The Ruhrtriennale
Europe in transition is the focus of this festival at different venues in the Ruhr region.
According to its artistic director Johan Simons, the Ruhrtriennale is supposed to be a “gesture of embracement” in line with the festival’s slogan of “Seid umschlungen” – a quotation from Schiller’s Ode to Joy that could be translated as “be embraced”. Such collective affection is not in evidence all over Europe at present, however. The rise of nationalistic movements and the political turmoil within the EU give cause for concern. Those responsible for the festival series are keen to express this concern through theatre projects, concerts and installations in various cities around the Ruhr region. “European culture is based on the central values of the Enlightenment”, says Simons. “Europe is a promise, and a wonderful promise at that. The Ruhr region is situated in the heart of Europe, so it is here that we want the Ruhrtriennale to draw attention to these values.”
Over the course of six weeks, international artists will be presenting their work at unconventional venues: in old industrial buildings, in churches and on the street. A disused colliery in Marl is the setting for the premiere of “Die Fremden” (i.e. The Outsiders), a stage production of Kamel Daoud’s 2013 novel “The Meursault Investigation”. The book is Daoud’s answer to “The Outsider” by Albert Camus and will be presented in Marl as a musical theatre performance with compositions by György Ligeti and Mauricio Kagel.
Cate Blanchett and Rimini Protokoll
At the “Kraftzentrale” in Duisburg, the power plant that used to supply hot air to the furnaces at an ironworks, visitors can experience the “Manifesto” film installation, which features Oscar winner Cate Blanchett playing 13 different roles. The renowned Belgian theatre-maker Luk Perceval, currently the head director at Hamburg’s Thalia-Theater, is staging “Geld. Trilogie meiner Familie 2” (i.e. Money. Trilogy of My Family 2) in an adaptation of Émile Zola’s cycle of novels “Les Rougon-Macquart”. At a concert given by the Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Matthias Pintscher, the audience will be truly embraced – namely by music. Playing music by Pierre Boulez, the concert will be performed twice in succession; members of the audience will switch seats in the interval, treating them to a very special sound experience. A journey of discovery devised by the Rimini Protokoll artists’ collective will involve even more movement: in “Trucks Tracks Ruhr”, participants take a trip through the Ruhr region on a converted truck and experience how artists have translated different sites into music.
Ruhrtriennale from 12 August to 24 September 2016
