Where is Heimat?
The Duisburg Akzente cultural festival explores the subject of “Heimat”.
Does Heimat, a German word meaning homeland that has sentimental connotations, refer to the place where one was born and spent one’s childhood? Can somewhere new become a Heimat? Or is Heimat merely a fiction, a nostalgic term? In the Ruhr region in particular, Heimat has been the subject of much discussion. The waves of immigration triggered by industrialization meant that this question has been asked millions of time here in the past 150 years. It also remains a relevant issue in today’s Germany, a country characterized by immigration. The 36th Duisburger Akzente cultural festival will be staging around 130 events to explore the identity of the Ruhr metropolitan region. It will open with a stage production entitled “Der Himmel über der Ruhr” by Jennifer Whigham and Jens Kerbel. The renowned Duisburg Theatertreffen forms part of the cultural festival and will begin with a production of “The Cold Heart” based on Wilhelm Hauff’s fairy-tale (Schauspiel Stuttgart, directed by Armin Petras). Nine productions will be shown, including “Tales from the Vienna Woods” by Deutsches Theater Berlin. Two of Theater Duisburg’s own productions, “Iphigenia in Tauris” and “The Caretaker”, are also on the programme.
Art in the shopping street
Under the slogan “HEIMAT Beekstrasse”, the festival will be also focusing on this once so elegant shopping street in Duisburg city centre. The festival organizers will be using 30 projects to bring this former “furniture mile” to life, including the “Terra Incognita” art exhibition and THE GREEN LINE, a “participatory intervention in the urban space” by Berlin artist Manuel Schröder. During the course of their research, the Akzente organizers also rediscovered the Jewish history of this street and the neighbouring district. The writer Ulla Hahn will be making a guest appearance during the literary programme, reading from her novel “Spiel der Zeit”. Last but not least, myth and reality in the life of the Roma peoples will be addressed in the Liebfrauen Culture Church. The exhibition “Otto Pankok: Sinti Portraits and Joakim Eskildsen: Roma Travels” juxtaposes the charcoal drawings of the Rhineland painter with the Dane’s photographic milieu studies.
Having originally started out as a theatre meeting in 1977, the Duisburg Akzente soon evolved to become a cross-genre festival which devoted itself to a topical cultural or social theme each year. Since 1995, Akzente has enjoyed the status of a cultural festival of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Akzente cultural festival from 6 to 22 March 2015 in Duisburg
