29.5.–9.6.2024 Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mülheim an der Ruhr
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ACADEMY #2 / FORUM: DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN (The Art of Staying Many)

National Forum for Art, Freedom and Democracy
7.+8.6.2024, FFT Düsseldorf

With art, action and debate the ACADEMY #2 / FORUM in co-operation with the national fora of the Fonds Darstellende Künste addresses what is probably the most important task right now: to retain plurality and thus strengthen democracy. How threatening right wing agitation has become was shown by the hate campaign against the collective CHICKS* and its performance LECKEN after it was invited to the Wildwechsel Festival in Zwickau. The ACADEMY presents LECKEN and invites West and East German theatre festivals to a solidary exchange of knowledge focussing on constitutional issues: how can the constitution and the rule of law protect the freedom of art and artists from despotism and discrimination? Contributions by Gin Müller on performative forms of resistance and by Arne Vogelgesang on new right narratives about youth and the family connect the discourse with artistic and activist practice.


ACADEMY #2 – THE ART OF STAYING MANY is held as one of the "National Fora for Art, Freedom and Democracy", a series of events produced by the Fonds Darstellende Künste in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut, Chamäleon, Berlin, fabrik Potsdam, FFT Düsseldorf, Hans Otto Theater, Potsdam, HELLERAU – European Centre of the Arts, Dresden, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Impulse Theater Festival, Kunstfest Weimar 2024, LOFFT – DAS THEATER, Leipzig, OSTEN Festival, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Plattenstufen-Festspiele presented by the Phoenix Theater Festival Erfurt, Residenz (Schauspiel Leipzig), Societaetstheater, Dresden, Sophiensӕle, Berlin, and Zentralwerk e. V., Dresden, Zirkustheater-Festival, Dresden. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.

Location: FFT Düsseldorf, Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1, 40210 Düsseldorf

For registration details, see Impulse ticketshop.

Full details of the programme in English will soon be available here at the Impulse website and at fonds-daku.de.

© Robin Junicke
© Fonds Darstellende Künste
© Robin Junicke

Friday, 7.6.

10:00–11:10 Chicks* freies performance, LECKEN

We lick, gobble and slurp. 'LECKEN' is the sex education we dream of. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that get forgotten in schools: what do we understand sex to be? Which parts of the body give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out to us.

Further information about the play

You can book tickets through the Impulse-Ticketshop.

10:30–11:00 Opening: welcome & input

'HATE: on the power of a resistant emotion'
Lecture by Şeyda Kurt

Hatred and democracy are generally regarded as opposites. Hatred is often attributed to the opponents and enemies of democracy – as an emotion directed against democracy. But what about all the structures which facilitate hatred that are themselves integral parts of democracy and are protected and legally enabled by it, e.g. the rigid exclusionary mechanisms of migration policy? In her analysis of a "politics of emotions", the writer and journalist Şeyda Kurt explores the ambivalences of hate as a political emotion and makes its potential for resistance within democracy visible.

11:15–12:45 Working phase I: workshops & discursive events

KNOWLEDGE: conversation with Şeyda Kurt
In addition to her current book 'Hass' (Hate), the journalist and wirter Şeyda Kurt discusses a "politics of emotions", which opens a space for thought in which the empowerment and resistance potential of "strategic emotions" can be appreciated in the political space/struggle.

ALLIANCES: 'Anti-discrimination and artistic freedom: legal principles in the context of funding and the tension between specific clauses and artistic freedom'
Lecture by Dr. Lino Agbalaka (lawyer)
This working session will examine the legal principles that apply to funding and the tensions between possible anti-discrimination regulations (such as the anti-discrimination clause that was withdrawn again at the beginning of the year in Berlin, for example) and artistic freedom. It will also consider the underlying legal structures to protect people against discrimination, such as those embedded in the Basic Law, and their practical application in the workplace in the independent performing arts.

PRAXIS: 'Hitler salutes and stage guns'
Lecture by ​​Oliver​ Zahn on the thresholds where art stops.
Theatremaker and performer Oliver Zahn draws on examples from over ten years of artistic practice to look at the dividing lines between what is artistically permissible and what is legally forbidden - ranging from the Hitler salute gesture to the most recent terror attacks in Germany.

12:45–14:00 Lunch break

14:00–16:00 Working phase II: workshops & discursive events

KNOWLEDGE: ​​​Antifa theatre & legal positions online and on the streets
Workshop with Gin Müller
This working session focusses on one hand on the relationship between theatre and performance with justice, injustice and the legal system. On the other, it also deals with issues around (il-)legal forms of resistance to far right movements including examples and links between antifascist theatre and activism and Antifa.​​​​

ALLIANCES:​Workshop session on codes of conduct, voluntary agreements, crisis management etc.
Workshop with Anne Schneider​​ ​​​​​​
The B.A.L.L. in the autumn of 2023 presented the image of a scene that is diverse, lively and solidary. However, a lack of confidence could be felt in numerous discussions. Some voices have fallen silent and an increasing number of views have disappeared and are continuing to disappear from public discourse. This threatens one of the basic foundations of our democracy. What instruments and agreements do we need now as the basis for productive collaboration in projects, institutions and events?
Please note:
There is limited capacity for this event. In order to participate, please register at email hidden; JavaScript is required (including name of institution / initiative).

PRAXIS: ​INTERNATIONAL UNFAIR
Workshop with LA FLEUR​​ (in English, German and French​​)
Within the international theatre and dance system there are substantial inequalities between participating artists' opportunities for travel. While European and North American artists can travel worldwide with few problems, artists from the Global South are repeatedly refused visas, even when they are part of European companies working professionally. In its piece/film 'Les Chercheurs', the group La Fleur has highlighted and engaged with this problem. We show excerpts and discuss potential solutions with you in light of geopoloitical injustices in transnational collaborations.

14:30–15:40 Chicks* freies performance, LECKEN

We lick, gobble and slurp. 'LECKEN' is the sex education we dream of. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that get forgotten in schools: what do we understand sex to be? Which parts of the body give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out to us.

Further information about the play

Tickets for the performances of LECKEN at 14:30 (on 7.+8.6.) are part of the ACADEMY #2 / FORUM programme and can only be booked through the Impulse-Ticketshop after registering with the ACADEMY #2 / FORUM.

16:00–16:30 Coffee break

16:30–17:00 Input by Luce deLire

Shadow democracies: the subcutaneous layer in law-making
To complete this day of the forum, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire offers a response to the day that opens up philosophical, legal and performative approaches to areas of legislative and political interpretation in order in order to make them our own (again) and reinterpret them in the spirit of "creative democracy" – in favour of a legal future for the many.
Luce deLire comments: "In recent years we can observe a two-fold movement: the legislature has taken cover behind the courts and individual responsibility. At the same time it has created substatutory, subcutaneous norms which, while not justifiable, have been effective. The result has been a depoliticisation of politics in the light of a shadow democracy."
Luce deLire is a ship with eight sails lying down by the quay. In addition to academic articles on themes that range from Spinoza's metaphysics of eternity to postcolonial perspectives on social contracts and anti-faschism, she has also published extensively on art and politics.

Additional information: getaphilosopher.com

17:30 Shuttle buses depart for SHOWCASE venues in Cologne and Bonn.

Saturday, 8.6.

10:00–11:10 CHICKS* freies Performancekollektiv, LECKEN

We lick, gobble and slurp. 'LECKEN' is the sex education we dream of. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that get forgotten in schools: what do we understand sex to be? Which parts of the body give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out to us.

Further information about the play

You can book tickets through the Impulse-Ticketshop.

10:00–11:00 Welcome & input lecture

On the possibilities of banning the AfD and the arts' scope for legal action
Helge Lindh (MdB, spokesperson on cultural policy for the SPD in the Bundestag) in conversation with Jean Peters (Correctiv) about whether banning the AfD is possible, realistic or sensible, and how the arts can use their own scope for legal action in the spirit of artistic freedom and defend themselves against attack

11:15–13:00 Working phase I: workshops & discursive events

KNOWLEDGE: Living Smile Vidya in conversation with Gin Müller (in English)
Living Smile Vidya and Gin Müller speak as trans activists and performers on specific transgender issues in the theatre and in different societies. They open up an exchange about the links between trans visibility in the performing arts and the struggle for transgender rights as a political issue.

ALLIANCES: The train has gone! WE ARE STAYING HERE
By and with Maren Barnikow and Tommy Neuwirth/AGENTUR FÜR
What does to mean to stand in the places in Thuringia where authoritarian, populist loudmouths appear every week? AGENTUR FÜR shouts back at them, interrupts and gets involved. Excerpts from AGENTUR FÜR's portfolio are presented and tried out: proper cursing and complaining, releasing the constructive-creative power of anger FÜR DAS FÜR and strategies to remap the public arena.

PRAXIS: Back to the front of representation. Performative culture war over gender hierarchies
By and with Arne Vogelgesang
Using examples from a new generation of new right video activists, we will examine which stock arguments, affective material and forms of self-representation are currently being used to target a youth audience in the culture war over the representation of gender identities, inclusive forms of speech and body images.

13:00–14:30 Lunch break

14:30–16:00 Working phase II: workshops & discursive events

KNOWLEDGE: Denazify yourselves!
By and with Luce deLire
Using original texts, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire will address the "strategies with which the courts of the youthful Federal Republic kept the crimes of the Nazis unpunished. We will also examine the role German jurisdiction played in the financial stabilisation of West German in the 50s and 60s. To finish, we will look at the continuities of these practices in the present, with reference to the rights of trans people under the Self-Determination Act."

ALLIANCES: Soundtracks for transformations
Workshop by and with Dr. Anna Lux (University of Freiburg / Leipzig)
What sounds do social upheavals and changes make? This workshop focusses on songs dealing with experiences of historical transformation in East Germany after 1989 and in the Ruhr region following structural reform. And what does the sound of the present processes of change sound like?

PRAXIS: 'Colonastics' – Training lecture
With Joana Tischkau (performance), Frieder Blume (sound), Onur Agbaba (performance)
Colonastics is a fitness workout that deals with the social construct of whiteness. It creates a blueprint for embodying white masculinity, highlighting the colonial and neocolonial practices of the fitness industry which produce and shape our beodies and therefore our ideologies.

14:30–15:40 CHICKS* freies Performancekollektiv, LECKEN

We lick, gobble and slurp. 'LECKEN' is the sex education we dream of. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that get forgotten in schools: what do we understand sex to be? Which parts of the body give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out to us.

Further information about the play

Tickets for the performances of LECKEN at 14:30 (on 7.+8.6.) are part of the ACADEMY #2 / FORUM programme and can only be booked through the Impulse-Ticketshop after registering with the ACADEMY #2 / FORUM.

16:00–16:30 Coffee break

16:30–17:00 Input by Luce deLire

'Vibrators for Dictators'
To complete this day of the forum, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire offers a response to the day that opens up philosophical, legal and performative approaches to areas of legislative and political interpretation in order in order to make them our own (again) and reinterpret them in the spirit of "creative democracy" – in favour of a legal future for the many.
On the second day, Luce deLire enquires into the seductive power of progressive politics and states: "Fascism is the counterculture in this country. That makes it sexy. And that's why people vote it into parliament. Where is the seductive power of progressive politics? We need a sexy counter-paradigm. Sexy socialisation. Pink camouflage. Hospitality for all. Castrate the nation! Vibrators For dictators!"

17:30 Shuttle buses depart for SHOWCASE venues in Cologne and Bonn.