Initiated by the International Theatre Institute, the “Theatre of the World” festival has been bringing ground-breaking achievements and aesthetic developments in theatre from all over the world to life every three years in different regions of Germany since the end of the 1970s. The 16th edition of the festival will take place in Frankfurt and Offenbach – initiated, organised and implemented by the three Frankfurt cultural institutions Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Museum Angewandte Kunst and Schauspiel Frankfurt, as well as the Amt für Kulturmanagement der Stadt Offenbach (Offenbach Council Office for Cultural Management) as an associated partner. For the first time in the history of the festival, the programme director for this edition was also selected with the aim to allow for the greatest possible change of perspective.
This summer, we invite you to encounter different worlds and imagine completely alternative ones in Offenbach and Frankfurt with “Theatre of the World(s)”. In recent years – and especially during the COVID 19 pandemic – we have witnessed the fragility of human societies and once again experienced the future as a great uncertainty. Yet some states of uncertainty, suspension and limbo can also be consciously embraced and understood as generative moments. This attitude towards experiences of incubation, waiting and open potential is what Chiaki Soma – programme director of the festival – calls incubationism. It forms the conceptual framework for the festival programme. Theatre of the World 2023 uses the imaginative and social powers of art to open up spaces for reflection, recreation and inspiration. In dialogue with different artistic perspectives, we engage in this incubationism and allow shared visions of a pluralistic post-pandemic society to emerge during the 18 festival days and beyond.
Selected Artists participating:
Artists: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Saodat Ismailova, Boogaert v/d Schoot, Meiro Koizumi, Aya Momose, El Warcha etc.
Performance Artists: Tiago Rodrigues, Susanne Kennedy, Samara Hersch, Trajal Harrell, Ho Tzu Nyen, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Carolina Bianchi and Cara de Cavalo, Saeborg etc.
In collaboration with the administrative management and the production manager, I took on the coordination and artistic production management of selected parts of the festival program. These were:
Saeborg – Super Farm (Japan)
Collectif Kahraba – Songe d´une Forêt Oubliée (Lebanon)
Abana b´amazi – Small Citizens (African great lakes region – Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo)
El Warcha – Community projects in schools and the Museum for Applied Art (Tunesia)