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Annual Conference and Prize Presentation

Reclaiming Agency!

Public Annual Conference of the International Theatre Institute German Centre and presentation of the ITI Prize 2024

CONTACT AND INFORMATION

Andrea Zagorski
a.zagorski@iti-germany.de

November 9, 2024, 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
euro-scene Leipzig, Schaubühne Lindenfels


Far-reaching transformation processes are currently stiring up conflicts - at geographical, social, cultural and identity borders. Tolerance is being displaced by mental and cultural warfare; a rise in propaganda and boycott narratives is weaponising national, cultural and religious identities.

What possibilities do performing artists and networks in transcultural places and settings have to perceive current social conflicts and differing positions and to communicate them in performative ways?

‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ The constitutional principle of UNESCO from 1945 is essential for the International Theatre Institute, which was founded on the initiative of UNESCO. Together with our guests, we would like to explore ways of continuing to anchor this task in the present and future.


Program

11:00 Welcome Reclaiming Agency! Between peacebuildung and persecution, what can art achieve?

11:15 Input (ENG)
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini / International Civil Society Action Network and
Wolfgang Kaleck / European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
 
11:45 Panel (ENG)
with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, Wolfgang Kaleck, Zoe Lafferty / The Freedom Theatre Jenin and Robert Schuster / KULA Compagnie

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 – 15:30 Group discussions (ENG and GER)
with members of KULA Compagnie and The Freedom Theatre Jenin

 

Presentation of the ITI Prize 2024 to KULA Compagnie followed by a film screening (GER and ENG)

‘The KULA Compagnie is exemplary of a transnational, multilingual theatre that brings together artistic practice of the most diverse aesthetics and humanitarian commitment. In changing collaborations with artists from different countries, playful and politically controversial laboratory formats are created, often as rewrites of canonical texts from a contemporary perspective.’
 
16:00 Reclaiming Agency! Summary and outlook 
Prof. Patrick Primavesi und Dr. Micha Braun / Centre for Competence in Theatre

16:15 Laudatio  
Barbara Mundel / Artistic Director Münchner Kammerspiele

Presentation of the Prize  Yvonne Büdenhölzer / ITI President

Statement  Robert Schuster / Artistic Director KULA Compagnie
 
16:45 Film screening
KULA Compagnie: THE FIFTH WHEEL (2022)
a film from the Afghan underground, filmed with phone from hiding 
Farsi and German, with German subtitles

Since the withdrawal of the allied troops, the artists of the all-female Simorgh Theatre in Herat have been rushing from hideout to hideout. On their flight, they deal with texts "From the Reading Book for City Dwellers" by Bertolt Brecht and bring into the picture what this perspective makes possible. Robert Schuster and the KULA Compagnie see themselves as transmitters between these women and a European public.

A production of the KULA Compagnie for the Brecht Festival Augsburg in co-production with the Ruhrfestspiele. 
 

Registration