From September 15-17, 2023, a performance weekend with 10 teenagers and young adults took place at the Kulturhaus Wilde Rose in Melle, facilitated by Simon Niemann and Sophia Grüdelbach. In addition to the city of Osnabrück and LaT Niedersachsen, the AHI also provided financial and idealistic support for the project. Through Simon Niemann’s work in the Interpresence Department, this project also addressed questions of individual and collective well-being and cultural participation. Young and non-academic perspectives were explicitly addressed and a practice-oriented and body-centered approach was chosen. The central question underlying the workshop was how young people can collectively participate in social transformation processes.
Social transformation processes often take place invisibly and insidiously. Art and theater is one form of others of uncovering these and actively influencing them. Theater and performance always take place in context. Not only when it is performed, but also when it is rehearsed. Questions about the who, the how and the why are central to this. This means that theater work and the conception of theater pedagogical projects go hand in hand with a responsibility. The responsibility to ask questions about power relations and the conditions for the success of art and theater.
With the help of performative and interdisciplinary strategies, the group has engaged in an artistic research process that explores the relationship between the city of Osnabrück, the urban space, its locations and institutions and the arts and develops a project idea for Osnabrück in 2024. Where do transformation processes take place in Osnabrück? Who has the opportunity to influence them? Who benefits from them? What kind of art does a city need in order to allow everyone to participate? At the heart of the answers that emerged through practical, artistic collaboration is the question of the connection between content and form.
The group would like to continue working in the future, would like to combine their working methods with the content. They want to ask who is missing and expand – to remain fluid. Would like to create spaces of hospitality in order to work not only productively, but also with joy and in connection. The group understands that these wishes cannot be fulfilled in one weekend, that they require a longer collaboration.
We don’t just want to make art, we want to develop an ethos that is reflected in all our practices – artistic, aesthetic, everyday and extraordinary. We are writers, artists, actors, students, children, adults, partners, hosts, questioners and initiators. We have an impact on our environment, are connected and therefore have a responsibility.
The realization of the second part in cooperation with an Osnabrück institution from the field of art and culture is planned for 2024. The continuation of the collaboration works against the idea of temporary projects whose sustainability is short-lived.
That is why all that remains to be said here is: to be continued…
In cooperation with:
