|
Concept/Last update Sept. 9th, 2010
East-West PassagesDance and Theatre from Europe. New impetus from the East.Nearly twenty years ago, when the first euro-scene Leipzig took to the stage - after the peaceful revolution and the fall of the wall - this equaled an image rebellion. It was the visual power of the theater, its immediate physicality, and the social and political commitment of each presented staging, which left behind a strong impression. Theater productions from the East and West met in Leipzig, where they found an unusually interested, sometimes skeptical, but mostly impressed audience. As a cosmopolitan city for culture and trade fairs, Leipzig was predestined for such a festival. The euro-scene Leipzig satisfied the desire for a different theater, it proved to be culturally committed to conveying the foreign, and functioned as a builder of bridges between artists. Twenty years later, these developments should be incorporated into the outlook. This year's artistic highlights and its most pressing curatorial inquiries serve as the point of departure for those questions asked by today's artists, festival organizers and audiences. The euro-scene Leipzig has always considered itself an East-West hub as well. Among its conceptual focal points is presenting new productions from these theater landscapes and having them depict a "terra incognita" for the audience. The productions from Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Balkan countries were always visually powerful contributions. With their other cultures and other religious background, they were strong representatives of the foreign. And emerging from societies still at the mercy of dramatic changes and misdeeds, their never abandoned demands directed at a political art were unsettling. Also included here were the territories of the former Yugoslavia as well as those of the former Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus, to name only a few. However, twenty years after the fall of the wall, the East seems to have lost its "sex appeal". This not only applies to its presence at festivals, but also to the international mobility of its artistic productions in general, something marked by great misbalances here. Productions from the west circulate mainly in the west, and productions from the east mainly in the east. Occasionally, the West European festival landscape discovers an East European artist. But, in most cases, they shine as 'shooting stars' under the conditions of western productions and finally change their permanent address. In the East, missing production structures and missing cultural-political commitment (lastly support) seem to hinder giving international exchange more weight. In the framework of the euro-scene Leipzig, a two-day symposium of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), Berlin, plans to enrich the Europe-wide debate with the concrete example set by this festival - with stimuli and questions. Opening and closing of the debates will linked to two public debates but the main focus will be given to the working groups with the following issues which we currently shape. - Is Europe no longer a hope? The return of national stresses in the
cultural and educational policy. The ITI also links the symposium with the discussions within its European network and the European Union pilot project SPACE (Supporting Performing Arts Circulation in Europe).
Ann-Elisabeth Wolff
|