Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes
Information: In Romanian and Russian with German and English surtitles
In Memory Distortion. MIXTAPE, the story runs in a loop, though not always forwards. It jumps. Repeats itself. Gets stuck. Like something that is played over and over again; recorded over, deleted, and re-recorded. Just like memories, a phenomenon that the titular psychological term alludes to. Memory Distortion. MIXTAPE is a concert, an archive, an experimental arrangement. The production creates music that arises in the moment, like thoughts. Voices are sampled, looped, distorted, overwritten. Winner of the 2026 ITI Prize, di rector, author, and performer Nicoleta Esinencu comes from Moldova. This small country has both a Romanian and Soviet past and an unclear future, wedged as it seems to be between Western and Eastern Europe. Esinencu’s performance of beats, video, texts, and acoustics draws on this context: From a colonised country to a socialist state to a neoliberal democra cy, it plunges from one political alliance into the next. These transitions leave traces, but rarely monuments. Many stories have never found their way into school textbooks. They exist as fragments, as private memories, as sounds. Memory Distortion. MIXTAPE makes this state audible.
From June 18 to July 5, 2026, Chemnitz will be in the international spotlight: Germany’s largest international theater festival, “Theater der Welt,” is coming to Chemnitz—immediately following the city’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2025. For three weeks, Chemnitz will become a gathering place for artists, audiences, and theater enthusiasts from all over the world. On stages, in public spaces, and at extraordinary venues, a vibrant celebration of the performing arts will unfold, transcending borders and bringing together stories from all corners of the globe.
Nine international curators from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Argentina, South Africa, Greece, Jordan, India, Senegal, and China will shape the festival program. In November, they will meet in Chemnitz to select around 40 outstanding productions—works they have previously scouted in their regions. The result will be an inspiring panorama of contemporary theater forms, languages, and perspectives.
