Satellites // Panels and workshops within the framework of several festivals

International Street Theatre Festival Holzminden
International Festival of Street Arts LA STRADA Bremen
Festival Welttheater der Straße Schwerte
STAMP Festival Hamburg

Between spring and autumn, Germany’s street theatre festival season is in full swing. These cultural events are not only important for the cities involved, but also for the outdoor performing arts scene: they are platforms for the presentation of new performances as well as for networking.

The original idea of the series Out and About – perspectives on performing arts in public spaces, was to organise discussions and workshops in cooperation with the above mentioned five festivals.

Bereits jetzt haben drei der vier kooperierenden Festivals Corona bedingt ihre, für das Jahr 2021 geplanten Due to Covid, three of the four festivals postponed their events (until 2021 or 2022) or entirely restructured the festival concept to be Covid-compliant. Within the framework of the event of Out and About, the curators of the respective festivals presented their themes digitally in one-day formats. The presentations were independent of the festival themselves. The focus of the content was linked to the themes of the festivals and their experiences.

Invited were:
Nicole Ruppert – International Street Theatre Festival Holzminden
Gabriele Koch – International Festival of Street Arts LA STRADA Bremen
Holger Ehrich – Festival Welttheater der Straße Schwerte
Tom Lanzki – STAMP Festival Hamburg

We are also looking forward to a further five exciting projects, of which we will inform you in good time on this page.

Sabine Kuhfuß from the Festival BILDSTÖRUNG Detmold also took part and together with BUTIÖR, organised the final symposium, which happened from the 22^nd to the 24^th of October, 2021.

Hamburg
STAMP Symposium on the theme of LIBERTY

18^th to 19^th of September, 2021 //  Hamburg, Altona

Five international young artists showed “Work in Progress” performances on the 18^th of September during the STAMP Festival.

Das Programm startet am 18.09.2021 von 11.00 -13.00 Uhr am Platz der Republik mit einer Gesprächsrunde. Die PThe program began on the 18^th of September, 2021, from 11am to 1pm at the Platz der Republik with a round of talks. The performances were shown from 4.30pm until 9pm also at Platz der Republik and in Ottensener Hauptstraße at the Art Container. Further details can be found on the STAMP website and in the STAMP program.

The symposium concluded with an internal feedback round on the 19^th of September at Platz der Republik with the participating artists and invited guests. The invited guests were organisers from the EU project LIBERTY, cooperation partners from the CPSA Network and BUTIÖR.

Participating artists were:
Michael(a) Daoud – “I Will No Longer Live in My Mother’s Shoe” (Germany)
Mikhail Veligotskiy – “Mischa Beast” (Estonia)
Lara Süß & Chi Him Chik – “PHOBIA” (Germany)
Sándor Márkus – “The visual sense of touch” (Hungary)
Ann-Leonie Niss & Mayo Rodriguez – “Embrac_olation” (Germany / Chile)

Participating experts:
Gorazd Osjonik – CPSA Contemporary Performing Street Arts (Slovenia)
Lotte N. Larsen – Project Coordinator Aarlborg Karneval (Denmark)
Gyuri Szabó – Managing Director of Trafó. House of Contemporary Art (Hungary)
Elena Liesenfeld – Office of BUTIÖR (Germany)
Luise Gerlach – Member of the Board BUTIÖR (Germany)

Schwerte
Panel discussion during the opening of the festival WELTTHEATER DER STRASSE

226^th of August 2021 // Rohrmeisterei Schwerte

Festival curators and theatre directors discussed the increased presence of the performing arts in public spaces in the programs of traditional indoor festivals and theatres.

The pandemic encourages projects in public space in the short term, but does it have a long-term effect?

How does the trend towards outdoor projects correspond to the current change in public space – between the feared death of our city centres and the (hoped-for) rediscovery as a social space?

Does public space enable “culture by all” instead of merely “culture for all”?

Participants:
Olaf Kröck – Artistic Director Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
Annette Dabs – Artistic Director FIDENA Festival Bochum
Sabine Reich – Chief Dramaturg and Deputy Artistic Director Schauspiel Dortmund
Kathrin Bahr – Artistic Director tête-à-tête Festival Rastatt

Moderation and concept: Holger Ehrich (Welttheater Schwerte)

Bremen
Looking back in anger! Theatre in public space: between tradition and sustainability

8^th of June, 2021 // Schaulust, Bremen

The future viability of our art form was discussed in a one-day workshop.

After keynote speeches by Prof. Julia Lossau (University of Bremen), Roland Nachtigäller (Marta Herford) and Katharinajej (Katze und Krieg), selected experts discussed the political function that art and theatre have and can have in public space. The discussion was curated by Gabriele Koch (LA STRADA, Bremen).

The topics were examined in small groups in an interdisciplinary way. The aims were to create a paper of demands, to explore how to give new impulses to the scene, and to discuss with which young scenes we can cooperate.

Holzminden
WebLab – Thoughts on how to strengthen street theatre in Germany

20^th and 21^st of May 2021 // ZOOM

The 2021 edition of the International Street Theatre Festival in Holzminden was cancelled due to the pandemic and a WebLab was organised in its place. Artists, producers, organisers and other interested parties were invited to spend two mornings developing ideas and visions for sustainably strengthening the genre and its artistic productions in and for public space.

What does it take to create “good art”?
Keynote speeches and table discussions shed light on successful developments and identified fields of action for the future. Different perspectives, national and international experiences as well as individual and genre-specific conditions were included. The WebLab invited active and creative participation. The initiators were artists who would have premiered at the 2021 edition of the Street Theatre Festival in Holzminden or had been associated with the festival for a long time: Jana Korb (Jana Korb – Narrativer Zirkus), Andreas Bartl and Lisa Rinne (Circus UnARTiq), Angie Hiesl (Angie Hiesl Produktion), Clair Howells (Theater Titanick).

Conception, organisation and direction:
Nicole Ruppert (kulturbüro, D) und Bettina Linstrum (ArtsAgenda, UK)