert Lehofer, born in Graz, is a founder member, actor, dramaturg and writer with the Theater im Bahnhof, Graz. Since 2003 he has also formed part of the performance group Umherschweifende Produzenten together with Seppo Gründler. He has worked as a performer and content producer with Zinganel/Hieslmaier, Oleg Soulimenko, Zobel & Schneider and others. He is an improviser and previously appeared as a clown with Rote Nasen Österreich. He has also worked on several films.

Florentina Piffl-Percevic (13) lives with her parents, three siblings Philomena (15), Ferdinand (11) and Severin (8), and golden retriever Emil on the outskirts of Graz. Florentina has been in the same class as Emilia Thelen since their first year at primary school and is now in Class Three at Gibs – Graz International Bilingual School. Florentina has experimented on stage for a number of years with the theatre club of the Graz children’s theatre Next Liberty. She has also performed as a child extra in the operas ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Morgen und Abend’. She loves athletics (Styrian Under-14 pentathlon champion in 2022 and, with Emilia, Styrian Under-14 80m sprint relay champion), skiing, mountaineering, reading and chilling out in her hammock.

Sahar Rahimi, born in Tehran, is a director, writer and performer, who currently lives in Munich. She studied at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen and is a co-founder of the performance group Monster Truck. She works in the disciplines of theatre, performance, installation and video in both the independent sector and in city theatres. At the heart of her work lies her interest in the ambivalent areas on the boundary between power and powerlessness.

Christina Romirer has worked with the Theater am Bahnhof in a variety of different roles since 2009. She often travels with TiB on tour, e.g. with ‘Black Moonshine’ to Eisenerz and Vordernberg, ‘Friedhof der Eigenheime’ to Murau and ‘My Life in the Bush of Sarajevo’ to Sarajevo and Salzburg. She studied Transmedia Arts at the University of Applied Arts and Stage Design at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). Her work and projects move between the fields of theatre and film design, interior design, the design of public spaces and the visual arts.

Moke Rudolf-Klengel was born in Graz, is a co-founder of Radio Helsinki, the independent radio station in Graz, and until 2019 was part of the artists’ collective ekw14,90. Musician. Technician at the Theater im Bahnhof.

Emilia Thelen was born with a talent for appearing in front of people without embarrassment. Her father has written and performed musicals for many years and her mother is a journalist with ORF. When she was at kindergarten, she volunteered to pose in children’s clothes for a fashion house. Her empathy has always been high enough to make group dynamics “explode.” She also enjoys travelling. She has been an active cheerleader for several years, and participated in international competitions. She believes it is important to set herself ambitious targets, at school as well as in athletics competitions. She also enjoyed amateur stage performances at primary school. Emilia can also contribute a few bars on the guitar to a social gathering: an instrument she found quickly at the age of 8: "I’m learning the guitar because I can always have it with me when I’m travelling through Europe, you can’t do that with a piano…" She has joined the theatre group at the International School in Graz and then auditioned for the Theater im Bahnhof and was cast in the play ‘Dudes halten endlich die Klappe’, even though they were looking for an older girl. Emilia has given numerous interviews to Austrian newspapers and public television. Here too, one can sense the ease and seriousness with which she approaches acting.

Helene Thümmel (*1990) studied Architecture (BA) in Graz, Austria, and Media Arts/New Media (MA) at the School of Arts in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. She has worked as a stage and costume designer for theatre and film productions since 2010 and is and has been part of a wide range of artistic co-operations and alliances. As an artist, Helene Thümmel moves between analogue and digital media. Inspired by science, politics and society, she attempts to understand wider connections and examines concepts such as distance, space and borders in social and political contexts. To do this, she employs tools including video, objects, text and photography in her installations. She has participated in numerous group and individual exhibitions in cities including Vienna, Graz, Nova Gorica, Trbovlje, Brussels and Rijeka. In 2020/2021, Thümmel was awarded the City of Graz’s Foreign Travel Scholarship and the Region of Styria’s Kunstraum Steiermark Scholarship.

18:00 – 19:00, Showcase caruso + avila
MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO
tanzhaus nrw

‘MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO’ documents an involuntary return to Argentina and the distress that follows. caruso + avila mould this into an affectionate dialogue about depression and hope that bridges thousands of kilometres of separation and the borderline between the real and the virtual.

09.06., 21:00–22:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule

tanzhaus nrw
Language: German with English surtitles

© Ralph Kuehne
© Ralph Kühne
© Ralph Kuehne
© Ralph Kühne

This project is based on the friendship between Elvio Avila and Savino Caruso. They stand on stage together: Savino in person, Elvio on screen, in a live link from Argentina. The two friends simultaneously talk to the camera, to the audience and with each other. They talk about vulnerability and about not wanting to live any more but being unable to die. They sing and dance with each other. And they ask what all this has to do with them as men who, when they were children, used to admire Western heroes for how strong, lonely and emotionless they were. 70 per cent of suicides in Germany are committed by men. But on this stage, the darkness turns into light and loneliness is replaced by a bond. For the two friends, their search for a viable future has found an important intermediate goal in a joint artistic project: Yes, art can save lives!


“‘Mi vida en tránsito’ is documentary theatre that deals with the socially important and highly personal theme of male depression in a way that is never voyeuristic.”
Laudatio Jury Premio

Credits

Performance, Artistic Direction: Savino Caruso
Performance, Concept: Elvio Avila
Video: Eleonora Camizzi
Graphics, Costumes, Scenography: Isabelle Mauchle
Sound Technician: Lena Brechbühl
Dramaturgy: Sebastian Gisi
Artistic Support: Beatrice Fleischlin
Production Manager: Gilda Laneve

Production

A co-production with Südpol Luzern. With support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Migros Culture Percentage, the Canton of Lucerne Cultural Funding in association with Swisslos, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, Stiftung Monika Widmer, the Landis & Gyr Foundation and the City of Lucerne’s funds for the Promotion and Development of Cultural Activities (FUKA). Thanks to ROXY Birsfelden.

Biographies

Elvio Avila is an artist who operates in constant conflict between conservatism and innovation, usually ending in absurdity. Elvio began an intense training in Argentinian folk dancing at the age of five. When he was fourteen, he started studying contemporary dance in Buenos Aires. In 2010 he moved to Switzerland, where he studied Advanced Studies in Modern Dance at the Zurich University of the Arts. This was followed by a B.A. in Physical Theatre at the Accademia Dimitri in Ticino and an M.A. in Expanded Theater at Bern Academy of the Arts. Elvio currently lives in Argentina.

Savino Caruso is a freelance stage designer, artistic director and performer. In addition to his artistic work, he is also an activist. He studied Film at Zurich University of the Arts and Photography at CEPV in Vevey and at the F+F School in Zurich.

19:30 – 20:35, Showcase Boris Nikitin
MAGDA TOFFLER. Versuch über das Schweigen
19:00 Introduction for blind and visually disabled persons Central / D'haus

Boris Nikitin’s grandmother came from a Jewish family but kept this secret to herself until she died. Her grandson goes in search for the origins of silence. A captivatingly simple and direct monologue.

10.06., 19:30–20:35 Ticket Schedule

Central / D’haus
Language: German with English surtitles

10.6., 19:00 Introduction for blind and visually disabled persons in German with Sylvie Ebelt, audio descriptor, and Wilma Renfordt, Impulse Theater Festival. See here for detailed information or write to barrierefreiheit[a]impulsefestival.de.

© Konrad Festerer
© Konrad Festerer
© Konrad Festerer

After Magda Toffler died at the age of 87, Boris Nikitin discovered what she had experienced during the Second World War: she had to spend months hiding in a barn while most of her family were killed in a death camp. Sitting on an empty stage, he reads this story out loud, page by page. He tells of his efforts to understand why his grandmother had remained silent and how it is impossible to answer this question after her death.

‘MAGDA TOFFLER’ is a piece of genealogical research which is as much about grappling with one’s own identity as with the fatal consequences of failing to talk about the catastrophes of the 20th century.


“Nikitin’s evenings measure the distance between us, but also drill deep – and they are applied to personal lives to end up elsewhere.”
Sabine Leucht, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 15.11.2022

Credits

Direction, Text, Performance: Boris Nikitin
Production: Annett Hardegen
Outside Eyes: Matthias Meppelink, Annett Hardegen, Fabian Schmidtlein

Production

An It’s The Real Thing production in co-production with Steirischer Herbst 2022, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Kaserne Basel, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Théâtre Vidy Lausanne, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Frascati Amsterdam, Theater Chur and OMANUT – Forum for Jewish Art and Culture. With support from Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft as part of the projects made possible by three-year funding.

The first version of this work was commissioned by OMANUT – Forum for Jewish Arts and Culture.

Biography

Boris Nikitin is a theatre director and author. His productions, texts and happenings have explored the representation and fabrication of identity and reality for over fifteen years. These works are well known for crossing boundaries between theatrical illusion and performance. At the same time, they constitute a continuous long-term exploration of propaganda in its various forms. “Like few others, Boris Nikitin pushes theatre to a critical point,” wrote the German professional journal Theater heute. Nikitin produces work independently with major international festivals (Ruhrtriennale, Wiener Festwochen) and in city and state theatres (Münchner Kammerspiele, Theater Basel, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Schauspiel Graz). His pieces have already been invited to the Impulse Festival four times. In 2017 Nikitin was awarded the J.M.R. Lenz Prize for Drama by the city of Jena for his body of work. In 2020 he was awarded the Swiss Theatre Prize. His play ‘Erste Staffel. 20 Jahre Big Brother’ was invited to the 2021 Mülheimer Theatertagen.

21:00 – 22:30, Showcase Müller / Gurrola / Diallo / Selimović
JUSTITIA! Identity Cases
+ Talk after the show FFT Düsseldorf

Can it be an advantage to belong to a group that faces discrimination? For some jobs and subsidies, yes. But matters become heated when people from the majority community claim to be part of a group facing discrimination. Is that a case for the courts? Or the online pillory? And what is at stake in the theatre? Four activists discuss these questions in a fast-paced show about the relationship between theatre, court and social media.

08.06., 20:00–21:30 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 21:00–22:30 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English, a handout is availabe in English

10.6. after the show: Audience discussion in German with the artists and Mithu Sanyal, cultural scientist and author Mithu Sanyal. Chaired by Katja Grawinkel, dramaturg FFT Düsseldorf

© Christine Miess
© Christine Miess
© Christine Miess

A tweet reveals an Indigenous activist to be a white woman from a rich family. Is she allowed to claim to be something she is not? Not only did she deceive the Indigenous community, she also received grant funding that was earmarked for marginalised voices. ‘JUSTITIA!’ looks at what is and is not fair in a variety of show formats such as a court-room drama and a musical, in a TV news feature and in Twitter posts that bombard the audience from video walls. The performers continually swap roles: sometimes they will appear as activists, then as court-room figures ranging from the accused to the judge. What is real in all this, and what is only fiction?

At least the case of the fake Indigenous woman appears to be clear. But what about the activist, a trans man, who applied as a woman in a process that had a female quota, even though his transition was complete? And if gender boundaries are gradually dissolving, does the same apply to race? This is a show with no easy answers. And that’s why identity politics have rarely been as much fun as they are here.


“The evening asks weighty questions in a surprisingly light-footed way.”
Petra Paterno, Wiener Zeitung, 25.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Performance: Gin Müller
Performance: Edwarda Gurrola, Mariama Nzinga Diallo, Sandra Selimović
Dramaturgy, Direction: Gin Müller, Natalie Ananda Assmann, Selina Shirin Stritzel, Andreas Fleck
Visuals: Sabine Marte
Sound/Music: Lisa Kortschak
Social Media: Hicran Ergen
Assistant: Ines Kaiser
Video Patches: Oliver Stotz
Stage Design: Rupert Müller
Costume Design: Noushin Redjaian
Graphic Design: Georg Starzner
Photos/Video Documentation: Magdalena Fischer
Sound Technician: Lisa-Maria Hollaus

Production

A co-production between the Verein zur Förderung der Bewegungsfreiheit and brut Wien. With kind support from the City of Vienna Department of Cultural Affairs.

Biographies

Natalie Ananda Assmann (*1988, she/her), is a freelance artist, director, curator and performer. Her works operate in the crossover between theatrical interventions in public spaces and the production of queer-feminist, anti-fascist images. From 2019 to 2020 she was a member of the Artistic Leadership Team for the Wienwoche – Festival for Art & Activism in Vienna. She produced her most recent work together with Nora Aaron Scherer, Janoushka Kamin and Magdalena Fischer for the Britney X Festival at Schauspiel Köln. Her last major directing work was ‘City of Whores’ as part of Red Rules Vienna at F23 in Vienna, a collaboration with Red Edition – Migrant Sex Workers Group. Together with Marlene Engel, Bahar Kaygusuz and Leonard Neumann she created ‘NONBINARY – A Tribute to Genesis P-Orridge’ last year at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. Further projects have been seen at the Spectrum Festival and the Impulse Theater Festival. In 2022 she curated the Impulse ACADEMY ‘Ar/ctivism – Art and Activism in the Independent Theatre’ in Cologne together with Gin Müller. She lives with her partner and her dog in Berlin and Vienna.

Mariama Nzinga Diallo is a migrant, an activist and a Pan-African. As an artist, photographer and performer, she studied Contextual Panting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Born in Guinea, she works in visual arts and transformation and her art is political in origin. She is currently working at the University of Vienna and is part of the collective Schwabinggrad Ballet & Arrivati in Hamburg.

Andreas Fleck, born in Graz in 1985, studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna and Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Université libre de Bruxelles. He has worked as a Production Manager and Dramaturg for a variety of theatre institutions (including brut Wien, workspacebrussels, Schauspielhaus Vienna) and independent theatre companies (including Nesterval and Gin Müller). He is the leader of the male* cheerleading group Fearleaders Vienna, with whom he collectively devises party events, choreographies and workshops. He will be Artistic Director of WUK performing arts from May 2023.

Edwarda Gurrola (*1979 in Mexico) began working professionally for theatre, film and television in 1987. She has worked together with a number of acclaimed Mexican film and theatre directors. She has performed regularly at brut in Vienna in productions by Gin Müller since 2009. She is currently preparing a variety of projects in Mexico and Austria.

Ines Kaiser was born in Linz in 1998 und studied Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna. She worked as a Project Assistant at the Vienna Volkstheater in the 2019/20 season, where she ran the acting club ‘Ministerium für schlüpfrige Angelegenheiten’. Since 2020 she has worked as an Assistant Director, primarily in the independent sector at venues including Werk X. She has also been Production Manager of the frame[o]ut Open Air Cinema in Vienna’s Museumsquartier since 2021. As a performer, she has already been seen in ‘Cumernustag’ (Wienwoche 2021), works by Claudia Bosse (‘Thyestes Brüder! Kapital’ and ‘Oracle And Sacrifice in the Woods’) and at LOT Vienna. She also develops her own artistic works, partly as part of the Raw Matters Tender Steps Residency (January 2021).

Lisa Kortschak lives and works as a transmedia artist specialising in video, video installation and performance in Vienna. Sound and sounds play a major role in all her works. She is active as a musician and singer in bands such as Half Darling and In The Hills, The Cities. She has composed sound or music for her own live and video projects and together with Elise Mory for theatre productions by Lisa Hinterreithner.

Sabine Marte is a video artist, performer and musician. In her video works, in which she often appears herself as a performer, a significant role is played by perceptions of the self and others. Marte uses the camera to focus on herself and her immediate surroundings. In her existential confrontations, she places the self-observing subject in relation to her immediate environment by integrating the real and filmic space. Language – her voice often provides off-camera commentary – and music are central elements of her work. They provide its rhythm or reflect what is shown. In addition, Sabine Marte distorts and deconstructs her video images or generates them from unconventional recording angles. Once they are reassembled, this creates a special and at times trashy visual aesthetic that is both confusing and attractive while having a liberating effect.

Gin Müller is a dramaturg and ar/ctivist who works in the field of Theatre/Performance/Queer Studies. He is a Lecturer at the University of Vienna (Theatre, Film and Media Studies). At the same time, he creates his own theatre and performance works in Vienna (brut) and Mexico City, including: ‘Fantomas Monster’ (2016/17), ‘TransGenderMoves’ (2014/15), ‘Melodrom/Rebelodrom – NoborderZone’ (2012/13), ‘the que_ring drama project’ (2018/19) and ‘Sodom Vienna’ (2020/21). He also co-founded the noborder VolxTheaterKarawane (2001–2004) and the band SV Damenkraft (2003–2008). He has been actively engaged in ‘Refugee Protest Vienna’ (2012/13) and ‘Queer Base’.

Noushin Redjaian was born in 1988 and studied Design/Fashion with Prof. Bernhard Wilhelm and Prof. Hussein Chalayan at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 2010–2017. From 2012–2015 she also studied Graphic Design and Graphic Printing with Prof. Jan Svenungsson, and in 2015–2016 Transmedia Art with Prof. Brigitte Kowanz. She lives and works as an artist and fashion designer in Vienna. In her art, Noushin Redjaian engages with the transcendent nature of symbolic language and its conservation. Inspired by cultural history and poetry, she forms objects and sculptures that are confronted with their past and future.

Sandra Selimović is an actor, director, rapper and activist. Born in Zaječar, Serbia in 1981, she first appeared on stage in 1994. She is currently appearing at the Burgtheater Vienna in ‘The Doctor’ by Robert Icke and at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in ‘Roma Armee’ directed by Yael Ronen. She has worked as a freelance actor and director at the Volkstheater Vienna, Schauspiel Essen, Staatstheater Kassel and in the independent theatre sector in Austria, Germany and Romania. She acted in her first television series for ORF, ‘Operation Dunarea’, at the age of 12. Together with Tina Leisch, she co-directed her first documentary film ‘Gangster Girls’ in Schwarzau women’s prison, which was screened at the Viennale and the Munich Documentary Festival. In 2010 she founded the first ever feminist Roma theatre organisation Romano Svato together with her sister Simonida Selimović – at the same time the two of them started making music as the rap duo Mindj Panther. Their productions examine racism, sexism, identity, feminism and exclusion while shattering stereotypical images and clichés of the Roma as an ethnic group. As a self-aware and queer romni, Sandra Selimović is both a pioneer of women’s rights within the Roma community and also an activist against discrimination against gypsies. In 2013 her debut work as a director at the Vienna Akademietheater won her the Junger Burg’s audience award.

Selina Shirin Stritzel is a freelance theatre-maker, political education worker, cultural scholar and transmedia artist. She is studying for a Masters in Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with a thesis on ‘Post-migrant Identities – the things we do for love.’ She is a co-founder of the association Vielmehr für Alle! and the project PROSA-Projekt Schule für Alle!. From 2014 to 2017 she worked at Ballhaus Naunynstraße Berlin in a range of capacities including Assistant Director, Dramaturg, Co-Director and Head of the ‘akademie der autodidakten’. In 2018 and 2019 she worked with Gin Müller and Radostina Patulova at brut Wien on the ‘que_ring drama project’. She also worked as Project Co-ordinator for ‘Akademie geht in die Schule’ at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. As an art outreach worker, she currently works on KÖR NÖ’s INVENTOUR and Graz University’s DERLA project in co-operation with the OeAd. Her artistic works in the form of paintings, performances and films, have been seen at venues including mumok and Exhibit Eschenbachgasse.  

Sunday, 11.6.
10:00 – 13:00, Academy Academy #1: HAVE YOU TRIED TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN? Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress (registration required) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

Theater for a world in a spin
Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress
8.–11.6.2023

© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi
© Ali Ghandtschi

The basis of our life together are currently undergoing fundamental change: ecologically due to the climate emergency; politically due to the sharp realignment of international relations in response to the Russian war of aggression; culturally due to the ubiquity of digital communication and decisions increasingly being outsourced to Artificial Intelligence. In each case, these are not temporary crises but lasting changes – watershed shifts that interact to overwhelm us with their complexity.

What are the social consequences of these shifts? And what does this mean for the way in which we think about and make theatre: how do we talk about a world that’s in a spin? How can we look to the future? And how do these new circumstances change our sense of global cohabitation? At the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft Annual Congress, theatremakers, academics and activists will meet for keynote speeches, table talks, panels and workshops to analyse various key aspects of a rapidly changing world and to devise new perspectives on these changes.


Congress fee: 90 € / 40 € concessions.
Free of charge to Dramaturgische Gesellschaft members.

Detailed programm and registration (in German)

The ACADEMY #1 is a co-operation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of KULTUR.GEMEINSCHAFTEN in the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.

11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

12:00 – 16:00, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
Family-Sunday (entry free of charge, no reservation required) Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

12:00 – 13:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Performance + talk after the show K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

16:00 – 17:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

20:00 – 22:30, Showcase Nadja Duesterberg im Rahmen von HAUS/DOMA von subbotnik
EXPECT A TIGER
Geheimer Ort ('Secret location')

Within the dark space stands a brightly lit kitchen with a long table in front of it for the audience. On the menu: four courses together with stories about the hard work in the kitchens of top restaurants. How can the evening be made unforgettable and everyone’s efforts be recognised in equal measure?

09.06., 20:30–23:00 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

11.06., 20:00–22:30 Schedule

no seats available at the moment

12.06., 19:00–21:30 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

Registration required at expectatiger[a]impulsefestival.de.

Venue will be given when booking.
Language: German

© Robin Junicke
EXPECT A TIGER © Robin Junicke
© Atacan AK / subbotnik

The tiger is in every restaurant, prowling among the kitchen staff. One tiny moment of carelessness and it will pounce: if something goes wrong, the perfect choreography in which everyone knows what they have to do will be out of time. The pressure, already huge, will become unbearable. Everyone knows this moment will happen every evening, but no one knows when.

Nadja Duesterberg is an actor and cook. In this performance she makes visible what otherwise remains hidden: how much work it takes to give your guests a great evening – either in the theatre or in a restaurant. At the same time, she also shows how much potential such a gathering has: in all those present, in every move, in every gesture. Cautious connections are formed. Strangers become allies, colleagues become friends and the public become a community.

Credits

Concept, Direction, Text, Food, Performance: Nadja Duesterberg
Composer: Svea Kirschmeier
With: Nadja Duesterberg, Kornelius Heidebrecht, Lisa Hinz, Svea Kirschmeier, Zeynep Topal, Oleg Zhukov
Dramaturgy: Felizitas Stilleke
Dramaturgical Consultant: Anna Bründl

This production was created as part of the project HAUS/DOMA.
Artistic Direction, Scenography, Music: subbotnik
Management: Béla Bisom/transmissions
Assistant: Lisa Hinz
Production Manager: Nora Vollmond
Dramaturgy: Anna Bründl

Production

Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, #TakeHeart Residency Funding at the FFT Düsseldorf and the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Biographies

Anna Bründl is a dramaturg and curator. She has worked across Germany for international festivals including SPIELART and DANCE in Munich in a variety of roles, was Artistic Assistant at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts Dresden from 2010 to 2018 and Dramaturg and Project Co-ordinator of the new theatre alliance vier.ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr from 2019 to 2021. She works as a freelance dramaturg together with subbotnik, KGI – Büro für nicht übertragbare Angelegenheiten and the performance and media collective LIGNA. Since 2023 she has also been Dramaturg for the Impulse Theater Festival.

Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has been working as a freelance actor/performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009 and as a chef since 2007. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. She devised her first original performance in 2019 as part of ‘Homesick’ at FFT Düsseldorf (conceived by Michikazu Matsune). This was followed the same year by an international co-production by Jun Tsutsui with the Kyoto Art Center at FFT Düsseldorf. Nadja Duesterberg asks: Who is visible where and why? Where is our story? And who is telling it? In 2020 the #TakeCare residency of the Fonds Darstellende Künste gave her the opportunity to research patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

Lisa Hinz came to Cologne after graduating from high school in 2021 and completed federal voluntary service here in the Press and Public Relations Department at the COMEDIA Theater. Since the summer of 2022 she has worked freelance as an Assistant Director and Project Manager in the independent theatre sector in Cologne and Düsseldorf, for the COMEDIA Theater, subbotnik and the Sommerblut Festival, among others.

Svea Kirschmeier is a freelance musician, actor and performer from Cologne. Since 2018 she has played and composed for venues including the COMEDIA Theater Cologne and JES Stuttgart and also with the independent performance collective subbotnik. With the production ‘Zuhause’ by the performance collective subbotnik she won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021. In 2022 she was nominated for the FAUST Theatre Prize with an acrobatics and dance production by the theaterkohlenpott Herne and with other productions she has been invited to festivals across Germany, notably the Augenblick mal! festival in Berlin.

Felizitas Stilleke is a freelance dramaturg, artist and curator. She works as a festival dramaturg (Berlin Theatertreffen 2018, Impulse Theater Festival 2017 and FAVORITEN 2014 as Co-Director) and directs performance conferences, such as Branchentreff 2019–2021 and B.A.L.L. 2022, as well as working as a production dramaturg in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Zurich and the Netherlands. She holds a B.A. in German Literature/Narrative Studies from Bochum and an M.A. in Cultural Poetics from the University of Münster. In 2020 she started a series of podcast sessions at Ballhaus Ost entitled ‘The Mother in Me is the Mother in You’, in which she readdressed the discourse around the issue of not/not yet/no longer/perhaps/becoming a mother in conversation with friends. In all her work she is concerned and motivated by the search for radical intersectional/feminist change and the cultivation of collective knowledge.

The ensemble subbotnik operates on a project basis and is consistently extended by new artistic positions. It has developed artistic projects in North Rhine-Westphalia continuously for more than ten years. As theatre-makers and musicians, its members work where performative storytelling meets concerts and live audio drama. Their works have been seen at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf, studiobühneköln, the Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, Schauspiel Köln, the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, Schauspiel Leipzig and Nationaltheater Mannheim. Their first award was the City of Düsseldorf’s Development Prize in the Performing Arts in 2013 for ‘Die Sehnsucht des Menschen ein Tier zu werden’. Three of their works were then presented at the NRW theatre festival FAVORITEN in 2014. The trilogy ‘Götter – Helden – Städte’ gained several prizes and festival invitations: WESTWIND 2016/ 2017/ 2018, Spurensuche Berlin 2018 and Augenblick mal! 2019. subbotnik won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021 for the production ‘Zuhause’. Their most recent work ‘Lyriks’ has been invited to Augenblick mal! 2023.

Nora Vollmond works together with artists and collectives between Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia as a producer, dramaturg, performer and speaker. Nora has worked regularly with the theatre collective subbotnik (32nd Cologne Theatre Prize, Augenblick mal! 2023) since 2020. As part of the #TakeHeart Residency at PACT Zollverein, she investigated transgenerational power relations and family narratives. Nora is currently a participant in the Academy for Performing Arts Producers #6 run by the Alliance of International Production Houses.

Monday, 12.6.
16:30 – 17:30, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

19:00 – 21:30, Showcase Nadja Duesterberg im Rahmen von HAUS/DOMA von subbotnik
EXPECT A TIGER
Geheimer Ort ('Secret location')

Within the dark space stands a brightly lit kitchen with a long table in front of it for the audience. On the menu: four courses together with stories about the hard work in the kitchens of top restaurants. How can the evening be made unforgettable and everyone’s efforts be recognised in equal measure?

09.06., 20:30–23:00 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

11.06., 20:00–22:30 Schedule

no seats available at the moment

12.06., 19:00–21:30 Schedule

no seats availabe at the moment

Registration required at expectatiger[a]impulsefestival.de.

Venue will be given when booking.
Language: German

© Robin Junicke
EXPECT A TIGER © Robin Junicke
© Atacan AK / subbotnik

The tiger is in every restaurant, prowling among the kitchen staff. One tiny moment of carelessness and it will pounce: if something goes wrong, the perfect choreography in which everyone knows what they have to do will be out of time. The pressure, already huge, will become unbearable. Everyone knows this moment will happen every evening, but no one knows when.

Nadja Duesterberg is an actor and cook. In this performance she makes visible what otherwise remains hidden: how much work it takes to give your guests a great evening – either in the theatre or in a restaurant. At the same time, she also shows how much potential such a gathering has: in all those present, in every move, in every gesture. Cautious connections are formed. Strangers become allies, colleagues become friends and the public become a community.

Credits

Concept, Direction, Text, Food, Performance: Nadja Duesterberg
Composer: Svea Kirschmeier
With: Nadja Duesterberg, Kornelius Heidebrecht, Lisa Hinz, Svea Kirschmeier, Zeynep Topal, Oleg Zhukov
Dramaturgy: Felizitas Stilleke
Dramaturgical Consultant: Anna Bründl

This production was created as part of the project HAUS/DOMA.
Artistic Direction, Scenography, Music: subbotnik
Management: Béla Bisom/transmissions
Assistant: Lisa Hinz
Production Manager: Nora Vollmond
Dramaturgy: Anna Bründl

Production

Funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, #TakeHeart Residency Funding at the FFT Düsseldorf and the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Biographies

Anna Bründl is a dramaturg and curator. She has worked across Germany for international festivals including SPIELART and DANCE in Munich in a variety of roles, was Artistic Assistant at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts Dresden from 2010 to 2018 and Dramaturg and Project Co-ordinator of the new theatre alliance vier.ruhr in Mülheim an der Ruhr from 2019 to 2021. She works as a freelance dramaturg together with subbotnik, KGI – Büro für nicht übertragbare Angelegenheiten and the performance and media collective LIGNA. Since 2023 she has also been Dramaturg for the Impulse Theater Festival.

Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has been working as a freelance actor/performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009 and as a chef since 2007. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. She devised her first original performance in 2019 as part of ‘Homesick’ at FFT Düsseldorf (conceived by Michikazu Matsune). This was followed the same year by an international co-production by Jun Tsutsui with the Kyoto Art Center at FFT Düsseldorf. Nadja Duesterberg asks: Who is visible where and why? Where is our story? And who is telling it? In 2020 the #TakeCare residency of the Fonds Darstellende Künste gave her the opportunity to research patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

Lisa Hinz came to Cologne after graduating from high school in 2021 and completed federal voluntary service here in the Press and Public Relations Department at the COMEDIA Theater. Since the summer of 2022 she has worked freelance as an Assistant Director and Project Manager in the independent theatre sector in Cologne and Düsseldorf, for the COMEDIA Theater, subbotnik and the Sommerblut Festival, among others.

Svea Kirschmeier is a freelance musician, actor and performer from Cologne. Since 2018 she has played and composed for venues including the COMEDIA Theater Cologne and JES Stuttgart and also with the independent performance collective subbotnik. With the production ‘Zuhause’ by the performance collective subbotnik she won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021. In 2022 she was nominated for the FAUST Theatre Prize with an acrobatics and dance production by the theaterkohlenpott Herne and with other productions she has been invited to festivals across Germany, notably the Augenblick mal! festival in Berlin.

Felizitas Stilleke is a freelance dramaturg, artist and curator. She works as a festival dramaturg (Berlin Theatertreffen 2018, Impulse Theater Festival 2017 and FAVORITEN 2014 as Co-Director) and directs performance conferences, such as Branchentreff 2019–2021 and B.A.L.L. 2022, as well as working as a production dramaturg in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Zurich and the Netherlands. She holds a B.A. in German Literature/Narrative Studies from Bochum and an M.A. in Cultural Poetics from the University of Münster. In 2020 she started a series of podcast sessions at Ballhaus Ost entitled ‘The Mother in Me is the Mother in You’, in which she readdressed the discourse around the issue of not/not yet/no longer/perhaps/becoming a mother in conversation with friends. In all her work she is concerned and motivated by the search for radical intersectional/feminist change and the cultivation of collective knowledge.

The ensemble subbotnik operates on a project basis and is consistently extended by new artistic positions. It has developed artistic projects in North Rhine-Westphalia continuously for more than ten years. As theatre-makers and musicians, its members work where performative storytelling meets concerts and live audio drama. Their works have been seen at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf, studiobühneköln, the Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, Schauspiel Köln, the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim, Schauspiel Leipzig and Nationaltheater Mannheim. Their first award was the City of Düsseldorf’s Development Prize in the Performing Arts in 2013 for ‘Die Sehnsucht des Menschen ein Tier zu werden’. Three of their works were then presented at the NRW theatre festival FAVORITEN in 2014. The trilogy ‘Götter – Helden – Städte’ gained several prizes and festival invitations: WESTWIND 2016/ 2017/ 2018, Spurensuche Berlin 2018 and Augenblick mal! 2019. subbotnik won the Cologne Theatre Prize 2021 for the production ‘Zuhause’. Their most recent work ‘Lyriks’ has been invited to Augenblick mal! 2023.

Nora Vollmond works together with artists and collectives between Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia as a producer, dramaturg, performer and speaker. Nora has worked regularly with the theatre collective subbotnik (32nd Cologne Theatre Prize, Augenblick mal! 2023) since 2020. As part of the #TakeHeart Residency at PACT Zollverein, she investigated transgenerational power relations and family narratives. Nora is currently a participant in the Academy for Performing Arts Producers #6 run by the Alliance of International Production Houses.

Tuesday, 13.6.
10:00 – 11:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
School performance Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

12:00 – 13:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
School performance Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

19:00 – 20:20, Showcase Henrike Iglesias
FLAMES TO DUST
+ interaction FFT Düsseldorf

Inspired by the Death Positive movement and based on their own experiences, the collective Henrike Iglesias has created a show about mortality and grief from a consciously young perspective. With two performers and the audience’s telephones in the leading roles.

13.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

13.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets availabe at the moment

14.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

14.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English with German and English surtitles

13.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences with Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival

Participation information
This is an interactive performance. Each audience member needs a mobile phone to participate in the performance. If you cannot bring a smartphone, you will be provided one in order for you to participate in the performance.

Content Note

Death and grief are explicitly made a topic and experiences of those affected are shared. Among other things, the experiences of losing a child are discussed in detail in a chat.

© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch

“Why do all good things have to come to an end?” This refrain accompanies the audience through 80 minutes full of gentle confrontation. Sitting in the front row next to the stage, the spectators are right up close when the actors are called for by their playing partners in the role of Death: “It’s time.” Already? The audience’s phones play a key role in this confrontation with mortality. Questions appear on the screen: “Would you be ok with someone reading all your messages after your death?” Type in the answer! Who knows us best? Our family? Our friends? Our phone? And who will join us in the family grave if family no longer has anything to do with biological kinship?

‘FLAMES TO DUST’ plays out both on stage and through introspection. Those present are alone with themselves and their phones – and yet they are well taken care of in this setting, which is warm and nimble for all the weight of its subject. We are all going to die. And that gives us all something in common.


“A very accomplished performance: skilfully directed, gentle, calm, very serene and precisely because of this very touching and moving.”
Frank Schmid, RBB-Kultur, 17.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Text, Performance: Henrike Iglesias (Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan, Sophia Schroth)
Coding, Creative Technology: bleeptrack
Costumes: Mascha Mihoa Bischoff
Assistant Director, voice performance: María Giacaman
Costume Assistant: Marie Göhler
Ceramics: Lauriane Daphne Carl
Outside Eye: Olivia Hyunsin Kim
Production Management Germany: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Production Management Switzerland: Maxine Devaud, oh la la – performing arts production
Translation: Naomi Boyce

Production

A Henrike Iglesias production in co-production with Sophiensæle, Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, brut Wien and ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS.

Biography

Henrike Iglesias understand pop cultural and mass media phenomena as mirrors of society’s conditions and misunderstandings, and they love to investigate these from queer and feminist perspectives. They create experimental performances and are based in Berlin and Basel. Their regular crew consists of Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan and Sophia Schroth. Most of their performances have their home at the Sophiensæle – and they have also received festival invitations from imagetanz Wien, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt, the FIBA Festival in Buenos Aires, the Theatertreffen’s digital showcase and Politik im Freien Theater.

21:00 – 22:20, Showcase Henrike Iglesias
FLAMES TO DUST
FFT Düsseldorf

Inspired by the Death Positive movement and based on their own experiences, the collective Henrike Iglesias has created a show about mortality and grief from a consciously young perspective. With two performers and the audience’s telephones in the leading roles.

13.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

13.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets availabe at the moment

14.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

14.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English with German and English surtitles

13.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences with Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival

Participation information
This is an interactive performance. Each audience member needs a mobile phone to participate in the performance. If you cannot bring a smartphone, you will be provided one in order for you to participate in the performance.

Content Note

Death and grief are explicitly made a topic and experiences of those affected are shared. Among other things, the experiences of losing a child are discussed in detail in a chat.

© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch

“Why do all good things have to come to an end?” This refrain accompanies the audience through 80 minutes full of gentle confrontation. Sitting in the front row next to the stage, the spectators are right up close when the actors are called for by their playing partners in the role of Death: “It’s time.” Already? The audience’s phones play a key role in this confrontation with mortality. Questions appear on the screen: “Would you be ok with someone reading all your messages after your death?” Type in the answer! Who knows us best? Our family? Our friends? Our phone? And who will join us in the family grave if family no longer has anything to do with biological kinship?

‘FLAMES TO DUST’ plays out both on stage and through introspection. Those present are alone with themselves and their phones – and yet they are well taken care of in this setting, which is warm and nimble for all the weight of its subject. We are all going to die. And that gives us all something in common.


“A very accomplished performance: skilfully directed, gentle, calm, very serene and precisely because of this very touching and moving.”
Frank Schmid, RBB-Kultur, 17.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Text, Performance: Henrike Iglesias (Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan, Sophia Schroth)
Coding, Creative Technology: bleeptrack
Costumes: Mascha Mihoa Bischoff
Assistant Director, voice performance: María Giacaman
Costume Assistant: Marie Göhler
Ceramics: Lauriane Daphne Carl
Outside Eye: Olivia Hyunsin Kim
Production Management Germany: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Production Management Switzerland: Maxine Devaud, oh la la – performing arts production
Translation: Naomi Boyce

Production

A Henrike Iglesias production in co-production with Sophiensæle, Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, brut Wien and ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS.

Biography

Henrike Iglesias understand pop cultural and mass media phenomena as mirrors of society’s conditions and misunderstandings, and they love to investigate these from queer and feminist perspectives. They create experimental performances and are based in Berlin and Basel. Their regular crew consists of Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan and Sophia Schroth. Most of their performances have their home at the Sophiensæle – and they have also received festival invitations from imagetanz Wien, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt, the FIBA Festival in Buenos Aires, the Theatertreffen’s digital showcase and Politik im Freien Theater.

Wednesday, 14.6.
10:00 – 11:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
School performance Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

12:00 – 13:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
School performance Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

17:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
Performance K20, Grabbe Halle

A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

+ Talk

12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

SOLD OUT

14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

SOLD OUT

K20, Grabbe Halle
Language: English

INSTALLATION:
8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm
© Andreas Bolm

Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


“A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

Credits

Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
English Translation: David Robert Evans
Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

Production

With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Biographies

The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

19:00 – 20:20, Showcase Henrike Iglesias
FLAMES TO DUST
FFT Düsseldorf

Inspired by the Death Positive movement and based on their own experiences, the collective Henrike Iglesias has created a show about mortality and grief from a consciously young perspective. With two performers and the audience’s telephones in the leading roles.

13.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

13.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets availabe at the moment

14.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

14.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English with German and English surtitles

13.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences with Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival

Participation information
This is an interactive performance. Each audience member needs a mobile phone to participate in the performance. If you cannot bring a smartphone, you will be provided one in order for you to participate in the performance.

Content Note

Death and grief are explicitly made a topic and experiences of those affected are shared. Among other things, the experiences of losing a child are discussed in detail in a chat.

© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch

“Why do all good things have to come to an end?” This refrain accompanies the audience through 80 minutes full of gentle confrontation. Sitting in the front row next to the stage, the spectators are right up close when the actors are called for by their playing partners in the role of Death: “It’s time.” Already? The audience’s phones play a key role in this confrontation with mortality. Questions appear on the screen: “Would you be ok with someone reading all your messages after your death?” Type in the answer! Who knows us best? Our family? Our friends? Our phone? And who will join us in the family grave if family no longer has anything to do with biological kinship?

‘FLAMES TO DUST’ plays out both on stage and through introspection. Those present are alone with themselves and their phones – and yet they are well taken care of in this setting, which is warm and nimble for all the weight of its subject. We are all going to die. And that gives us all something in common.


“A very accomplished performance: skilfully directed, gentle, calm, very serene and precisely because of this very touching and moving.”
Frank Schmid, RBB-Kultur, 17.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Text, Performance: Henrike Iglesias (Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan, Sophia Schroth)
Coding, Creative Technology: bleeptrack
Costumes: Mascha Mihoa Bischoff
Assistant Director, voice performance: María Giacaman
Costume Assistant: Marie Göhler
Ceramics: Lauriane Daphne Carl
Outside Eye: Olivia Hyunsin Kim
Production Management Germany: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Production Management Switzerland: Maxine Devaud, oh la la – performing arts production
Translation: Naomi Boyce

Production

A Henrike Iglesias production in co-production with Sophiensæle, Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, brut Wien and ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS.

Biography

Henrike Iglesias understand pop cultural and mass media phenomena as mirrors of society’s conditions and misunderstandings, and they love to investigate these from queer and feminist perspectives. They create experimental performances and are based in Berlin and Basel. Their regular crew consists of Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan and Sophia Schroth. Most of their performances have their home at the Sophiensæle – and they have also received festival invitations from imagetanz Wien, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt, the FIBA Festival in Buenos Aires, the Theatertreffen’s digital showcase and Politik im Freien Theater.

21:00 – 22:20, Showcase Henrike Iglesias
FLAMES TO DUST
FFT Düsseldorf

Inspired by the Death Positive movement and based on their own experiences, the collective Henrike Iglesias has created a show about mortality and grief from a consciously young perspective. With two performers and the audience’s telephones in the leading roles.

13.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

13.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets availabe at the moment

14.06., 19:00–20:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

14.06., 21:00–22:20 Schedule

no tickets available at the moment

FFT Düsseldorf
Language: German and English with German and English surtitles

13.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences with Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival

Participation information
This is an interactive performance. Each audience member needs a mobile phone to participate in the performance. If you cannot bring a smartphone, you will be provided one in order for you to participate in the performance.

Content Note

Death and grief are explicitly made a topic and experiences of those affected are shared. Among other things, the experiences of losing a child are discussed in detail in a chat.

© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch
© Dorothea Tuch

“Why do all good things have to come to an end?” This refrain accompanies the audience through 80 minutes full of gentle confrontation. Sitting in the front row next to the stage, the spectators are right up close when the actors are called for by their playing partners in the role of Death: “It’s time.” Already? The audience’s phones play a key role in this confrontation with mortality. Questions appear on the screen: “Would you be ok with someone reading all your messages after your death?” Type in the answer! Who knows us best? Our family? Our friends? Our phone? And who will join us in the family grave if family no longer has anything to do with biological kinship?

‘FLAMES TO DUST’ plays out both on stage and through introspection. Those present are alone with themselves and their phones – and yet they are well taken care of in this setting, which is warm and nimble for all the weight of its subject. We are all going to die. And that gives us all something in common.


“A very accomplished performance: skilfully directed, gentle, calm, very serene and precisely because of this very touching and moving.”
Frank Schmid, RBB-Kultur, 17.11.2022

Credits

Concept, Text, Performance: Henrike Iglesias (Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan, Sophia Schroth)
Coding, Creative Technology: bleeptrack
Costumes: Mascha Mihoa Bischoff
Assistant Director, voice performance: María Giacaman
Costume Assistant: Marie Göhler
Ceramics: Lauriane Daphne Carl
Outside Eye: Olivia Hyunsin Kim
Production Management Germany: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Production Management Switzerland: Maxine Devaud, oh la la – performing arts production
Translation: Naomi Boyce

Production

A Henrike Iglesias production in co-production with Sophiensæle, Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, brut Wien and ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS.

Biography

Henrike Iglesias understand pop cultural and mass media phenomena as mirrors of society’s conditions and misunderstandings, and they love to investigate these from queer and feminist perspectives. They create experimental performances and are based in Berlin and Basel. Their regular crew consists of Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan and Sophia Schroth. Most of their performances have their home at the Sophiensæle – and they have also received festival invitations from imagetanz Wien, the Heidelberger Stückemarkt, the FIBA Festival in Buenos Aires, the Theatertreffen’s digital showcase and Politik im Freien Theater.

Thursday, 15.6.
Showcase Open End with Henrike Iglesias WP8

8.6., 22:00
FFT Düsseldorf
OPEN END with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther
Noushin Redjaian, the costume designer of JUSTITIA! Identity Cases transforms into DJ Noushin, and the performer Sandra Selimović turns into Mindj Panther. Musical spheres such as soca, hip-hop, R’n’B and dub meet a live political rap act. The ‘Identity Cases’ go on.

9.6., 22:00
“Secret Location” to be disclosed at the festival
OPEN END with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman
subbotnik and Rotterdam Presenta lie cosily side by side at our “secret location.” While subbotnik await you with a live music act, Rotterdam Presenta will open up their Gravity Bar in the middle of a building site to serve drinks and tunes of all flavours. Gravity says: Drop the hammer wherever you’re standing!

10.6., 23:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT

Tradition tells us this is one duo Impulse cannot do without. Çakey Blond may be taking a creative break but their drag alter egos ÇAKEY BRÜNETT are going to throw a drama party. Minti von Monaco and Wilhelmine Wollnwamal sweeten the evening at the Theatermuseum with the best cover versions of their young lives. Let’s drama, baby!

15.6., 22:00
WP8
OPEN END with Henrike Iglesias

After being on stage at the FFT the night before, on Thursday Henrike Iglesias take over the turntables at WP8. An evening that’s like a magic ball, simply bursting with musical miracles!

17.6., 22:00
Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
OPEN END with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina

A balmy summer night, cool drinks and chilled music. On the edge of the Hofgarten, the Impulse DJs along with Romano Soresina crown the end of the SHOWCASE in fitting style in the august halls of the Theatermuseum.

18.6., ab 15:00
Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz
OPEN END/ABSCHLUSS with Kidical Mass Cologne, Turbo Pascal, a surprise band and roller disco with DJ Sveamaus
Before the lights finally go out in our UPSIDE DOWN WORLD, for one afternoon at the end of our CITY PROJECT, the dodgem rink turns into a roller disco. Roller skates are available for hire at the venue.

10:00 – 11:15, City project Turbo Pascal
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
School performance Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

School performance

16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

PERFORMANCES:
Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

ADDITIONAL DATES:
Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

Credits

Concept: Turbo Pascal
By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
Design: Janina Janke
Music: Friedrich Greiling
Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

Production

A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

11:00 – 13:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Systemcheck: zum Zustand der Arbeit in den Freien Darstellenden Künsten (Eintritt frei, keine Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

The independent performing arts beyond growth
15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

Language: German and English
Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

© Ingo Solms
© Minkyou Yoo
© Björn Stork

ACADEMY programme

The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


THURSDAY, 15.6.

The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

13.00–15.00
Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
- Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
- Library of other work
- Chill out in the park

    15.00–17.00
    Introductions in the workshop groups

    17.00
    Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

    Biographies

    Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

    Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

    Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

    Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

    Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

    Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

    Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


    FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


    For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

    10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

    10:00–13:00
    Work in the workshops 1–3

    Workshop 1
    Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
    With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
    Language: English

    Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

    Workshop 2
    We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
    With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
    Language: German

    What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

    Workshop 3
    Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
    With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
    Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
    Language: German

    The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

    13.00–15.00
    Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
    - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
    - Library of other work
    - Chill out in the park

      17.00
      Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

      Biographies

      andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

      Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

      Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

      Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

      Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

      Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

      Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

      Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


      SUNDAY, 18.6.

      The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
      For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

      11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

      Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

      To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

      13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

      13.00–15.00
      Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
      - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
      - Library of other work
      - Chill out in the park

      15.00
      Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

      Biographies

      Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

      Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

      Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

      Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

      Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

      Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

      Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

      Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
      https://tanznetzdresden.de
      https://www.goplasticcompany.de
      https://www.tenza.de

      Romy Schwarzer studied Stage Dance in Cologne and New York and Choreography in Berlin. She has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer since 2007, most recently at Staatstheater Cottbus, for Marta Gornicka on the project ‘Chorus of Women’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and for Felix Landerer’s company on the format SHORTS, Hannover. She has worked regularly for the SINTkollektiv since 2020 and been a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of the guts company, Dresden since 2021.

      www.thegutscompany.net

      Ulrike Seybold is Chief Executive of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. She was previously a member of the team in charge of the Landesverband Freier Theater in Lower Saxony. Since 2015 she has also been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste. In these roles she advises both artists and funding bodies, serves on numerous panels and supports the continued advancement of structures within the independent performing arts. Before she worked for these organisations, for many years she was a freelance production manager and publicist, working on numerous cultural and theatrical projects. She studied Journalism, History and Political Sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum and completed a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management in Neuss while simultaneously working as a journalist for outlets including the taz and WDR.

      Ina Stock trained as an oboist, specialising in period instruments. New music, pop and jazz also feature in her biography. She lectures on the oboe for Cologne University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She has chaired the professional association Alte Musik NRW since 2012 and recently became Vice-Chair of ver.di NRW’s specialist group on Music and a board member of the corresponding nationwide specialist group. She participated in drafting ver.di’s recommendations on basic fees.

      11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
      FIGURING AGE
      Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

      A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

      09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

      + Talk

      12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

      SOLD OUT

      14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

      SOLD OUT

      K20, Grabbe Halle
      Language: English

      INSTALLATION:
      8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
      The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

      Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

      11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

      © Andreas Bolm
      © Andreas Bolm
      © Andreas Bolm
      © Andreas Bolm

      Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

      Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


      “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
      Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

      Credits

      Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
      Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
      Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
      Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
      Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
      Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
      English Translation: David Robert Evans
      Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

      Production

      With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
      A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
      FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

      Biographies

      The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
      Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

      Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

      13:00 – 17:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Workshop-Programm (Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

      The independent performing arts beyond growth
      15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

      Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

      Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

      Language: German and English
      Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

      For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
      Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

      Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

      © Ingo Solms
      © Minkyou Yoo
      © Björn Stork

      ACADEMY programme

      The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


      THURSDAY, 15.6.

      The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
      For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

      11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

      Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

      The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

      13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

      13.00–15.00
      Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
      - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
      - Library of other work
      - Chill out in the park

        15.00–17.00
        Introductions in the workshop groups

        17.00
        Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

        Biographies

        Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

        Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

        Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

        Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

        Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

        Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

        Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


        FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


        For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

        10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

        10:00–13:00
        Work in the workshops 1–3

        Workshop 1
        Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
        With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
        Language: English

        Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

        Workshop 2
        We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
        With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
        Language: German

        What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

        Workshop 3
        Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
        With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
        Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
        Language: German

        The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

        13.00–15.00
        Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
        - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
        - Library of other work
        - Chill out in the park

          17.00
          Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

          Biographies

          andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

          Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

          Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

          Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

          Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

          Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

          Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

          Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


          SUNDAY, 18.6.

          The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
          For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

          11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

          Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

          To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

          13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

          13.00–15.00
          Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
          - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
          - Library of other work
          - Chill out in the park

          15.00
          Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

          Biographies

          Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

          Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

          Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

          Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

          Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

          Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

          Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

          Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
          https://tanznetzdresden.de
          https://www.goplasticcompany.de
          https://www.tenza.de

          Romy Schwarzer studied Stage Dance in Cologne and New York and Choreography in Berlin. She has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer since 2007, most recently at Staatstheater Cottbus, for Marta Gornicka on the project ‘Chorus of Women’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and for Felix Landerer’s company on the format SHORTS, Hannover. She has worked regularly for the SINTkollektiv since 2020 and been a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of the guts company, Dresden since 2021.

          www.thegutscompany.net

          Ulrike Seybold is Chief Executive of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. She was previously a member of the team in charge of the Landesverband Freier Theater in Lower Saxony. Since 2015 she has also been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste. In these roles she advises both artists and funding bodies, serves on numerous panels and supports the continued advancement of structures within the independent performing arts. Before she worked for these organisations, for many years she was a freelance production manager and publicist, working on numerous cultural and theatrical projects. She studied Journalism, History and Political Sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum and completed a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management in Neuss while simultaneously working as a journalist for outlets including the taz and WDR.

          Ina Stock trained as an oboist, specialising in period instruments. New music, pop and jazz also feature in her biography. She lectures on the oboe for Cologne University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She has chaired the professional association Alte Musik NRW since 2012 and recently became Vice-Chair of ver.di NRW’s specialist group on Music and a board member of the corresponding nationwide specialist group. She participated in drafting ver.di’s recommendations on basic fees.

          18:30 – 20:10, Showcase Absent.e pour le moment
          VIELLEICHT
          + interaction FFT Düsseldorf

          Street names form a collective history. Cédric Djedje and Safi Martin Yé report on the 40-year struggle to re-name three streets in Berlin’s “African Quarter”. Video interviews with activists, stories of historic events and personal experiences coalesce into a clear political message.

          15.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

          no tickets available at the moment

          16.06., 18:30–20:10 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

          no tickets available at the moment

          FFT Düsseldorf
          Language: French with German and English surtitles

          15.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences in English with the artists and activists of the Arbeitskreis Düsseldorf postkolonial. Chaired by Wilma Renfordt, Impulse Theater Festival

          © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
          © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
          © Dorothée Thébert Filliger

          The “African Quarter” was not so called to honour its African residents, but because it was where the German dream of becoming a major colonial power manifested itself in 25 street names. Here you will find Kameruner Straße and Togostraße – and until 2022 there were also three streets named after the founders of German colonies. Activists fought for decades to have them renamed after African resistance leaders.

          Djedje and Yé talk on a video link to activists who tell them about the colonisers and about Cornelius Fredericks and the Manga Bell family, after whom two of the streets are now named. Djedje, who is himself French with Ivorian roots, describes his research in Berlin, dancing in its clubs and an online date who only wants to meet him because he is Black. To him, Berlin seems like a mirror, holding his Blackness up in front of his eyes.

          “Berlin is a city of selective memory,” one activist in the video says. There are no monuments to remind us of German colonial crimes and the resistance to them. African reality is ignored. ‘Maybe’ confidently puts it on stage.


          “One can only be impressed by this committed production, which is very well researched and constructed. A strong and political performance that avoids blame – except for those who were truly guilty – enabling us to think so much more deeply about the problems it deals with.”
          Fabien Imhof, La Pépinière, 3.11.2022

          Credits

          This project was made possible by all the activists who contributed to its research phase and who shared their knowledge, their experiences and their dreams.
          Direction: Absent.e pour le moment
          Concept: Cédric Djedje
          Performers: Cédric Djedje, Safi Martin Yé
          Dramaturgy: Noémi Michel
          Outside Eyes: Diane Muller, Ludovic Chazaud
          Writers: Ludovic Chazaud, Noémi Michel
          Stage Design: Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Consultant: Marco Ievoli
          Stage Construction: Atelier construction Vidy
          Choreography: Ivan Larson
          Sound Design, Composition: Ka(ra)mi
          Sound and Video Management: Sebastien Baudet
          Costume Design, Kanga Maker: Tara Mabiala
          Costume Maker: Eva Michel
          Graphic Design: Claudia Ndebele
          Lighting Design: Léo Garcia, Consultant: Joana Oliveira
          Light Management: Nidea Henriques
          Video: Valeria Stucki
          Transcriptions: Eva Michel, Bel Kerkhoff-Parnell, Orfeo, Janyce Djedje
          Surtitle operator: Diane Muller
          Production Manager: Lionel Perrinjaquet, Tutu Production

          Production

          A production by Absent.e pour le moment, Le Grütli – Centre de production et de diffusion des Arts Vivants, Lausanne and Théâtre Vidy Lausanne. With funding from the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the State of Geneva, Loterie Romande, the City of Geneva’s Agenda21, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fondation Leenaards, the Porosus Endowment Fund, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, the SSA – Société Suisse des Auteurs, the Jan Michalski Foundation, the Migros Cultural Percentage and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.

          Biographies

          The company Absent.e pour le moment was founded in Geneva in 2020 by Cédric Djedje (actor and creator of projects living between Geneva and Berlin). Its approach is based on the collective creation of multidisciplinary performances. The artists seek to question and experiment with different ways of creating a community from the perspective of black and postcolonial critical theories. The company aims to denaturalize the political relations and expose the power relations that underlie the construction of historical narratives in postcolonial European spaces. Through its use of field investigations, it seeks to examine the repercussions of the colonial moment on what we consider to be our daily life, on what often surrounds us unchallenged and yet shapes our individual and collective identities. Their method is conceived as a play machine that combines stage writing, dance and performance with critical academic disciplines. Absent.e pour le moment creates a political and playful art in which the desire to move on becomes irresistible: a political art that looks for movements in which the joy of minoritized peoples and their ability to be seen create spaces for acting and words that offer temporary refuge – not only for minoritized peoples but for everyone.

          21:00 – 22:50, Showcase Jan Philipp Stange & Company
          SZENARIO
          with interval Central / D'haus

          The most important genre of contemporary art is the funding application. In ‘SZENARIO’, this becomes the absurd book for a musical. Four forestry workers in a snowy landscape sing about “activities to achieve their objectives,” their “budget for funding and costs” and their individual struggles with work, poverty and personal fulfilment.

          15.06., 21:00–22:50 Ticket Schedule

          with interval

          17.06., 21:00–22:50 Ticket Schedule

          with interval

          Central / D’haus
          Language: German, a handout is available in English

          17.6., 20:00 Haptic tour for blind and visually disabled persons in German with Sylvie Ebelt, audio descriptor, and Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival. See here for detailed information or contact us at barrierefreiheit[a]impulsefestival.de.

          © Christian Schuller
          © Christian Schuller
          © Christian Schuller
          © Christian Schuller
          © Christian Schuller

          Enthusiastic self-exploitation now happens everywhere. But artists started it. From their dream of being able to identify themselves with their own work, capitalism has created an image of the paid employee as a lone warrior who bears all the entrepreneurial risks personally. Including the insecurity this brings with it. – This is one of the theses in SZENARIO, which the performers present in song form.

          Nevertheless, art remains estranged from other worlds of work: “I don’t know, do people still make screws?” asks one of the singers to jolly music while struggling with a fir tree that blocks his way through the snow.

          What is work? Does it make any sense? With humour and subtle irony, the production places a reflection of labour relations in a neoliberal, capitalist system on stage that is at least as beautiful to watch as a Christmas fairy tale.


          “The evening switches between good cheer, bitter irony, ice-cold clarity and justifiable mawkishness to provide excellent and intelligent entertainment.”
          Ursula Böhmer, Deutschlandfunk Musikjournal, 21.11.2022

          Credits

          With: Ana Berkenhoff, Daniel Degeest, Alina Huppertz, Dominik Keggenhoff plus Jakob Boyny (cello), Jacob Bussmann (piano) and Špela Mastnak (vibraphone & percussion)

          Direction: Jan Philipp Stange
          Music: Jacob Bussmann
          Stage Design: Jakob Engel
          Costume Design: Maylin Habig
          Production: Alessia Neumann, Paula Noack
          Dramaturgy: Philipp Scholtysik
          Stage Design Assistant: Kathrin Frech
          Press and Public Relations: Annika Schmidt

          Production

          A production by Stange Produktionen. In co-operation with Produktionshaus Naxos. With kind support from the City of Frankfurt am Main Department of Culture, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Kulturfonds Rhein-Main, the Claussen-Simon Foundation, the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts, and others.
          Stange Produktionen receives multi-year institutional funding from the City of Frankfurt am Main Department of Culture and the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

          Friday, 16.6.
          10:00 – 17:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Workshop-Programm (Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

          The independent performing arts beyond growth
          15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

          Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

          Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

          Language: German and English
          Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

          For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
          Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

          Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

          © Ingo Solms
          © Minkyou Yoo
          © Björn Stork

          ACADEMY programme

          The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


          THURSDAY, 15.6.

          The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
          For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

          11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

          Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

          The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

          13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

          13.00–15.00
          Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
          - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
          - Library of other work
          - Chill out in the park

            15.00–17.00
            Introductions in the workshop groups

            17.00
            Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

            Biographies

            Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

            Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

            Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

            Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

            Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

            Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

            Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


            FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


            For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

            10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

            10:00–13:00
            Work in the workshops 1–3

            Workshop 1
            Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
            With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
            Language: English

            Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

            Workshop 2
            We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
            With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
            Language: German

            What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

            Workshop 3
            Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
            With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
            Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
            Language: German

            The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

            13.00–15.00
            Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
            - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
            - Library of other work
            - Chill out in the park

              17.00
              Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

              Biographies

              andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

              Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

              Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

              Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

              Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

              Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

              Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

              Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


              SUNDAY, 18.6.

              The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
              For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

              11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

              Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

              To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

              13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

              13.00–15.00
              Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
              - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
              - Library of other work
              - Chill out in the park

              15.00
              Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

              Biographies

              Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

              Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

              Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

              Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

              Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

              Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

              Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

              Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
              https://tanznetzdresden.de
              https://www.goplasticcompany.de
              https://www.tenza.de

              Romy Schwarzer studied Stage Dance in Cologne and New York and Choreography in Berlin. She has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer since 2007, most recently at Staatstheater Cottbus, for Marta Gornicka on the project ‘Chorus of Women’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and for Felix Landerer’s company on the format SHORTS, Hannover. She has worked regularly for the SINTkollektiv since 2020 and been a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of the guts company, Dresden since 2021.

              www.thegutscompany.net

              Ulrike Seybold is Chief Executive of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. She was previously a member of the team in charge of the Landesverband Freier Theater in Lower Saxony. Since 2015 she has also been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste. In these roles she advises both artists and funding bodies, serves on numerous panels and supports the continued advancement of structures within the independent performing arts. Before she worked for these organisations, for many years she was a freelance production manager and publicist, working on numerous cultural and theatrical projects. She studied Journalism, History and Political Sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum and completed a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management in Neuss while simultaneously working as a journalist for outlets including the taz and WDR.

              Ina Stock trained as an oboist, specialising in period instruments. New music, pop and jazz also feature in her biography. She lectures on the oboe for Cologne University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She has chaired the professional association Alte Musik NRW since 2012 and recently became Vice-Chair of ver.di NRW’s specialist group on Music and a board member of the corresponding nationwide specialist group. She participated in drafting ver.di’s recommendations on basic fees.

              11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              FIGURING AGE
              Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

              A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

              09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

              + Talk

              12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

              SOLD OUT

              14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

              SOLD OUT

              K20, Grabbe Halle
              Language: English

              INSTALLATION:
              8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
              The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

              Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

              11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm

              Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

              Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


              “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
              Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

              Credits

              Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
              Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
              Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
              Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
              English Translation: David Robert Evans
              Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

              Production

              With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
              A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
              FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

              Biographies

              The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
              Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

              Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

              18:00 – 19:15, City project Turbo Pascal
              UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
              Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

              A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

              09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

              School performance

              13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

              School performance

              14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

              School performance

              14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

              School performance

              15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

              School performance

              16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

              PERFORMANCES:
              Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

              ADDITIONAL DATES:
              Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
              11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
              18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

              UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
              UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
              UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

              Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

              The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

              UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

              Credits

              Concept: Turbo Pascal
              By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
              Design: Janina Janke
              Music: Friedrich Greiling
              Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
              Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
              Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

              Production

              A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

              18:00 – 19:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              FIGURING AGE
              Performance K20, Grabbe Halle

              A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

              09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

              + Talk

              12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

              SOLD OUT

              14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

              SOLD OUT

              K20, Grabbe Halle
              Language: English

              INSTALLATION:
              8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
              The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

              Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

              11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm
              © Andreas Bolm

              Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

              Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


              “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
              Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

              Credits

              Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
              Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
              Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
              Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
              Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
              English Translation: David Robert Evans
              Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

              Production

              With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
              A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
              FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

              Biographies

              The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
              Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

              Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

              18:30 – 20:10, Showcase Absent.e pour le moment
              VIELLEICHT
              FFT Düsseldorf

              Street names form a collective history. Cédric Djedje and Safi Martin Yé report on the 40-year struggle to re-name three streets in Berlin’s “African Quarter”. Video interviews with activists, stories of historic events and personal experiences coalesce into a clear political message.

              15.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

              no tickets available at the moment

              16.06., 18:30–20:10 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

              no tickets available at the moment

              FFT Düsseldorf
              Language: French with German and English surtitles

              15.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences in English with the artists and activists of the Arbeitskreis Düsseldorf postkolonial. Chaired by Wilma Renfordt, Impulse Theater Festival

              © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
              © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
              © Dorothée Thébert Filliger

              The “African Quarter” was not so called to honour its African residents, but because it was where the German dream of becoming a major colonial power manifested itself in 25 street names. Here you will find Kameruner Straße and Togostraße – and until 2022 there were also three streets named after the founders of German colonies. Activists fought for decades to have them renamed after African resistance leaders.

              Djedje and Yé talk on a video link to activists who tell them about the colonisers and about Cornelius Fredericks and the Manga Bell family, after whom two of the streets are now named. Djedje, who is himself French with Ivorian roots, describes his research in Berlin, dancing in its clubs and an online date who only wants to meet him because he is Black. To him, Berlin seems like a mirror, holding his Blackness up in front of his eyes.

              “Berlin is a city of selective memory,” one activist in the video says. There are no monuments to remind us of German colonial crimes and the resistance to them. African reality is ignored. ‘Maybe’ confidently puts it on stage.


              “One can only be impressed by this committed production, which is very well researched and constructed. A strong and political performance that avoids blame – except for those who were truly guilty – enabling us to think so much more deeply about the problems it deals with.”
              Fabien Imhof, La Pépinière, 3.11.2022

              Credits

              This project was made possible by all the activists who contributed to its research phase and who shared their knowledge, their experiences and their dreams.
              Direction: Absent.e pour le moment
              Concept: Cédric Djedje
              Performers: Cédric Djedje, Safi Martin Yé
              Dramaturgy: Noémi Michel
              Outside Eyes: Diane Muller, Ludovic Chazaud
              Writers: Ludovic Chazaud, Noémi Michel
              Stage Design: Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Consultant: Marco Ievoli
              Stage Construction: Atelier construction Vidy
              Choreography: Ivan Larson
              Sound Design, Composition: Ka(ra)mi
              Sound and Video Management: Sebastien Baudet
              Costume Design, Kanga Maker: Tara Mabiala
              Costume Maker: Eva Michel
              Graphic Design: Claudia Ndebele
              Lighting Design: Léo Garcia, Consultant: Joana Oliveira
              Light Management: Nidea Henriques
              Video: Valeria Stucki
              Transcriptions: Eva Michel, Bel Kerkhoff-Parnell, Orfeo, Janyce Djedje
              Surtitle operator: Diane Muller
              Production Manager: Lionel Perrinjaquet, Tutu Production

              Production

              A production by Absent.e pour le moment, Le Grütli – Centre de production et de diffusion des Arts Vivants, Lausanne and Théâtre Vidy Lausanne. With funding from the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the State of Geneva, Loterie Romande, the City of Geneva’s Agenda21, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fondation Leenaards, the Porosus Endowment Fund, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, the SSA – Société Suisse des Auteurs, the Jan Michalski Foundation, the Migros Cultural Percentage and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.

              Biographies

              The company Absent.e pour le moment was founded in Geneva in 2020 by Cédric Djedje (actor and creator of projects living between Geneva and Berlin). Its approach is based on the collective creation of multidisciplinary performances. The artists seek to question and experiment with different ways of creating a community from the perspective of black and postcolonial critical theories. The company aims to denaturalize the political relations and expose the power relations that underlie the construction of historical narratives in postcolonial European spaces. Through its use of field investigations, it seeks to examine the repercussions of the colonial moment on what we consider to be our daily life, on what often surrounds us unchallenged and yet shapes our individual and collective identities. Their method is conceived as a play machine that combines stage writing, dance and performance with critical academic disciplines. Absent.e pour le moment creates a political and playful art in which the desire to move on becomes irresistible: a political art that looks for movements in which the joy of minoritized peoples and their ability to be seen create spaces for acting and words that offer temporary refuge – not only for minoritized peoples but for everyone.

              20:00 – 20:45, Showcase Oliver Zahn
              STEINERNE GÄSTE
              tanzhaus nrw

              On stage the artist can be seen with an empty podium. Orphaned plinths like this are the subject of ‘STEINERNE GÄSTE’ which is concerned with the afterlife of toppled statues – after they have fallen, are they genuinely gone? A production that shifts between a sober lecture and bombastic opera music.

              16.06., 20:00–20:45 Ticket Schedule

              tanzhaus nrw
              Language: German, a handout is available in English

              © David Baltzer
              © David Baltzer
              © David Baltzer

              Oliver Zahn tells of the toppled statues of colonial masters and generals, about Lenin’s head and the eagle at the entrance to Tempelhof airport. They are cut up, buried, dug up again, smelted down, misappropriated as building materials, hidden and, not infrequently, put back up again. What happens to monuments after they have fallen reveals a great deal about the societies that wish to dispose of them – and often produces unintended metaphors that are absurdly comical.

              The initial idea for the production came from Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’, whose music is repeatedly heard here. In the opera, the eponymous hero is stalked by the statue of a man that he murdered. Is the ghost real or a manic projection on the part of the perpetrator? In the theatre, stage fog rolls across the empty plinth. Who or what do we believe we can see in these elusive forms? What is clear is that the ghost will not be gone as long as the plinth is standing.


              “A ghost train ride through the world of toppled monuments.”
              Oliver Kranz, RBB Kultur, 24.2.2022

              Credits

              By and with: Oliver Zahn
              Dramaturgy: Felizitas Stilleke
              Technical Direction: Dennis Dieter Kopp
              Artistic Producer: Martina Neu

              Production

              An Oliver Zahn production in co-production with the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

              Biographies

              Dennis Dieter Kopp studied Theatre, Media and Literature at the University of Hildesheim. He worked there as a freelance lighting designer and technician with an additional dramaturgical role on the student festival State of the Art and on numerous theatre productions. Since 2016 he has worked as a touring technician and Technical Director for the independent company HAUPTAKTION (Hannah Saar, Julian Warner, Oliver Zahn et al.), in particular on ‘Situation mit Doppelgänger’. He has taken this role for Thermoboy FK since 2015 for productions including ‘La Casa’ (2014). As a member of and performer with cobragianni.cobra he has been responsible for ‘Let Me Be the Object of Your Desire’ (2012) and ‘EIN BISSCHEN MEHR MUSS MAN SCHON SEHEN oder: Wie ich mich in einen Schmetterling verwandelte’ (2017). His artistic practice is primarily concerned with issues of critical research into masculinity and the search for queer, feminist and intersectional perspectives. Dennis Dieter Kopp currently works as Technical Director for the Brecht Festival.

              Felizitas Stilleke is a freelance dramaturg, artist and curator. She works as a festival dramaturg (Berlin Theatertreffen 2018, Impulse Theater Festival 2017 and FAVORITEN 2014 as Co-Director) and directs performance conferences, such as Branchentreff 2019–2021 and B.A.L.L. 2022, as well as working as a production dramaturg in Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Zurich and the Netherlands. She holds a B.A. in German Literature/Narrative Studies from Bochum and an M.A. in Cultural Poetics from the University of Münster. In 2020 she started a series of podcast sessions at Ballhaus Ost entitled ‘The Mother in Me is the Mother in You’, in which she readdressed the discourse around the issue of not/not yet/no longer/perhaps/becoming a mother in conversation with friends. In all her work she is concerned and motivated by the search for radical intersectional/feminist change and the cultivation of collective knowledge.

              Oliver Zahn (*1989) is a theatre-maker and performer. His choreographic-discursive performance essays often revolve around the writing of history, the politics of memory, collective remembrance and intangible knowledge. These are always based on extensive research – ethnographic, archive-based and experimenting on his own body. In addition to ‘STEINERNE GÄSTE’, his recent works include ‘LOB DES VERGESSENS, Parts 1+2’, ‘RUINEN’ and ‘BERGENTRÜCKUNG’.

              21:00 – 22:45, Showcase Nicoleta Esinencu
              SINFONIE DES FORTSCHRITTS
              + interaction FFT Düsseldorf

              Picking cucumbers, delivering packages, cleaning bloody abattoirs – three performers tell of people from Eastern Europe working in the West under degrading conditions. Repurposed jigsaws and cordless drills create the carpet of sound for this spoken concert.

              16.06., 21:00–22:45 Ticket Schedule

              + interaction

              FFT Düsseldorf
              Language: Moldovan Romanian, Russian and English with German and English surtitles

              16.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences at the bar

              © Marc Dordazillo
              © Marc Dordazillo
              © Ramin Mazur

              Two Moldovan students have repurposed their tools as musical instruments. They hope they will soon find jobs abroad. This frames the performance: in between beeps, creaks and sounds of the spheres, it focusses on the lie of progress, which is supposed to create social justice, prosperity and a good life for all, but in truth constantly produces new forms of exploitation and control.

              The performers tell stories such as that of the Eastern European student who delivers packages for Amazon in Düsseldorf – for 10,50 Euro per hour gross and with the dispatcher on his back, phoning to tell him he is 20 stops behind. Who hardly has time to eat or go to the toilet. They tell of people whose work is essential to maintaining the comfort zone of the West – but who get mistreated and abused for doing it.

              These reports from the world of work alternate with exercises that blame society’s problem on the individual; “Be your best self,” the performer murmurs from the stage. “It’s your choice: piss in a bottle or piss yourself.” This is the new freedom – for the Amazon driver and for many others. ‘SINFONIE DES FORTSCHRITTS’ dissects Western double standards in a cutting and humorous manner.


              “Painfully good.”
              Doris Meierhenrich, Berliner Zeitung, 16.1.2022

              Credits

              By: Nicoleta Esinencu, teatru-spălătorie
              Performers: Nicoleta Esinencu, Artiom Zavadovsky, Doriana Talmazan, Kira Semionov, Nora Dorogan, Oana Cirpanu
              Technical Development: Iulian Lungu, Neonil Rosça
              Technician: Sergiu Iachimov
              Production Managers: Jana Penz
              Artistic Consultant: Aenne Quiñones
              Technical Direction HAU: Annette Becker
              Sound HAU: Janis Klinkhammer
              Lighting HAU: Lea Schneidermann
              Translation Moldovan Romanian to German: Eva Ruth Wemme
              Translation Moldovan Romanian to English: Artiom Zavadovsky
              Translation Russian to German: Yvonne Griesel
              Translation Russian to English: Artiom Zavadovsky

              Production

              A production by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin and teatru-spălătorie. A co-production by FFT Düsseldorf, HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden, Theater Rampe, Stuttgart, Festival Theaterformen, Hanover. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through the Alliance of International Production Houses.

              Biography

              Nicoleta Esinencu lives and works as a writer and director in Chișinău, in the Republic of Moldova. Her radical plays are performed internationally. In 2010 she co-founded the alternative political artistic space teatru-spălătorie in Chișinău. Since the theatre’s enforced closure in 2017, the women’s collective teatru-spălătorie continues its work without its own venue.

              Saturday, 17.6.
              Showcase Open End with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina Theatermuseum

              8.6., 22:00
              FFT Düsseldorf
              OPEN END with DJ Noushin and Mindj Panther
              Noushin Redjaian, the costume designer of JUSTITIA! Identity Cases transforms into DJ Noushin, and the performer Sandra Selimović turns into Mindj Panther. Musical spheres such as soca, hip-hop, R’n’B and dub meet a live political rap act. The ‘Identity Cases’ go on.

              9.6., 22:00
              “Secret Location” to be disclosed at the festival
              OPEN END with subbotnik (EXPECT A TIGER) and the Gravity Bar by Rotterdam Presenta feat. DJ Desperate Houseman
              subbotnik and Rotterdam Presenta lie cosily side by side at our “secret location.” While subbotnik await you with a live music act, Rotterdam Presenta will open up their Gravity Bar in the middle of a building site to serve drinks and tunes of all flavours. Gravity says: Drop the hammer wherever you’re standing!

              10.6., 23:00
              Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
              OPEN END with ÇAKEY BRÜNETT

              Tradition tells us this is one duo Impulse cannot do without. Çakey Blond may be taking a creative break but their drag alter egos ÇAKEY BRÜNETT are going to throw a drama party. Minti von Monaco and Wilhelmine Wollnwamal sweeten the evening at the Theatermuseum with the best cover versions of their young lives. Let’s drama, baby!

              15.6., 22:00
              WP8
              OPEN END with Henrike Iglesias

              After being on stage at the FFT the night before, on Thursday Henrike Iglesias take over the turntables at WP8. An evening that’s like a magic ball, simply bursting with musical miracles!

              17.6., 22:00
              Theatermuseum, Jägerhofstrasse 1, 40479 Düsseldorf
              OPEN END with Impulse-DJs + DJ Romano Soresina

              A balmy summer night, cool drinks and chilled music. On the edge of the Hofgarten, the Impulse DJs along with Romano Soresina crown the end of the SHOWCASE in fitting style in the august halls of the Theatermuseum.

              18.6., ab 15:00
              Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz
              OPEN END/ABSCHLUSS with Kidical Mass Cologne, Turbo Pascal, a surprise band and roller disco with DJ Sveamaus
              Before the lights finally go out in our UPSIDE DOWN WORLD, for one afternoon at the end of our CITY PROJECT, the dodgem rink turns into a roller disco. Roller skates are available for hire at the venue.

              10:00 – 17:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Workshop-Programm (Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

              The independent performing arts beyond growth
              15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

              Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

              Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

              Language: German and English
              Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

              For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
              Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

              Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

              © Ingo Solms
              © Minkyou Yoo
              © Björn Stork

              ACADEMY programme

              The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


              THURSDAY, 15.6.

              The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
              For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

              11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

              Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

              The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

              13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

              13.00–15.00
              Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
              - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
              - Library of other work
              - Chill out in the park

                15.00–17.00
                Introductions in the workshop groups

                17.00
                Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                Biographies

                Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

                Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

                Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

                Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

                Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

                Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


                FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


                For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

                10:00–13:00
                Work in the workshops 1–3

                Workshop 1
                Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
                With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
                Language: English

                Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

                Workshop 2
                We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
                With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
                Language: German

                What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

                Workshop 3
                Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
                With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
                Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
                Language: German

                The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

                13.00–15.00
                Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                - Library of other work
                - Chill out in the park

                  17.00
                  Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                  Biographies

                  andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

                  Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

                  Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

                  Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

                  Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                  Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

                  Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

                  Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


                  SUNDAY, 18.6.

                  The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
                  For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                  11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

                  Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

                  To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

                  13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

                  13.00–15.00
                  Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                  - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                  - Library of other work
                  - Chill out in the park

                  15.00
                  Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

                  Biographies

                  Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

                  Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                  Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

                  Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

                  Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

                  Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

                  Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

                  Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
                  https://tanznetzdresden.de
                  https://www.goplasticcompany.de
                  https://www.tenza.de

                  Romy Schwarzer studied Stage Dance in Cologne and New York and Choreography in Berlin. She has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer since 2007, most recently at Staatstheater Cottbus, for Marta Gornicka on the project ‘Chorus of Women’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and for Felix Landerer’s company on the format SHORTS, Hannover. She has worked regularly for the SINTkollektiv since 2020 and been a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of the guts company, Dresden since 2021.

                  www.thegutscompany.net

                  Ulrike Seybold is Chief Executive of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. She was previously a member of the team in charge of the Landesverband Freier Theater in Lower Saxony. Since 2015 she has also been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste. In these roles she advises both artists and funding bodies, serves on numerous panels and supports the continued advancement of structures within the independent performing arts. Before she worked for these organisations, for many years she was a freelance production manager and publicist, working on numerous cultural and theatrical projects. She studied Journalism, History and Political Sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum and completed a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management in Neuss while simultaneously working as a journalist for outlets including the taz and WDR.

                  Ina Stock trained as an oboist, specialising in period instruments. New music, pop and jazz also feature in her biography. She lectures on the oboe for Cologne University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She has chaired the professional association Alte Musik NRW since 2012 and recently became Vice-Chair of ver.di NRW’s specialist group on Music and a board member of the corresponding nationwide specialist group. She participated in drafting ver.di’s recommendations on basic fees.

                  11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  FIGURING AGE
                  Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

                  A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

                  09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

                  + Talk

                  12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

                  SOLD OUT

                  14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

                  SOLD OUT

                  K20, Grabbe Halle
                  Language: English

                  INSTALLATION:
                  8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
                  The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

                  Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

                  11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm

                  Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

                  Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


                  “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
                  Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

                  Credits

                  Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
                  Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
                  Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
                  Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
                  English Translation: David Robert Evans
                  Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

                  Production

                  With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
                  A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
                  FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

                  Biographies

                  The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
                  Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

                  Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

                  14:00 – 15:15, City project Turbo Pascal
                  UPSIDE DOWN WORLD
                  Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Ottoplatz, Bahnhof Köln Messe/Deutz (station)

                  A space of confrontation on a dodgem track for everyone aged 10 and over

                  09.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 16:00–17:15 Ticket Schedule 13.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

                  School performance

                  13.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

                  School performance

                  14.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

                  School performance

                  14.06., 12:00–13:15 Ticket Schedule

                  School performance

                  15.06., 10:00–11:15 Ticket Schedule

                  School performance

                  16.06., 18:00–19:15 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 14:00–15:15 Ticket Schedule

                  PERFORMANCES:
                  Entry is free of charge, but tickets must be reserved in advance: Please write an email to vvk[a]comedia-koeln.de.

                  ADDITIONAL DATES:
                  Entry free of charge, no reservation required.
                  11.6., 12:00–16:00: Family Sunday
                  18.6., from 15:00: Finale: Kidical Mass Cologne, surprise band, roller disco with DJ Sveamaus

                  UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
                  UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke
                  UPSIDE DOWN WORLD © Robin Junicke

                  Cologne has three cars for every child. And that number is going up. As traffic participants, children are primarily potential accident victims. They need flashing lights in order not to be run over. Because road traffic is designed first and foremost for cars to get where they want to go: “Pedestrians must cross the carriageway by the shortest route possible” (§ 25 Road Traffic Regulations). Traffic is a system conceived and designed by adult men. Here it should be noted that girls have a markedly smaller range of movement than boys and the difference between them increases progressively as children get older.

                  The performance group Turbo Pascal will open an “upside down world” in the middle of Cologne. This is a dodgem car rink with no cars, a playful space of confrontation, an open area to have fun on the move and somewhere to practice the city of tomorrow. Children, and adults too, are invited to join Turbo Pascal to think about traffic as it is now, gather ideas for a different tomorrow and to try these out with loads of action in the dodgem rink: what do you experience on your way through the city, on foot, by bike, on a tram, a bus, or in car? When is it dangerous? And do you like the rules for road traffic? What might new rules look like?

                  UPSIDE DOWN WORLD is both a game and an appeal: for different road traffic regulations, where priority is not always given to those who are bigger, faster or more dominant.

                  Credits

                  Concept: Turbo Pascal
                  By and with: Bettina Grahs, Angela Löer, Eva Plischke, Margret Schütz
                  Design: Janina Janke
                  Music: Friedrich Greiling
                  Assistent Design: Dilara Göksügür
                  Assistant Director: Philipp Birkmann
                  Production Manager: Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz / xplusdrei

                  Production

                  A co-production of Impulse Theater Festival, Turbo Pascal and COMEDIA Theater, Cologne in association with studiobühneköln. With academic support from the Department of Art and Music at the University of Cologne. Funded by the programme Jupiter – Performing Arts for young audiences by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The CITY PROJECT is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.

                  17:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  FIGURING AGE
                  Performance K20, Grabbe Halle

                  A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

                  09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

                  + Talk

                  12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

                  SOLD OUT

                  14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

                  SOLD OUT

                  K20, Grabbe Halle
                  Language: English

                  INSTALLATION:
                  8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
                  The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

                  Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

                  11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm
                  © Andreas Bolm

                  Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

                  Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


                  “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
                  Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

                  Credits

                  Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
                  Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
                  Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
                  Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                  Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
                  English Translation: David Robert Evans
                  Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

                  Production

                  With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
                  A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
                  FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

                  Biographies

                  The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
                  Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

                  Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

                  18:30 – 20:10, Showcase Absent.e pour le moment
                  VIELLEICHT
                  FFT Düsseldorf

                  Street names form a collective history. Cédric Djedje and Safi Martin Yé report on the 40-year struggle to re-name three streets in Berlin’s “African Quarter”. Video interviews with activists, stories of historic events and personal experiences coalesce into a clear political message.

                  15.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

                  no tickets available at the moment

                  16.06., 18:30–20:10 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 18:30–20:10 Schedule

                  no tickets available at the moment

                  FFT Düsseldorf
                  Language: French with German and English surtitles

                  15.6. after the show: Exchange of experiences in English with the artists and activists of the Arbeitskreis Düsseldorf postkolonial. Chaired by Wilma Renfordt, Impulse Theater Festival

                  © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
                  © Dorothée Thébert Filliger
                  © Dorothée Thébert Filliger

                  The “African Quarter” was not so called to honour its African residents, but because it was where the German dream of becoming a major colonial power manifested itself in 25 street names. Here you will find Kameruner Straße and Togostraße – and until 2022 there were also three streets named after the founders of German colonies. Activists fought for decades to have them renamed after African resistance leaders.

                  Djedje and Yé talk on a video link to activists who tell them about the colonisers and about Cornelius Fredericks and the Manga Bell family, after whom two of the streets are now named. Djedje, who is himself French with Ivorian roots, describes his research in Berlin, dancing in its clubs and an online date who only wants to meet him because he is Black. To him, Berlin seems like a mirror, holding his Blackness up in front of his eyes.

                  “Berlin is a city of selective memory,” one activist in the video says. There are no monuments to remind us of German colonial crimes and the resistance to them. African reality is ignored. ‘Maybe’ confidently puts it on stage.


                  “One can only be impressed by this committed production, which is very well researched and constructed. A strong and political performance that avoids blame – except for those who were truly guilty – enabling us to think so much more deeply about the problems it deals with.”
                  Fabien Imhof, La Pépinière, 3.11.2022

                  Credits

                  This project was made possible by all the activists who contributed to its research phase and who shared their knowledge, their experiences and their dreams.
                  Direction: Absent.e pour le moment
                  Concept: Cédric Djedje
                  Performers: Cédric Djedje, Safi Martin Yé
                  Dramaturgy: Noémi Michel
                  Outside Eyes: Diane Muller, Ludovic Chazaud
                  Writers: Ludovic Chazaud, Noémi Michel
                  Stage Design: Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Consultant: Marco Ievoli
                  Stage Construction: Atelier construction Vidy
                  Choreography: Ivan Larson
                  Sound Design, Composition: Ka(ra)mi
                  Sound and Video Management: Sebastien Baudet
                  Costume Design, Kanga Maker: Tara Mabiala
                  Costume Maker: Eva Michel
                  Graphic Design: Claudia Ndebele
                  Lighting Design: Léo Garcia, Consultant: Joana Oliveira
                  Light Management: Nidea Henriques
                  Video: Valeria Stucki
                  Transcriptions: Eva Michel, Bel Kerkhoff-Parnell, Orfeo, Janyce Djedje
                  Surtitle operator: Diane Muller
                  Production Manager: Lionel Perrinjaquet, Tutu Production

                  Production

                  A production by Absent.e pour le moment, Le Grütli – Centre de production et de diffusion des Arts Vivants, Lausanne and Théâtre Vidy Lausanne. With funding from the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia, the State of Geneva, Loterie Romande, the City of Geneva’s Agenda21, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Fondation Leenaards, the Porosus Endowment Fund, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, the SSA – Société Suisse des Auteurs, the Jan Michalski Foundation, the Migros Cultural Percentage and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.

                  Biographies

                  The company Absent.e pour le moment was founded in Geneva in 2020 by Cédric Djedje (actor and creator of projects living between Geneva and Berlin). Its approach is based on the collective creation of multidisciplinary performances. The artists seek to question and experiment with different ways of creating a community from the perspective of black and postcolonial critical theories. The company aims to denaturalize the political relations and expose the power relations that underlie the construction of historical narratives in postcolonial European spaces. Through its use of field investigations, it seeks to examine the repercussions of the colonial moment on what we consider to be our daily life, on what often surrounds us unchallenged and yet shapes our individual and collective identities. Their method is conceived as a play machine that combines stage writing, dance and performance with critical academic disciplines. Absent.e pour le moment creates a political and playful art in which the desire to move on becomes irresistible: a political art that looks for movements in which the joy of minoritized peoples and their ability to be seen create spaces for acting and words that offer temporary refuge – not only for minoritized peoples but for everyone.

                  21:00 – 22:50, Showcase Jan Philipp Stange & Company
                  SZENARIO
                  with interval Central / D'haus

                  The most important genre of contemporary art is the funding application. In ‘SZENARIO’, this becomes the absurd book for a musical. Four forestry workers in a snowy landscape sing about “activities to achieve their objectives,” their “budget for funding and costs” and their individual struggles with work, poverty and personal fulfilment.

                  15.06., 21:00–22:50 Ticket Schedule

                  with interval

                  17.06., 21:00–22:50 Ticket Schedule

                  with interval

                  Central / D’haus
                  Language: German, a handout is available in English

                  17.6., 20:00 Haptic tour for blind and visually disabled persons in German with Sylvie Ebelt, audio descriptor, and Alice Ferl, Impulse Theater Festival. See here for detailed information or contact us at barrierefreiheit[a]impulsefestival.de.

                  © Christian Schuller
                  © Christian Schuller
                  © Christian Schuller
                  © Christian Schuller
                  © Christian Schuller

                  Enthusiastic self-exploitation now happens everywhere. But artists started it. From their dream of being able to identify themselves with their own work, capitalism has created an image of the paid employee as a lone warrior who bears all the entrepreneurial risks personally. Including the insecurity this brings with it. – This is one of the theses in SZENARIO, which the performers present in song form.

                  Nevertheless, art remains estranged from other worlds of work: “I don’t know, do people still make screws?” asks one of the singers to jolly music while struggling with a fir tree that blocks his way through the snow.

                  What is work? Does it make any sense? With humour and subtle irony, the production places a reflection of labour relations in a neoliberal, capitalist system on stage that is at least as beautiful to watch as a Christmas fairy tale.


                  “The evening switches between good cheer, bitter irony, ice-cold clarity and justifiable mawkishness to provide excellent and intelligent entertainment.”
                  Ursula Böhmer, Deutschlandfunk Musikjournal, 21.11.2022

                  Credits

                  With: Ana Berkenhoff, Daniel Degeest, Alina Huppertz, Dominik Keggenhoff plus Jakob Boyny (cello), Jacob Bussmann (piano) and Špela Mastnak (vibraphone & percussion)

                  Direction: Jan Philipp Stange
                  Music: Jacob Bussmann
                  Stage Design: Jakob Engel
                  Costume Design: Maylin Habig
                  Production: Alessia Neumann, Paula Noack
                  Dramaturgy: Philipp Scholtysik
                  Stage Design Assistant: Kathrin Frech
                  Press and Public Relations: Annika Schmidt

                  Production

                  A production by Stange Produktionen. In co-operation with Produktionshaus Naxos. With kind support from the City of Frankfurt am Main Department of Culture, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Kulturfonds Rhein-Main, the Claussen-Simon Foundation, the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts, and others.
                  Stange Produktionen receives multi-year institutional funding from the City of Frankfurt am Main Department of Culture and the Fonds Darstellende Künste.

                  Sunday, 18.6.
                  11:00 – 13:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Gemeinsam kämpfen für bessere Arbeit in den Freien Darstellenden Künsten (Eintritt frei, keine Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

                  The independent performing arts beyond growth
                  15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

                  Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

                  Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

                  Language: German and English
                  Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

                  For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
                  Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

                  Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

                  © Ingo Solms
                  © Minkyou Yoo
                  © Björn Stork

                  ACADEMY programme

                  The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


                  THURSDAY, 15.6.

                  The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
                  For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                  11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

                  Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

                  The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

                  13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

                  13.00–15.00
                  Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                  - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                  - Library of other work
                  - Chill out in the park

                    15.00–17.00
                    Introductions in the workshop groups

                    17.00
                    Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                    Biographies

                    Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                    Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

                    Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

                    Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

                    Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

                    Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

                    Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


                    FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


                    For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                    10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

                    10:00–13:00
                    Work in the workshops 1–3

                    Workshop 1
                    Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
                    With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
                    Language: English

                    Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

                    Workshop 2
                    We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
                    With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
                    Language: German

                    What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

                    Workshop 3
                    Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
                    With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
                    Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
                    Language: German

                    The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

                    13.00–15.00
                    Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                    - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                    - Library of other work
                    - Chill out in the park

                      17.00
                      Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                      Biographies

                      andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

                      Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

                      Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

                      Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

                      Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                      Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

                      Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

                      Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


                      SUNDAY, 18.6.

                      The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
                      For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                      11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

                      Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

                      To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

                      13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

                      13.00–15.00
                      Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                      - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                      - Library of other work
                      - Chill out in the park

                      15.00
                      Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

                      Biographies

                      Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

                      Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                      Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

                      Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

                      Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

                      Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

                      Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

                      Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
                      https://tanznetzdresden.de
                      https://www.goplasticcompany.de
                      https://www.tenza.de

                      Romy Schwarzer studied Stage Dance in Cologne and New York and Choreography in Berlin. She has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer since 2007, most recently at Staatstheater Cottbus, for Marta Gornicka on the project ‘Chorus of Women’ at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and for Felix Landerer’s company on the format SHORTS, Hannover. She has worked regularly for the SINTkollektiv since 2020 and been a member of the Artistic Leadership Team of the guts company, Dresden since 2021.

                      www.thegutscompany.net

                      Ulrike Seybold is Chief Executive of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. She was previously a member of the team in charge of the Landesverband Freier Theater in Lower Saxony. Since 2015 she has also been a board member of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste. In these roles she advises both artists and funding bodies, serves on numerous panels and supports the continued advancement of structures within the independent performing arts. Before she worked for these organisations, for many years she was a freelance production manager and publicist, working on numerous cultural and theatrical projects. She studied Journalism, History and Political Sciences at the Ruhr University Bochum and completed a postgraduate qualification in Cultural Management in Neuss while simultaneously working as a journalist for outlets including the taz and WDR.

                      Ina Stock trained as an oboist, specialising in period instruments. New music, pop and jazz also feature in her biography. She lectures on the oboe for Cologne University and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. She has chaired the professional association Alte Musik NRW since 2012 and recently became Vice-Chair of ver.di NRW’s specialist group on Music and a board member of the corresponding nationwide specialist group. She participated in drafting ver.di’s recommendations on basic fees.

                      11:00 – 18:00, Showcase Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                      FIGURING AGE
                      Installation, admission is free K20, Grabbe Halle

                      A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

                      09.06., 19:00–20:00 Ticket Schedule 10.06., 16:00–17:00 Ticket Schedule 11.06., 12:00–13:00 Ticket Schedule

                      + Talk

                      12.06., 16:30–17:30 Schedule

                      SOLD OUT

                      14.06., 17:00–18:00 Ticket Schedule 16.06., 18:00–19:00 Ticket Schedule 17.06., 17:00–18:00 Schedule

                      SOLD OUT

                      K20, Grabbe Halle
                      Language: English

                      INSTALLATION:
                      8. –18.6., during the opening hours of K20
                      The installation includes video recordings from the senior dancers’ homes and excerpts from the live performance. Entry to the installation is free of charge.

                      Tickets are required for the LIVE PERFORMANCES.

                      11.6. after the show: Audience talk with the artists and Constanze Schellow, dance scholar and dramaturg

                      © Andreas Bolm
                      © Andreas Bolm
                      © Andreas Bolm
                      © Andreas Bolm

                      Boglárka Börcsök leads the audience through the space and tells them about meeting Irén Preisich, Éva E. Kovács and Ágnes Roboz. She met all three women, then in their nineties, in 2015 on a research trip together with Andreas Bolm. As young women, they had all been active in the Hungarian modern dance movement. Börcsök filmed them in their apartments and watched the footage over and over again – until the three women took possession of her. Her body seems to age from one moment to the next when she imitates their gestures, posture, dance movements and voices. The audience learns that Éva started dancing because she was not allowed to be a student. And that she never performed again after 1949 because the Communist regime prohibited modern dance with its individuality and freedom of expression.

                      Börcsök appears slow and fragile, but full of respect and expressive power – just like the three women do when meeting the choreographer on video. ‘FIGURING AGE’ achieves an impressive encounter between vital presence and complete absence.


                      “A ghostly and extraordinary performance with an intense and lingering effect.”
                      Ditta Rudle, tanzschrift.at, 25.7.2022

                      Credits

                      Concept, Choreography, Production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                      Dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz
                      Performance: Boglárka Börcsök
                      Lighting, Sound: Andreas Bolm
                      Costumes, Scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
                      Production Assistant: Martyna Bezrąk
                      English Translation: David Robert Evans
                      Video: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (Editing), Lisa Rave (Camera), Elisa Calosi (Production Manager)

                      Production

                      With support from Collegium Hungaricum, Atelier No. 63 – PACT Zollverein, Essen and HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
                      A section of this work was devised as part of ‘20 danseurs pour le XXème siècle’ (conceived by: Boris Charmatz, Terrain). Video: With support from the Dance Heritage Fund – an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes and the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
                      FIGURING AGE is presented by the Impulse Theater Festival in co-operation with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

                      Biographies

                      The German-Hungarian film-maker Andreas Bolm lives in Berlin. He studied at the FAMU Film Academy in Prague and at HFF Munich. His films have been seen at many prestigious festivals around the world. His short film ‘Jaba’ premiered at the 59th Cannes Film Festival and won the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Zinebi Film Festival in Bilbao. With the aid of a scholarship from the illustrious Cinéfondation Residence Festival de Cannes he was able to develop his first feature ‘Die Wiedergänger’, which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section and was subsequently presented at MoMA in New York. In 2016 Bolm shot his second feature ‘Le Juge’ with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role. In 2018 he completed the documentary short ‘My Last Video’ about the rising YouTube star Anton “Reyst”.
                      Bolm’s films portray people in their social and family surroundings and explore the fine line between documentary and fiction.

                      Boglárka Börcsök is a Berlin-based Hungarian artist and choreographer. She studied Dance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria and P.A.R.T.S. in Belgium. As a performer she has taken part in works by Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), the Stedelijk Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA. She dances in Joachim Koester’s video works ‘The Place of Dead Roads’ and ‘Maybe This Act, This Work, This Thing’ that are exhibited in museums worldwide. Börcsök performed and collaborated for several years with Eszter Salamon on her acclaimed ‘MONUMENT’ series, which was presented at the Ruhrtriennale, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d'Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Tanz im August and elsewhere. Since 2016 she has been seen in several editions of ‘20 Dancers for the XX Century’ by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. She is currently touring with ‘Still Not Still’, a dance performance by Ligia Lewis. Boglárka Börcsök and Andreas Bolm have been working together since 2017. They created the documentary film ‘The Art of Movement’, a portrait of three dancers in their nineties from Budapest. Her performance and video installation based on the film, ‘Figuring Age’, has been presented at festivals including Moving in November in Helsinki and ImPulsTanz in Vienna, where it received an honourable mention. The production has also been selected for the Aerowaves Network’s Twenty23.

                      13:00 – 15:00, Academy Academy #2: PRODUCE LESS, WORK BETTER! Workshop-Programm (Anmeldung) Ringlokschuppen Ruhr

                      The independent performing arts beyond growth
                      15.–18.6.2023, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

                      Constant growth is simply not possible on a planet with finite resources. Transition to a post-growth society is unavoidable. And yet, the independent performing arts are also governed by the dogma of growth: particularly in the last three years of the pandemic, research, conferences and productions have reached a level never been seen before. However, for most artists nothing has changed in terms of their working conditions or social security: their situation remains precarious. How can we get off this treadmill? The ACADEMY will address this question in a series of lectures and three workshops lasting several days.

                      Students along with practitioners who are artists, producers, dramaturgs, administrators or representatives of trade unions or funding bodies will embark on a joint search for new working and production conditions. What might a different kind of theatre work look like, if we produce less but so so more sustainably? If workers, ideas and materials are not burnt up fast, but used over a longer term? If our focus is placed on caring for each other and for creating shared assets and practices?

                      Language: German and English
                      Programme leaders: Sina-Marie Schneller and Jascha Sommer

                      For the workshop programme, a registration in advance is required:
                      Detailed information on the programme and registration procedure, you find here.

                      Participation in all other parts of the programme is free of charge, no registration is required.

                      © Ingo Solms
                      © Minkyou Yoo
                      © Björn Stork

                      ACADEMY programme

                      The ACADEMY begins with feedback from the research project ‘System Check’, which examines working conditions and social security in the independent performing arts. In three workshops lasting several days (registration required) we will then explore how other theatre work might look in future. To conclude, representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups invite you to round table discussions about how the proposals for the future developed in the workshops might be included in practice in political work. The ACADEMY itself also wishes to avoid hyper productivity. Space will therefore be reserved for participants to cook together, hang out in the mini˗library and have unstructured conversations.


                      THURSDAY, 15.6.

                      The lecture on ‘System Check’ can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
                      For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                      11.00–13.00 System Check: On the state of work in the independent performing arts

                      Lectures and a discussion with participants in the research project Sören Fenner (ensemble-netzwerk), Janet Merkel (Institute for Cultural Governance), Elisabeth Roos (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), Hannah Speicher (Centre for Continuing Education in Industrial Science, Leibniz University Hannover)

                      The research project ‘System Check’ run by the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste has investigated the working conditions of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers in the performing arts from 2021 to 2023. At the ACADEMY, the project’s key themes and the most important results of its research will be presented by Elisabeth Roos. Hannah Speicher will then give an account of the conclusions drawn from the interview˗based study “Free Fall. Types of work, social security, identities and coping strategies in the independent performing arts.” Janet Merkel will provide insights into how the concept of work has evolved in the arts and creative industries. Here she makes it clear how passion for a profession is linked to working conditions, and raises questions about cultural governance. Sören Fenner talks about experiences of self˗employed individuals and hybrid workers from the point of view of artists. After a look ahead to the further stages of ‘System Check’, there will be time to exchange views on what we have heard.

                      13.00–15.00 Workshop programme

                      13.00–15.00
                      Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                      - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                      - Library of other work
                      - Chill out in the park

                        15.00–17.00
                        Introductions in the workshop groups

                        17.00
                        Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                        Biographies

                        Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                        Sören Fenner founded the first online theatre employment market in 2000 and runs Theapolis, the largest portal for theatre professionals in German-speaking territories. He was a founder member of LAFT Berlin (2008) as well as the organisations art but fair (2013) and ensemble-netzwerk (2016). Together with Andreas Lübbers he launched the Hamburg production centre WIESE. He has served on the steering committee for Fairstage in Berlin and is part of ensemble-netzwerk’s team on the research project ‘System Check’.

                        Janet Merkel is a social scientist and urban sociologist. She works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin and is currently deputising for the Professor of the Economics of Urban and Regional Development at the University of Kassel. Her research interests are the spatial reorganization of work, workspaces, cultural production and policy in cities as well as urban governance and city politics. She has worked at the Berlin Social Science Center, the Hertie School of Governance and from 2015-2018 was Lecturer in Culture and the Creative Industries at City University, London.

                        Elisabeth Roos studied Cultural Studies at the University of Maastricht and Leuphana University. Her research focusses on urban cultural development. Since June 2021 she has worked for the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste on the projects ‘System Check’ and ‘Background’. She previously worked at the Robert Bosch Stiftung in Stuttgart and at the european centre for creative economy in Dortmund, where she implemented a number of funding programmes for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

                        Sina-Marie Schneller studied Theatre and Literature in Bochum. She is a freelance programmer and networker. As the co-ordinator of the initiative Cheers for Fears, she works on connecting young artistic practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, together with a number of colleagues she initiated the produktionsbande, a national networking and continuing education programme for producers in the cultural sector, and kritik-gestalten, a laboratory researching new forms of theatre criticism. She is a member of the leading team for the FAVORITEN theatre festival in 2022 and 2024 and (together with Jascha Sommer) programme leader of this year’s Impulse ACADEMY #2.

                        Jascha Sommer lives in Cologne. He studied Literature and Theatre Studies plus Scenic Research at the Ruhr University Bochum and the Université Paris X Nanterre La Défense as well as Media Arts at the Academy for Media Arts, Cologne. Jascha Sommer works as a performance artist and curator. As Artistic Director of the mobile academy Cheers for Fears, together with Sina-Marie Schneller he initiates trans-disciplinary artistic encounters within festivals, summer academies and productions. He is programme leader of this year’s ACADEMY #2. www.jaschasommer.com

                        Hannah Speicher is a theatre scholar and a member of the research staff at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Industrial Science at Leibnitz University, Hanover. Her research focusses on contemporary theatre and the connections between theatrical aesthetics and the conditions of production and employment related to them. Her dissertation “German Theatre after 1989. A History of Theatre Between Resilience and Vulnerability” was published by transcript Verlag in 2021.


                        FRIDAY, 16.6. – SATURDAY, 17.6., 10.00–13.00 and 15.00–17.00


                        For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                        10.00–17.00 Workshop Programme

                        10:00–13:00
                        Work in the workshops 1–3

                        Workshop 1
                        Commoning our work, commoning our institutions. Post-capitalist training in shared work and production
                        With Emanuele Braga and Gabriella Riccio (Institute of Radical Imagination)
                        Language: English

                        Can artistic practice be a model for ways out of the crisis? In the workshop ‘Commoning our work, commoning our institutions’, artists and activists from the Institute of Radical Imagination will talk about their practice: they try to create spaces for the growth of the commons against privatisation, gentrification and exploitation - from the micro-level of the individual to reclaiming or occupying urban space and influencing planning and politics. Together with the participants, they will try to shape the idea for a theatre of the commons. The concept of the commons is based on the experience of self-managed art and cultural spaces such as L'Asilo (Naples) or MACAO (Milan) that focus on collective work for shared space in the city that belongs to everyone.

                        Workshop 2
                        We have no art: we do everything as well as we can. An experiment in Maintenance Art
                        With Inga Bendukat and Eleonora Herder (andpartnersincrime)
                        Language: German

                        What if our understanding of art focussed not on production, but on reproduction? If care-giving relationships did not inhibit artistic collaboration, but enriched it? How do artistic working processes operate if they are no longer conceived in terms of neoliberal production principles, but rather in terms of maintenance: as revival and reconnection? What can art learn here from radical care work activists? And what if we understood art itself as care work? Would that then become Maintenance Art? Together with the participants, andpartnersincrime investigate a form of independent theatre that combines art and care work and experiment with this Maintenance Art in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

                        Workshop 3
                        Producing for the common good. Balancing our work with the economics of the common good
                        With Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie)
                        Input from Carlsson Kemena (Theater Göttingen)
                        Language: German

                        The Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie (economics of the common good) is a movement that wishes to base our economy fundamentally on the democratically defined common good and the concept of co-operation. In the workshop Oliver Eller and Sandra Paul introduce the movement and, together with the participants, study examples of balancing the common good in and beyond the independent performing arts and ask: how can we rethink our work in view of the limits of the planet and increasing social crises? How can we realign production in the independent theatre and integrate values such as solidarity, justice, ecological sustainability and transparency into our actions? Carlsson Kemena from the Deutsches Theater Göttingen, the first theatre in Germany in community ownership to achieve common good (Gemeinwohl) certification, examines the pros and cons of certification from a theatre point of view and offers some insights into how the process can evolve in future.

                        13.00–15.00
                        Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                        - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                        - Library of other work
                        - Chill out in the park

                          17.00
                          Shuttle to Düsseldorf for the Impulse SHOWCASE

                          Biographies

                          andpartnersincrime is a consortium of media artists, theoreticians and activists based predominantly in Frankfurt am Main and with a series of accomplices in Berlin, Marseille and Barcelona. Their work consists of documenting and analysing knowledge of movements and urban struggles and ideally of increasing this through performances. They use intensive field research and interviews to create multimedia stage plays, installations and interventions in public spaces. Many of their works deliberately abandon the theatre space to explore the tensions that performative gestures generate in spaces not associated with the arts in a site-specific manner.

                          Emanuele Braga is a theorist, activist and artist based in Milan. He co-founded the dance and theatre company Balletto Civile (2003), the contemporary art project Rhaze (2011) as well as Landscape Choreography (2012), an art platform questioning the role of the body under capitalism. His research focuses on models of cultural production, processes of social transformation, political economy, labour rights and the institution of the commons.

                          Gabriella Riccio is an artist-choreographer, activist and researcher based in Naples and Madrid. She is active in the movement for the commons and the Italian Movement of Self-Governed Cultural Spaces. Her focus is on forms of cultural participatory governance and prefigurative practices. As resident member of L’Asilo in Naples, Italy, she participated in drafting the Declaration of Urban Civic and Collective Use.

                          Emanuele Braga und Gabriella Riccio are both co-founding members of the Institute of Radical Imagination, a group of artists, activists, curators and academics sharing a common interest in producing knowledge and art practices to support post-capitalist ways of life, and work together on the platforms Art for UBI and the Art for Radical Ecologies.

                          Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                          Oliver Eller is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and works as an educational consultant, both in adult education and in schools. He spent several years working in industry as a Chief Executive.

                          Carlsson Kemena has been Officer to the Executive Board at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2020. In this function, he accompanies various projects, including the general refurbishment and the topic of sustainability.

                          Sandra Paul is an adviser to Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie and supports businesses on their journeys of transition to a social and ecological market economy. She devises value-based visualisations of the future under the label www.visual-plot.de.


                          SUNDAY, 18.6.

                          The round table discussions in the morning can be attended free of charge without registering in advance.
                          For the workshop programme, registration in advance is required.

                          11:00–13:00 Fighting together for better employment in the independent performing arts

                          Round table conversations with Esther Bajo and Ulrike Kuner (IG Freie TheaterArbeit/European Association of Independent Performing Arts), Mareike Holtz and Mona Rieken (Performing for Future), Sharon Jamila Hutchinson and Marque-Lin Pham (United Networks), Susan Schubert and Romy Schwarzer (Arbeitsgruppe Elternschaft und Kunstbetrieb/Tanznetz Dresden), Ulrike Seybold (NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste), Ina Stock (ver.di)

                          To conclude the ACADEMY, we will focus again on specific action: in round table discussions with representatives of associations, trade unions and working groups, we will discuss what must be done and what can be done in order to achieve lasting improvements in working conditions in the independent performing arts.

                          13:00–17:00 Workshop Programme

                          13.00–15.00
                          Mittag! (Lunch!) The art of doing nothing (but that together)
                          - Tiger Kitchen – communal coking, eating and talking about our work (with Nadja Duesterberg)
                          - Library of other work
                          - Chill out in the park

                          15.00
                          Shuttle to Cologne for the Impulse CITY PROJECT

                          Biographies

                          Esther Baio studied Contemporary Dance at SEAD Salzburg and subsequently spent 15 years working mainly as a dancer, performer and choreographer. During this time, she principally worked for the Viennese choreographer Willi Dorner, for whom she was responsible for the artistic and organisational delivery of numerous international touring engagements. Her experiences and international connections now inform her work for IG Freie Theaterarbeit (policy officer and project manager for ACT OUT – touring and residency funding) and for the European Association of Performing Arts (EAIPA). In addition to advising performing artists in Austria, Esther Baio is engaged in comparing European systems of funding and social security for artists and in cultural-political work on a national and European level

                          Nadja Duesterberg was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1983. She has worked as a chef since 2007 and as a freelance performer in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin since 2009. She was awarded the Cologne Performer’s Prize in 2017. In 2020 she researched patriarchal, misogynist and discriminatory structures in her everyday work as an actor in the independent performing arts as part of a #TakeCare residency. In 2022 she began a second residency at FFT Düsseldorf: ‘Expect a Tiger’ is a performative research project about dining.

                          Anna Mareike Holtz is a member of the Berlin-based production collective ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro and has worked in the independent performing arts for over ten years as a production manager and dramaturg. Since the Winter Term of 2021/22 she has taken an extra-occupational M.A. course in “Strategic Sustainability Management” at Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since November 2021 she has also been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future.

                          Sharon Jamila Hutchinson is a freelance artist who initiates and co-creates processes and productions involving choreography, videography, film, dramaturgy and performance in which processes of creation, fictionalisation and documentation inform each other. In activist and (cultural) political contexts she works on a regional and transnational basis with a range of civil society initiatives and organises communities that include the Germany-wide United Networks.

                          Ulrike Kuner graduated from the University of Vienna and worked for major international festivals and theatres as a production and project manager. She successfully developed and managed EU-funded projects and networks including the EDN – European Dancehouse Network. Since September 2017 she has been Chief Executive of IG Freie Theaterarbeit, where she has driven the introduction of service and information tools for freelance artists and cultural workers throughout Austria. In 2018 she became President of the newly-formed European Association of Independent Performing Arts (EAIPA); in 2021 she co-founded vera* – a confidential service to counter abuses of power, harassment and violence in culture and the arts.

                          Marque-Lin Pham is a Vietnamese-American activist, performance artist, scholar and founder of MSG & Friends, a queer-led artists’ collective dedicated to curating communal spaces and professional presentations for the Asian artistic diaspora in Europe. Marque-Lin’s texts have been published internationally in magazines and publications such as Lodown, DADDY Magazine and STATE Studio. Marque-Lin’s performances have been seen on ARTE, at the English Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin and Gessnerallee Zürich. Marque-Lin holds a “Goethe Goes Global” scholarship from Humanity in Action Berlin.

                          Mona Rieken has held the post of Dramaturg at various city theatres. In 2022 she qualified as an IHK-certified Transformation Manager for Sustainable Culture and since then has worked with cultural institutions on their journey to ecological sustainability. Since the autumn of 2021 she has been active in the nationwide network Performing for Future, with whom she has collaborated on ManifÖST, the Manifesto for the Social and Ecological Transformation of the Performing Arts.

                          Susan Schubert (she/her) works freelance in the performing arts. In 2012 she became Co-Artistic Director of go plastic company, who have been associate artists at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts since 2016. In 2016 she also took over as proprietor and Director of the production and training centre TENZA in Dresden, as well as becoming an active participant in TanzNetzDresden in the same year. She has been a board member of TNDD e.V. since its formation in 2020.
                          https://tanznetzdresden.de
                          https://www.goplasticcompany.de