The THEATER DER WELT festival has been travelling through Germany for 45 years, taking place in a new location each time. How does a festival shape the city in which it takes place and how does the city in turn shape the festival? This year, the THEATER DER WELT festival is a guest in Chemnitz. With a focus on the temporary in the festival, in the archive and in the theatre, this exhibition ventures a look behind the scenes.
Temporary Archive - Archive of the Temporary
For almost 10 years, the International Theatre Institute Germany, sponsor of the festival, has been archiving the individual editions. As a temporary installation on site in Chemnitz, the archive provides an insight into previous editions of THEATER DER WELT. It shows the diversity of the festival editions and the locations where they took place. The digital archive gives visitors the opportunity to browse through productions, people, documents, images and texts from the festivals and learn more about their connections. With an audio installation, we present contemporary witnesses of various festival editions who give an insight into their perspective on the festival. In this year's focus, we take a look at temporary festival locations. How do venues and festival centres shape the encounter with THEATER DER WELT on site? New venues are constantly being discovered, developed and built on - for the festival and for the city. Temporariness often turns into permanence and festivals can act as cultural-political motors for the development of (new) art venues.
Spinning the thread
The THEATER DER WELT archive is an archive in the making. We are aware that much is certainly still missing, much is still being created. The archive is constantly being supplemented and completed by research, interviews, snippets and materials. We would also like to invite you to tell us your stories about the festival and the theatre. In an interactive installation, we are building the history of the festival together with you.
