::: SYMPOSIUM :::
Festivals – A Luxury Article or a Generator for Culture
:: Organised by Theaterfestival SPIELART
and the European Network Theatre Festivals in Transition (FIT)
:: Panel 1: "Festival and City" Friday, December 2nd, 2.00 – 5.00 pm >>
:: Panel 2: "Artists and Festival" Saturday, December 3rd, 10.00 am – 1.00 pm >>
:: Panel 3: “Festivals and their national and European Cultural Perspective” >>
Saturday, December 3rd, 2.00 – 5.00 p
:: Panel 1: “Festival and City” Friday, December 2nd, 2.00 – 5.00 pm
Participants:
Martin Berg Head of Theatre department, Goethe-Institut, MunichJörg von Brinken Munich University, theatre department
Richard Gaul Head of communication and politics of the BMW Group,
Head of the board Spielmotor München e. V.
Tilmann Broszat Artistic and Festival director SPIELART, Munich
Magda Grudzinska Festival director Krakowskje Reminiscencje Teatralne,
Krakow
Dietmar Lupfer Artistic director Muffatwerk, Munich
Werner Schmitz Cultural Department, City of Munich
Christiane Schneider Theatre direction, Münchner Kammerspiele
Brigitte von Welser Managing director of Gasteig, Cultural Center Munich
Moderation:
Rose Fenton Independent Art Producer, London
Rose Fenton
What is FIT? F.I.T. is an international initiative of eight theatre festivals from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany discussing the role of theatre festivals as a generator for a European cultural network in guest performances, lectures, readings, interviews etc. F.I.T. has the aim to strengthen the cultural political position of each participating festival both in their home countries and in Europe.
Richard Gaul
Puts festivals in analogy to companies by saying: as essential research is for a company to develop new products and in the end to earn money, as essential are festivals for culture. Festivals give the frame for trying something new without the forces of established institutions. They are a laboratory for experimenting in which making mistakes is fine – as it should be in an research department of a company. Some of the new insights that are possible in a festival might become aesthetic consensus in the future.
The public-private-partnership of Spielmotor e. V. (50% of the budget paid by BMW, 50% by the City of Munich) secures the independence of the festival SPIELART because both shareholders regard each other with suspicion. It´s also more easy to secure the budget because every single Euro spent by the city buys the authorities culture for 2 Euros (and vice versa for the controllers of BMW).
Mr Gaul points out that festivals are necessary for a city because it would dry out, if there is a cultural policy that shows only art that pleases from the very beginning. He closes with the statement “Money spent for culture is no subsidy but investment in the location of an enterprise”
Tilmann Broszat
For the artistic director of SPIELART the programmatic policy of the festival is to show productions that give new perspectives, change the perception of the audience, force the communication and interaction between actor and audience, widen their art experiences. So it is clear that the festival has to be integrated into the city and the people living in the city. SPIELART wants to close the gap / the white spots in the field of performing arts, left by the theatres and other festivals in Munich. The function of the festival is the opportunity for transfers: artistic statements and aesthetics from all over the world find their way into town (also into the cultural institutions) and vice versa.
He recognizes the need for this transfers also in the time between two festivals. For that reason (and in addition to similar efforts – for example the Kammerspiele show guest performances, the Muffathalle invites artists of the SPIELART-family for other productions) he created in cooperation with the cultural centre Gasteig the “perform, perform”–series. The aim is to show projects before, during and after the festival to keep transfers going.
Another symptom that the festival is deeply rooted in Munich is the wide variety of partnerships both in cultural institutions (for example the Haus der Kunst) and business.
Mr Broszat wants to further develop this programme strategy, one which balances the network with SPIELARTS’s own specific profile.
Jörg von Brinken
Regards festivals as a special case of cultural performances. “The SPIELART-Festival is a performance lasting from the opening till the closing, consisting not only of the productions shown but also include all other activities as the lectures, panels, parties etc.” This cultural performance is characterized by high complexity, different attempts from all over the world, the single productions establish diverse relations and connections with each other, the audience does not only see the single production but the whole festival as a percipient, which allows the changing of opinions during the festival.
Due to the heterogeneity of productions the audience gets the opportunity to make both familiar and, even more important, irritating/frustrating experiences close together. The audience becomes a co-performer in this cultural performance (supporting programme). Another important point of the process, becoming the audience co-performers is a topographic one: the 2 week expedition through the whole city to find the different venues which allows also a new experience of the city, a perception of differences.
Werner Schmitz
sees the importance of SPIELART for Munich in showing new & important productions from other countries. Munich does have a living theatre scene but there is a white spot of contemporary international productions that SPIELART fills.
According to Mr Schmitz a good festival should festivals have a singular programme, local partners should be given the opportunity to see & discuss the state of art elsewhere, local projects should get a chance to take part.
There should be no unproductive rivalry between local institutions or other festivals but good talks and collaboration between them (booking). Local authorities should search for (co-)production possibilities. Festivals give also the opportunity to start or enhance partnerships with the business world what is estimated essential in times of shortening of public budgets. Mr Schmitz sees an underestimation of festivals by the local policies although the cultural landscape of a city is considerably formed by the festivals.
Brigitte von Welser
Festivals are a good opportunity to get to know a new city. In your own city a festival is able to show the potential of certain venues.
For a venue SPIELART is necessary and warmly welcome because the spirit of internationality and high quality fills the house, highly motivates the staff, having performing art productions in the Gasteig helps to keep the balance in different art forms (Gasteig is mainly known as music venue), new audiences are visiting the house with the festival, last but not least does she expect and hope that the festival productions will give local artists a new look on the different venues in the Gasteig, often considered as old fashioned or boring so that in the end local performing artists will also show productions in the Gasteig and fill the venue with more life.
Dietmar Lupfer
The venue Muffatwerk is close to festivals because they regard themselves as an interdisciplinary and international place for contemporary art and like the idea of the linked or networking Europe. After presenting good art, also for Mr Lupfer festivals do have the function of transfers, the crossing of local and foreign aesthetics, the permanent analysing of our own cultural views, the view in the future.
Christiane Schneider
As a representative of the Münchner Kammerspiele, a theatre by the city of Munich, her point of view on festivals is the one of the invited production. If the Kammerspiele are invited to a festival, the exchange with the artists and staff of the festival and the new city are always very fruitful. But even more important on festivals for Mrs Schneider is the aspect of co-production that enables a lot of projects, which without festivals couldn’t be financed. On the other hand she points out the problem of language in multinational productions. Kammerspiele invite sometimes guest performances of directors, with whom they work regularly. They do also “small festivals” with the aim to encourage both audience and artists to take more risks.
Martin Berg
Goethe-Institute supports about 150 guest performances a year to enhance international cultural exchange. In a best case scenario a guest performance leads to new cooperations and projects in the guest city that can be re-invited to Germany. Although there is the problem of a “closed festival society” – if a production is showed at one festival, it is very often invited to other festivals too – Mr Berg regards festivals as a fantastic opportunity for artists to see their work in new contexts (for example the different reactions of different audiences), leading sometimes even to changes in a production.
To be more productive Goethe-Institute is changing its policies in a direction of more co-producing and more networking to bring artists together. The Goethe-Institute also has the aim to function as a catalyst for the free scene and the institutional theatres, in terms of more and better cooperation.
Magda Grudzinska
Reminiscencje is one of six theatre festivals in Krakow, the only one not organized by a theatre but by an independent association. They do have a venue and show productions through the whole city, what makes collaboration, co organization, a network with other institutions so important for them (cheap rooms, technical support). The position of Reminiscencje is strengthened by the fact, that the audience discovers the city in new ways and sees also new dimensions. They started with co-productions – something completely new in Poland – with interesting artists to show the development of projects at different festivals. A big problem for is that they know about the budget only a month before the festival (due to ignorance of the local authorities) so long term projects are hardly to manage.
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:: Panel 2: "Artists and Festival" Saturday, December 3rd, 10.00 am – 1.00 pm
Participants
Romeo Castllucci Artistic director Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Cesena
Gottfried Hattinger Co-curator of SPIELART, Linz
Judith Huber Actress, Performer, Munich
Gundega Laivina Programme director HOMO NOVUS, Riga
Michael Purucker Choreographer, Munich
Michael Stolhofer Artistic director SZENE SALZBURG
Jörg Witte Theatre director, Munich
Moderation
Egbert Tholl Critic, Munich
Romeo Castellucci
As an example how only co-producing festivals made a project possible he mentions his resent Tragedia Endogonidia. It was realised in ten different European cities in cooperation with different festivals. The work of the festivals cannot be underestimated. Mr Castellucci cooperated with festivals he worked with before, which directors do have a common artistic background similar to his own one. He is very grateful to the festivals not only for their support and input (local aspects) and co-production but also for taking such a high risk of co-producing a project nobody really knew how it would develop.
He noted an intensive artistic exchange with the different festivals and the cities (his group has been in each city for 15 days!) so that many local aspects and ideas of the festival makers were adopted in the project. Mr Castellucci also said that his relations to the European cities have changed during the production process. He rejects a special “festival aesthetic” but sees common artistic ideas among the festivals participating on the Tragedia.
For him it was not possible to exchange with other artists during the SPIELART festival. He has so much to do and rehearse that there is never time for that during a festival. Luckily he was the director of the Venice Biennale theatre programme so he could exchange then.
Asked by Mr Tholl about an intense cooperation with artists on her festival
Gundega Laivina
noted a change in the 10 year old, biannual HOMO NOVUS: away from only the presentation of finished productions. This year’s programme had only projects, that happened at the festival. Of course this programming brings high risks and some failures but even more it is very exciting for the artists and the audiences. To find a balance between risks and chances, they started discussions with the artists (this year: Rimini Protokoll) one year in advance to the festival. Half a year in advance the Rimini Protokoll visited Riga, met local artists, looked for venues, etc. 10 days during the festival they developed the project, produced by HOMO NOVUS, assisted by local young professional artists (students, directors). During this process cultural exchanges were possible, both influenced each other.
Mrs Laivina regards her festival as one showing mainly international productions (window to the world) but engages also Latvian artists, as the example given above shows. She admits a lack of investment in everyday artistic life of Riga, but makes clear that this work cannot be done by a festival, not only because of money but also the festival is only biannual.
As organizer with the festival she wants to create a platform for international artistic exchanges and the artists can work with it or not.
Michael Stolhofer
nowadays works with certain artist on his festival SZENE SALZBURG. The aim of festivals should be to integrate local context, to show international productions in a city to enrich artistic and non-artistic life, to change the look on a city (for example with venues all over the town). His festival is producing and co-producing a lot of projects and is in the lucky position to have a theatre in which they can rehearse during the whole year.
Mr. Stolhofer says that due to the increasing number of festivals also the number of artists and productions increased. In the last years he noticed a higher diversification and special profiles in the festivals. For him the reason that some leading theatre groups, are presented at many different festivals is their high aesthetic quality. Because of the special rules of festivals and the necessity of being understood all over Europe there has evolved a new type of artist with a new special aesthetic form.
In the last years he notices a tendency among artists to stay longer in town during a festival: “They do not only present their work and fly off but use the festival for new artistic exchange and the transmission of experience.”
Jörg Witte
says invitations for a festival are especially helpful for publicity reasons but also notices the chance for a production, if shown in a context to the other festival productions. “A festival provides the opportunity to show a production with new and other aspects.”
He uses the chance to exchange with other artists and gets new impetus from festivals. Both the free scene and institutionalised theatres get new inputs from a festival.
Another aspect especially for the free scene is also the co-production, but not only financially: if a festival for example takes over structural work, there is more energy left for the artistic work.
Asked by Mr Tholl for a lack of own and local productions at the SPIELART
Gottfried Hattinger
contradicts that and says local artists are involved in the festival. Producing costs money and therefore most of the productions shown at SPIELART are guest performances which nevertheless influence the artists of Munich and the city. For him a festival has to be, among other aspects, a window to the world (give the opportunity to see productions, that otherwise would not be seen;). He sees the necessity of supporting the artistic exchange among the artists (for example longer stays) but on the other hand it is expensive to keep the artists in town.
Mr Hattinger can’t perceive only one aesthetic in festivals. He sees many completely different aesthetic forms presented through festivals.
Judith Huber
says it was unfortunately, due to her own everyday artistic work as “Bairishe Geisha”, not possible for her during the SPIELART to exchange with the other artists. There was not really time for that.
Michael Purucker
The much discussed artistic exchange on a festival is a chimera, useful for discussions with cultural politics but not often really happening. Because the festivals would invite artists as late as possible, let him present the work, send them back as soon as possible to save hotel costs. That’s why exchange among artists is almost not happening on a festival. Mr Purucker suggests a guest house or similar structures to support the exchange.
Productive artistic discussions and exchanges take only place if a festival is producing.
He demands closer links between the festival and the city
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:: Panel 3: “Festivals and their national and European Cultural Perspective”
Saturday, December 3rd, 2.00 – 5.00 p
Participants
Steve Austen Felix Meritis Foundation, founding member of the
initiative „A soul for Europe“, Amsterdam
Elona Bajoriniene Festival Director SIRENOS, Vilnius
Zane Kreicberga Festival director HOMO NOVUS, Riga
Michel Quere Informal European Theatre Meeting (IETM), Brussels
Priit Raud Artistic director BALTOSCANDAL, Rakvere
Toni Schmid Bavarian State Ministry for science, research and the
arts, Munich
Michael Stolhofer Artistic director SZENE SALZBURG
Michael Thoss Secretary of the Allianz cultural foundation, Munich
Moderation
Rose Fenton Independent Art Producer, London
Steve Austen
regards festivals as a result of cultural needs. In terms of European ideas festivals could do more, for example reflect the origins of the European Union crisis: the missing of a soul. The European unification process has to be seen as a cultural phenomenon (not restricted only on economy) with the chance to go further on. Mr Austen demands that the role of culture should escape from localism and nationalism. “There has to be a balance between national identity and international culture.” For that aim he fights two fronts: the European commissioners and the citizens (grassroot activities). The many European networks, like the F.I.T. are very helpful and necessary.
Elona Bajoriniene
One of the main functions of the SIRENOS is the festival as window to the world, because it is the only possibility to bring that kind of theatre into the country. The audiences want the so called big names, want to see what the international scene is like. A festival should reflect the attitude to reality (with a transformation process still going on in the former communist countries), present the reactions of artists on changing reality and involve the audience in dialogue. “Festivals are circulators of ideas among citizens of different countries.”
Mrs Bajoriniene plans to enhance the collaboration with other international festivals, a process of building confidence in partners being started at the moment.
On a European cultural policy level the problem is that governments are often only interested in exporting their own culture but not in real collaboration (so they don´t give money for such projects). In such cases national governments like to refer to European Union money but due to subsidiary and bureaucracy the EU cannot help much. To reach the citizens the EU money has to be decentralized.
Zane Kreicberga
speaking of an European cultural policy has not much to do with the reality in Riga: the new cultural strategies programme just installed by the government is called “national state”. Before the Baltic countries joined the EU, everybody worked for that aim, but nobody thought of content not only, but especially in cultural things. Organizing the HOMO NOVUS is an everyday fight with the authorities national or international. She is mediating between a trans -European level and a good knowledge of the local scene, both for artists and audiences. During the festival both comes together. Festivals are a good way to escape from narrow, small circle of a national frame. Her initiation for the festival was to establish that international cultural aspect. The rethinking of the role of the festival is every time important because society, artists, etc. are changing. At the beginning in 1995 only the presentation of the productions was fruitful to audiences and artists (more openness). Mrs Kreicberga also complains about the narrow-minded national authorities, who are not willing to pay for international productions and referring to the EU authorities.
Priit Raud
also states that the government of Estonia referred to the EU when they have to deal with international cooperations, but at the moment this is changing.
In Estonia there is another problem with the authorities: they do not ask for advice in cultural things with the effect, that money is spent wrongly.
Michael Stolhofer
the SZENE SALZBURG has a long time international experience. He agrees that audiences should feel more European, but questions what the European cultural identity is. “Is it the pluralism of cultural identity?” In Austria there is European thinking but on the other hand the freedom of art is questioned.
The development of the SZENE SALZBURG is going further on in a European and international direction of cultural variety, a way the government won’t pay for. But the festival will stay a platform for both national and international identity.
Michael Thoss
the Allianz foundation does not anymore give money directly to festival budgets, but supports now the linking and networking of festivals to enhance a circulation of ideas and experience. As an international company foundation they often achieve more easily than a state foundation their intentions for example to fight the re-nationalization of the cultural policies especially in the former communist states. In the Allianz foundation claim “Culture needs freedom and a partner who creates it”, freedom is meant both politically/religiously and economically.
Toni Schmid
in opposite to Estonia the Bavarian authorities do have high qualified consultants. When they tried to get EU money for projects he also had the experience of too much bureaucracy for too less money. This is why he strongly propagates bi-national cooperation, especially the informal one. Mr Schmid asks the festival directors to try projects with the neighbour countries to get additional EU money. In terms of EU bureaucracy and the authorities in Brussels he is a Euro-sceptic and expects not much to change in the future.
Michel Quere
the IETM started in 1985 with informal meetings in friendly atmosphere for networking, collaboration, presenting workshops, multinational cooperation and so on to create a system of values that could lead to a European cultural identity. Now IETM is a worldwide network for cultural scene. It is successful because there are equal rights for each member and no power system at all. That’s a good way to start a dialogue and why there are good discussions and the best ideas are generally accepted. “It’s individuals not organizations that talk to another.”
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