B.A.L.L. - Program

lower foyer

Registration + info
Enjoy your arrival, meet the laboratory members and participants. Here you will receive all the information for the event and have the opportunity to confirm, change or add to your registration.

upper foyer

A laboratory of labs starts the same way a lab should start: with a common overview of the parts and a common creation of a suitable work context. This is what we want to do! The artist and stage designer Philine Rinnert has made an interactive inventory available to us that is founded on the contents, manifestos and suggestions and serves as a reference for discussion. Which subjects belong together? What is created, where? Can you keep it short? Let’s get active together so we can be active.

main stage | Stream | DE/ENG/DGS

Welcome: State Minister of Culture Claudia Roth, Matthias Pees (Berliner Festspiele) and Holger Bergmann (Fonds Darstellende Künste)

Impulse by Dr. Sibylle Peters – Das Recht auf Forschen and Ogutu Muraya – On decomposition and the allegory of lions and goats

Pause + meeting in the laboratory situations

Parallel experiments, discussions and panels: The B.A.L.L. is not just a conference or platform for exchange, but above all also a work meeting. Over the course of two days, the entire plenum will be divided three times into 2 – 3-hour laboratory situations that operate in parallel. The subjects are transformed work methods, art in a time of change and audiences.

Beim Geld fängt es an / IT STARTS WITH MONEY

laboratory by Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft

rehearsal studio | DE

In their TISCHGESELLSCHAFTEN, which they have been rehearsing since 2019, Antje Pfundtner and Anne Kersting have collected a great number of questions and speculations on the issues of sharing money and its redistribution. For that last year now, with the fund they have founded with numerous other artists, they have been researching what work methods and intentions to share purpose-defined money this fund creates. How does it then inspire us, when it doesn’t just belong to one artist? Which alternative currencies become relevant when the money is (re-)distributed?
Especially for the B.A.L.L., Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft is opening a laboratory situation in which it will take distribution literally: What happens if a group of people shares the questions about the future of cultural funding for two hours and then disperses.

Dancing about Labore

laboratory by Gob Squad

Universität der Künste | ENG

According to the German/British performance collective Gob Squad, certain contexts, dynamics and commitments can only be cleared on the dancefloor. For this reason, they are inviting everyone to the laboratory situation to dance about labs and collective work: as ritual access, as a shaking cure, as group therapy, as a prop made of props. Only in movement can the form and content of artist labs come together. Let‘s turn off our minds and let bodies talk. Or perhaps it’s more about exploring it in this experiment. Two, three, four - - and…
// No previous experience or dance education necessary – quite the contrary! //

Urbane Aufstellung / URBAN PLACEMENT

laboratory by Philine Velhagen

outside| DE

An applied stock-taking via Bluetooth headphones: How are we doing? Where have we landed? Where do we want to go? What do we want to share and what do we want to keep to ourselves? Who understands us, who doesn’t?
Under direction, this outside laboratory explores positioning and professing the coordinates of approaching and distancing at an urban place close to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. In the process, everyone meets everyone and everything: the instructor, the city and the soundtrack of the coming dusk.
// Weatherproof clothing advisable //

Auf Tuchfühlung / UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Anstöße + Gespräche / INSPIRATIONS AND CONVERSATIONS

hybrid laboratory stage with Monika Gintersdorfer (La Fleur, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen), Ben J. Riepe (Freiraum), Caspar Weimann (onlinetheater. live), Wilma Renfordt (Impulse Theater Festival), Sahar Rahimi and Stefan Kaegi
Moderation: Bassam Ghazi (Stadt:Kollektiv Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus)

Streaming+stage | DE/ENG/DGS

Live and in color, the discourses and inspirations around working in the performing arts and the urgent questions about the future disperse from the streaming+stage at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele direct and undisguised for posterity or parallel universes. This laboratory situation’s format is based on a mini-conference and is just brimming with frontal contents. The things that are spread and get out of hand in the other situations are condensed here in the form of impulses, interviews and short panel discussions.
At the beginning, the representatives of this round will primarily examine the production methods between the continents and media. What free spaces open up? Which spaces disappear if we don’t know how to stop that from happening?

Zu Papier / ON PAPER

collective zine workshop hosted by Hannah Müller and Max Gadow

lower stage | DE/ENG

The common continued writing of thought thoughts and noted notes, written texts and found images has many names: zine-making, hobby hour, making collages. In this laboratory situation, the hosts Hannah Müller and Max Gadow bring together all these forms and give you the opportunity to ventilate your experiences, what has been presented to you or labored through as a collectively produced brochure. To be newly written and sent back to the B.A.L.L.
What do we want to emphasize, to rewrite, to think further? At the same time, you are invited to bring your notes, lab texts or other scratch paper to make them available for further work/recycling/publication in the sense of sustainability.

main stage | Stream DE/numerous languages/DGS
admission from 6:30 pm

Unconditional belief in progress, expansion and extraction are no contradiction to an incessant repetition of the same. Is it possible to interrupt endless repetition, to act differently, remember differently, live together differently?
In an arena, clocked in the rhythm of administrative time, 100 experts from the fields of art, activism, theory and different daily lives of work present their expertises for and against the repetitive. Which routines will finally be ended, re-valued or newly practiced? Is everything already there, and are we just repeating the wrong things?
The “Market for useful knowledge and non-knowledge” is simultaneously a place for knowledge transferal, an archive and reading room, market and advice center. Book 30-minute individual talks for one Euro or access the conversations via headphones.

media foyer

main stage | Stream | DE/ENG/DGS

Impulse by Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst – Art – In praise of the lab in difficult times and Dr. Jörg Albrecht – Es hurt nicht auf

Pause + meeting in the laboratory situations

Parallel experiments, discussions and panels: The B.A.L.L. program is not just a conference or platform for exchange, but above all also a work meeting. Over the course of two days, the entire plenum will be divided three times into 2 – 3-hour laboratory situations that operate in parallel. The subjects are transformed work methods, art in a time of change and audiences.

Auf die Plätze, fertig, Zusammenarbeit / ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, COOPERATE

laboratory by i can be your translator

rehearsal stage| DE

On the basis of an inclusive basic attitude, the artists from i can be your translator have been researching new forms of collective cooperation and its artistic realization for approximately the last 10 years. In this informative and simultaneously performative laboratory, they will first share their approach and then at the end invite the participants to develop and test strategies with them for collective and self-determined work. Freely according to the motto: we do everything that happens to get in our way. This mental work quickly moves into our legs and from there into our entire bodies.

Wir müssen draußen reden / WE HAVE TO TALK OUTSIDE

laboratory by Anna Kpok

outside | DE/ENG

The collective art producer Anna Kpok from Bochum has been working for over a decade on performative formats of gaming in the context of interaction with audiences. For the B.A.L.L., she is inviting those of you who are open to contact to enter into encounters with people outside of the lab bubble and let yourself be inspired by them. In addition, various digitally supported, experimental methods will be implemented in which urban space, image-based imaginative power and playful conversational situations will all be connected.
// Feel free to bring your charged smartphones and get ready for the so-called outside //

Der Götterbaum muss weg! / THE GOD TREE MUST GO!

laboratory by Club Real

outside | DE/ENG

Everyone is talking about natural laws. But corona viruses, bed bugs and god trees are a part of urban nature. On a tour through the surroundings of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele (including the parking garage), in the lab on agency and resistance we will meet controversial living beings in their habitats and work on an apology of the undesirable.
// weatherproof clothing advisable //

Denkmal für einen Samstag Vormittat / MONUMENT FOR A SATURDAY MORNING

laboratory by LIGNA on aporee.org

outside| DE/ENG

To begin to understand the depth and expanse of the audience phenomenon in this laboratory situation, Torsten Michaelsen from LIGNA is inviting participants to an applied study of historic preservation. Together with the urban media artist, we will explore people in public space and allow them and their movement habits to become performative sculptures. This laboratory researches the movement material on the Ku’damm, starts an audio map and thus creates instructions for action for posterity or for those who are connected in parallel. Where do they walk – the observers from tomorrow? Examined and immortalized by today’s lab workers.
// A charged phone with a dictation function would be helpful. So would weatherproof clothing. //

Auf Tuchfühlung /UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

discussion laboratories by either or
Ela Kagel (SUPERMARKT, GameChanger) | DE
Cilgia Gadola (Systemcheck, BFDK) | DE
Dan Thy Nguyen (Studio Marshmallow) | DE
Hannah Biedermann (pulk fiktion) | DE

upper foyer, side stage

Artists, stakeholders and activists from the independent performing arts who would like to enter into a concrete exchange with their colleagues will join in these four work circles. Inspired by a shared thought, found lab ideas, carried by an initiative that is meant to be expanded or founding impulses that should be planted – they will enter into a discussion-based exchange in small groups.

Questions about access to society and diverse forms of societies will be the focus here.

Anstöße + Gespräche / INSPIRATIONS + CONVERSATIONS

hybrid laboratory stage by Ilia Papatheodorou (She She Pop), Aenne Quiñones (HAU Hebbel am Ufer), Marijke Hoogenboom (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste), Luise Meier, Herbordt/Mohren und Yunus Can Ersoy (Maxim Gorki Theater),
Moderation: Fatima Çalışkan

Streaming+stage | DE/ENG/DGS

Live and in color, the discourses and inspirations around working in the performing arts and the urgent questions about the future disperse from the streaming+stage at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele direct and undisguised for posterity or parallel universes. This laboratory situation’s format is based on a mini-conference and is just brimming with frontal contents. The things that are spread and get out of hand in the other situations are condensed here in the form of impulses, interviews and short panel discussions.
This time it’s more about the opening for new audiences and the confrontation with social questions concerning co-determination and participation in times defined by crises.

Zu Papier / ON PAPER

collective zine workshop
hosted by Hannah Müller and Max Gadow

lower stage | DE/ENG

The common continued writing of thought thoughts and noted notes, written texts and found images has many names: zine-making, hobby hour, making collages. In this laboratory situation, the hosts Hannah Müller and Max Gadow bring together all these forms and give you're the opportunity to ventilate your experiences, what has been presented to you or labored through as a collectively produced brochure. To be newly written and sent back to the B.A.L.L.
What do we want to emphasize, to rewrite, to think further? At the same time, you are invited to bring your notes, lab texts or other scratch paper to make them available for further work/recycling/publication in the sense of sustainability.

Lunch+ pause

Parallel experiments, discussions and panels: The B.A.L.L. program is not just a conference or platform for exchange, but above all also a work meeting. Over the course of two days, the entire plenum will be divided three times into 2 – 3-hour laboratory situations that operate in parallel. The subjects are transformed work methods, art in a time of change and audiences.

What about senses?

laboratory by Ben J. Riepe & Team

rehearsal stage | DE/ENG

Ben J. Riepe & Team
For the second time, the Ben J. Riepe Team realized „What about the Senses? – School of Experience” as a knowledge transfer format that was dedicated to the virulent questions about the reality and relevance or our physical live experiences. In the eponymous workshop, Ben J. Riepe and two performers from his team trace the practices and experiences from the “School of Experience” and focus on breathing and the possibility to have an effect on the body and consciousness with it. In simple but highly effective breathing techniques and intense impressions of light, sound or fog, the channels of both sensual and cognitive perception will be opened and balanced so that an increased permeability of your own reception on both levels can be made possible.
// Previous experience is not necessary; comfortable clothing is recommended. //

Protestlabor / PROTEST LAB

low garage | DE/ENG

Grumpy Bear from the Care Bears will not miss this meeting of the independent performing arts to give B.A.L.L. the tools it needs to give this assembly political clout. Grumpy and his (band) colleagues will open the lab “How to Demoplakate” with you and study a 1A protest song. May politics and the public take care of art and its protagonists. Who cares?!

Auf Tuchfühlung / UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

discussion laboratory with either or
Julia*n Meding (Dissolving Our Market Value) | DE
Philine Rinnert (Studio Ukraine) | DE
Mable Preach (Lukulule) | DE
Kevin Rittberger (Gruppe Neues Theater (AT)) | DE
Adele*Mike Dittrich Frydetzki, Lara Chahal (ISaT) | DE
Barbara Santos (Theatre of the Oppressed) | ENG

upper foyer, side stage

Artists, stakeholders and activists from the independent performing arts who would like to enter into a concrete exchange with their colleagues will join in these five work circles. Inspired by a shared thought, found lab ideas, carried by an initiative that is meant to be expanded or founding impulses that should be planted – they will enter into a discussion-based exchange in small groups.

The symbiosis of agendas of political change and structural hierarchies as well as how these can be balanced will be the focus here.

Anstöße + Gespräche /INSPIRATIONS AND CONVERSATIONS

hybrid laboratory stage with Oliver Roth (Labor Theater HORA), Heinrich Horwitz, Beate Baron (Zeitgenössisches Musiktheater Berlin), Franziska Werner (Sophiensӕle), Janina Benduski (LAFT Berlin) und Philippe Bischof (Pro Helvetia)
Moderation: Frauke Meyer

Streaming+stage | DE/ENG/DGS

Live and in color, the discourses and inspirations around working in the performing arts and the urgent questions about the future disperse from the streaming+stage at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele direct and undisguised for posterity or parallel universes. This laboratory situation’s format is based on a mini-conference and is just brimming with frontal contents. The things that are spread and get out of hand in the other situations are condensed here in the form of impulses, interviews and short panel discussions.
Especially the representatives of institutions and initiatives will have a voice in the round who have introduced or are still introducing change to their infrastructures.

Zu Papier / ON PAPER

collective zine workshop
hosted by Hannah Müller und Max Gadow

lower stage | DE/ENG

The common continued writing of thought thoughts and noted notes, written texts and found images has many names: zine-making, hobby hour, making collages. In this laboratory situation, the hosts Hannah Müller and Max Gadow bring together all these forms and give you're the opportunity to ventilate your experiences, what has been presented to you or labored through as a collectively produced brochure. To be newly written and sent back to the B.A.L.L.
What do we want to emphasize, to rewrite, to think further? At the same time, you are invited to bring your notes, lab texts or other scratch paper to make them available for further work/recycling/publication in the sense of sustainability.

Pause + snack

lower foyer

main stage | Stream | DE/ENG/DGS

The documentary “Dennoch – zur Lage der Freien Künste (AT)” reflects current challenges and transformations in the contemporary independent performing arts and simultaneously shows their special qualities as well as their national relevance. The cinematic evaluation of the federal artist labs becomes a document of the artists’ social, political and artistic issues, the associated production venues as well as the support programs designed and realized by the Fonds Darstellende Künste in the context of NEUSTART KULTUR.

main stage | Stream] | DE/ENG/DGS

Impulse by Dr. Andreas Görgen (Ministry Director BKM) and Panel discussion with: Dr. Andreas Görgen (BKM), Helge Lindh MdB (SPD), Anikó Glogowski-Merten MdB (FDP), Erhard Grundl (MdB kulturpolitischer Sprecher Bündnis 90 /Die Grünen), Moderation: Janis El-Bira (nachtkritik)

“The market will not manage this” offers the opportunity to move from artistic practice to the practice of cultural politics.
If contemporary art shapes new forms, issues and practices in a future society, then what kind of cultural politics do we need now? Can we understand the federal landscape of the independent performing arts as a large decentral cultural institution of national relevance that, in a time of overlapping crises, requires substantial and sustainable commitment on the part of federal politics?
This and other questions will be discussed by representatives of the governing parties and the head of office of the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, moderated by the cultural journalist Janis El-Bira.

upper foyer | Stream | DE /ENG, DGS

media foyer

When 30 artist labs with many participants work on artistic practices and innovative positions over the course of weeks, an immense archive is created with new thought patterns that need to be erased and newly learned. The Mediafoyer brings together the collected practice knowledge and delivers a self-determined insight into the republic, genres and emphases that are being set.