Digitalfestival

SPOTLIGHT: Germany

Faust II by Krzysztof Garbaczewski and Theater Freiburg

Faust descends to the mothers, Mephistopheles faces – despite aversion – his pre-Christian relatives and Helena dares the leap from antiquity to the Middle Ages. In the meantime, important things are happening in the laboratory of the scientist Wagner: according to a secret recipe, he is researching nothing less than the creation of life (without any idle human union…). In a test tube Homunculus sees the light of day and formulates only one wish: to come into being in the best sense…

OBLOMOW REVISITED by Luk Perceval and Nele Stuhler / Schauspiel Köln

Iwan Gontscharow’s protagonist Oblomow stays at home, sinks into daydreams on the divan and is characterised by his sloth; ultimately not even his closest friends are able to motivate him. Luk Perceval and Nele Stuhler updated the novel, used it as a loose foil and looked for parallels to the reality of our lives during the lockdown. They were interested in those who could not or did not want to easily find their way back into everyday life or their jobs after this challenging months. At the same time, they showed what the principles of the novel can tell us when they are applied to the theater institution. Why do theater people invest so much in their jobs, where doing “nothing” is often neglected? And who is actually “allowed” to step out and when? What happens to no-sayers and what to the system if one person falls out?

A Room of Our Own – Performance for Browser and variable audience by Swoosh Lieu

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write,” wrote Virginia Woolf in her 1929 essay ‘A Room of One’s Own’. Over 90 years later this allegory of financial and spatial independence is more relevant than ever. While we experience an antifeminist backlash during the crisis caused by the Corona virus, women are repeatedly finding that doors are being closed to them and their spaces are becoming smaller or being taken away entirely. In an audio-visual adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s text, Swoosh Lieu inquire into what the spaces must look like where we can emancipate ourselves and find self-fulfilment. What means do we need to use to talk about and imagine these spaces in order to actually allow them to come into being? Based on these questions, the camera moves through the empty theatre space during lockdown, exploring places and perspectives, visibilities and volumes, points of access and limitations. In between, it dives into real and virtual imaginary spaces, disappears into green screens and disco balls – until it finally takes off to a new horizon, beyond which there is room for everyone and we are not alone.

Anthropos, Tyrann (Ödipus) by Alexander Eisenach

The tragedy Oedipus sets the stage fpr this drama of mankind in the age of anthropocene. Like Oedipus mankind was blind for the consequences of its carbonated lifestyle. Scientist Antje Boetius performs in the role of the Pythia (Speaker of the Oracle of Delphi) and demands a drastic change in perspective. Through acknowleding the own mistakes in history, the Anthropos can alter its perception just like Oedipus did, when he blinded himself. After that Oedipus becomes a seer just like Teiresias.

The Art of Assembly by Florian Malzacher

“Gesellschaftsspiele. The Art of Assembly” is a nomadic series of lectures and conversations hosted by Florian Malzacher, speculating on the potential of gatherings in art, activism and politics. Among the guests were so far Merve Bedir, Judith Butler, Radha D’Souza, Didier Eribon, Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius / raumlaborberlin, Max Haiven, Oliver Marchart, Alia Mossalam, Chantal Mouffe, Antonio Negri, Sibylle Peters, Milo Rau, Oliver Ressler, Jonas Staal, Nora Sternfeld, The Church of Stop Shopping, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Dana Yahalomi/Public Movement.

#See you at Home – The Domestic Space as Public Encounter by Bettina Katja Lange, Joan Soler-Adillon, Uwe Brunner

“See you at Home” is an installation oscillating between the physical and the virtual dimensions, with the aim to explore the meaning of private and intimate space in times of ubiquitous connectivity. It represents the concept of a public living space, providing a stage for encounters, joint awareness, and personal exchange.

STRICKEN (KNITTING) by Magda Korsinsky

How do Afro-German womxn relate to the past lives of their white grandmothers? In STRICKEN we see video portraits of six granddaughters* who talk about Nazism and deep-seated resentments, about love and favourite meals cooked by their grannies, about their family heritage and present-day racism. The results are open and honest portraits — projected onto cloth banners made from textiles that these womxn found in their grandmothers’ wardrobes.

möwe.live by punktlive /Cosmea Spelleken

The drama “The Seagull” written by Anton Chekhov in 1895 serves as a working basis and thematic guideline for the characters and the emotional tone of “möwe.live”. The core themes are loneliness, the longing for a meaningful life and the failure to communicate honestly with other people.“möwe.live” brings Chekhov’s classic into the present day and blurs the boundaries between film and theater! you follow the play/the film about what the characters do on their pcs – with whom they chat, what kind of pictures they look at and what they leave unsaid.

SHARED STORIES of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany and Rwanda by Hope Azeda, Konstantin Dupelius, Nedim Zlatar // Mashirika Rwanda, The Grey Stories Germany, SARTR Bosnia-Herzegovina

Shared Stories deals with experiences on the topics of war, genocide, diaspora and home in relation to the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda in the 1990s. In the very first exchange between Bosnian, Rwandan and German artists, personal experiences, thoughts and visions in different settings were exchanged online and artistically processed. Artists from the three participation countries developed artistic material in remote online exchange and created 5 videos. All videos show artistic and documentary contributions from all three participating countries. A total of 15 dancers, authors, musicians and filmmakers were involved.A project of The Grey Stories (Germany), Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company (Rwanda), SARTR / Sarajevo War Theatre (Bosnia-Herzegovina).

ENCORE by Calle Fuhr

ENCORE is a digital theatre series and was created during the first lockdown in 2020. Individual fictional characters share their humorous and touching faiths in an intimate one-on-one situation. Every episode was rehearsed, shot, post-produced and published on the very same day and became a moving diary through the power of fiction in a time where reality didn’t feel real anymore.

Postpandemic Theater. Online Conference by Cornelius Puschke, Sophie Diesselhorst, Christian Rakow

The Symposium „Postpandemic Theater“ was a three-day conversation event that took place online at the most threatening time to date of the Covid19 pandemic in November 2020. All event spaces in German-speaking countries were closed at that time. In response, the Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, created the first large-scale opportunity to gather online to discuss the present and future of theater in the pandemic. At the invitation of curators Sophie Diesselhorst, Cornelius Puschke, and Christian Rakow, theater makers and theorists met in moderated panels that led into subsequent audience discussions. The discussions of each evening were flanked by short video statements by renowned theater makers and researchers.

Zoom in: Festival zum Netztheater in der Freien Szene (Zoom in: Online Festival for Independent Net Theatre Productions) by nachtkritik.de

Over three days in April 2021, the “Zoom in” festival organized by the online-theater magazine nachtkritik.de documented the current state of the net theater with six guest performances created for various digital platforms. In discussions with artists and panels, the festival took stock of the current situation and asked what is necessary and useful in the development of an infrastructure for independent net theater – both from an institutional and an artistic perspective. Workshops offered further education on legal issues in the digital space, hybrid productions for analog and online audiences, and how to get started with programming.

The New Gospel by Milo Rau /IIPM & NTGent

What would Jesus preach in the 21st century? Who would his disciples be? And how would today’s bearers of secular and spiritual power respond to the return and provocations of the most influential prophet and social revolutionary in human history? With “The new Gospel”, Milo Rau is staging a “Revolt of Dignity”. Led by political activist Yvan Sagnet, the movement is fighting for the rights of migrants who came to Europe across the Mediterranean to be enslaved on the tomato fields in Italy.

I Can See You by Nebojša Marković

As a proud homeowner, his (he/she or it) tasks are predetermined: not only does he have to ensure that his supplies are always sentenced out, he also has to constantly perfect the defenses, as well as constantly recalculating, reconsidering and implementing the protective measures. In addition to his tiring but fulfilling tasks, he regularly delights in the wondrous silence of his flat. But he knows only too well how deceptive it is. Suddenly it can be interrupted and everything would be over.

Esther Slevogt Selections, Editor-in-Chief nachtkritik.de

Esther Slevogt is theatre critic and editor-in-chief of the German online theater magazine nachtkritik.de, which she co-founded in 2007. She also writes books on theater history in the context of politics and aesthetics in the 20th century. An important focus of her work is the investigation of how digitalization influences and changes old cultural techniques such as theater. In this context, in 2013 she initiated the annual conference “Theater and the Net (“Theater und Netz”)”, which nachtkritik.de then developed together with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and has hosted annually since then (except the pandemian years 2020/21). Currently, she is leading the project “nachtkritik.plus” at nachtkritik.de, the expansion of nachtkritik.de with a streaming platform. nachtkritik.plus will also include a platform that collects knowledge about digital technologies in the performing arts and facilitate a broad exchange (in theory and practice) about them.