Program Overview
Friday, September 25, 2026
- starting at 3:30 p.m.
Arrival + Registration
- Ticket: You’ll find the QR code in the confirmation email you received after registering.
- Location: HAU1, Foyer
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Independent Performing Arts will convene starting at 12:00 p.m. Representatives from state-level cultural funding agencies will gather as part of BUNDESTREFFEN26 for an in-depth discussion on current challenges facing the independent performing arts. (Venue: Robert-Wilson-Zimmer)
- 4:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Opening
Welcome remarks by Holger Bergmann (Managing Director of the Fonds Darstellende Künste) and BUNDESTREFFEN26 moderator Boussa Thiam
Opening address by Konrad Schmidt-Werthern (Senior Official at the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media)
Statements on cultural policy by Hakan Demir (Member of the Bundestag, SPD), David Schliesing (Member of the Bundestag, Die Linke) and Awet Tesfaiesus (Member of the Bundestag, Bündnis90/Die Grünen), N.N. (CDU/CSU)
Musical performances by Shlomi Moto Wagner and the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop
Panel Discussion: Art in Turbulent Times
Featuring a keynote address by Eva von RedeckerBurning landscapes, incendiary extremes, simmering resentment. In turbulent times, what might vibrant art look like—art that celebrates humanity, diversity, and beauty, inspires hope for the future—and yet remains critical?
Read more- Format: Keynote, Panel Discussion
- Location: HAU1, Stage
Get-Together
- Venue: HAU1, Fuchsbar
- 9:00 p.m. – 10:10 p.m.
Preview ETERNITY(2026)
A film by Susanne Regina Meures, starring Florentina Holzinger, Peaches, and many more.
To turn their backs on a world ravaged by war and climate collapse, a group of friends flees to the ends of the earth—into the eternal ice. Read more
- Format: Film
- Venue: HAU1, Stage
Saturday, September 26, 2026
- starting at 9:00 a.m.
Arrival + Registration
- Ticket: You’ll find the QR code in the confirmation email you received after registering.
- Venue: HAU1, Foyer
- 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Video Installation “about Art and Research”
The interview series “about Art and Research (aAaR)” offers concise insights into the discourses, practices, and methods of artistic research. In short interviews artists, theorists, and representatives of institutions answer questions about their approaches, perspectives, and working methods. Initiated by Martina Leeker and subsequently carried out with Konstanze Schütze and Anja Lomparski, this teaching and research project at the University of Cologne and the Karlsruhe University of Education was jointly conducted by students, faculty, and experts.
- Format: Videoinstallation
- Spoken Language: German, English
- Venue: HAU1, Coat check areas in the 1st-floor foyer
- 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Kick-off
Opening Remarks Boussa Thiam (Host)
Doing Research in Art and Science
Research techniques are part of the craft not only of scholars but also, and for quite some time now, of artists—especially in the independent performing arts. They find expression, among other things, in documentary, autofictional, or investigative forms of theater... Read more
- Format: Panel Discussion
- Venue: HAU1, Stage
- 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Art and Aesthetics in the Age of AI: A Focus on Artistic Techniques
In addition to experiments with augmented, virtual, and gamified extensions of reality, generative and assistive AI systems are also being applied in artistic production processes. Biases in algorithms, large language models, and motion capture tools are not only deconstructed, but... Read more
- Format: Inputs and Presentations
- Venue: HAU1, Stage
Don’t stop me now: Where do we get our energy?
This discussion series focuses on ideas surrounding the concept of “energy” as a central material resource for art. Where do we get our energy when resources are scarce? ... Read more
- Format: Fishbowl Discussion
- Venue: HAU1, Fuchsbar
Learning from Black Resistance Practices
Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald offers insights into her current choreographic research on Black resistance and anti-racist practices... Read more
- Format: Movement Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Houseclub, Ground Floor
Strategies of (Self-)Presentation
… and how one could find a productive distance from them
How does one tell one’s own story in theater? How does one tell the story of a self in theater that understands itself as unfinished? How might such a self be embodied, and how would it perform? Starting from a sense of a crisis in authentic self-staging... Read more- Format: Embodiment Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 0, Upper Floor
Culturally Sensitive Research
Benjamin Truong offers insights into culturally sensitive research based on his own experiences working with the Vietnamese-German community. Drawing on his productions “Can You Hear Me? – On Vietnamese-German Speechlessness” (2024) and ... Read more
- Format: Research Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 1 (Pavilion 1), 1st floor
Artistic Research for a Future Worth Living
As a continuation of the artistic evolution of her installation-based narrative spaces “Rhizomat” (2016) and “Transit” (2021), Mona el Gammal has transformed her research on the commons-based transformation of the world and society into a form of knowledge repository... Read more
- Format: Research Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 1 (Pavilion 2), 1st floor
- 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Lunch Break
- Venue: WAU, HAU2 Foyer
- 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Art and Aesthetics in the Age of AI: Future Constellations of Democracy and Theater
Currently, it is not only in the U.S. that we can observe how AI companies, with their business models based on extraction and ideology, are having anti-democratic effects. The independent performing arts, in particular, see themselves as liberal spaces where democratic values ... Read more
- Format: Panel Discussion
- Venue: HAU1, Stage
Don’t stop me now: We’re just getting started!
In this exchange program, students from a wide range of artistic disciplines at five different colleges and universities across Germany discuss their visions for the future of artistic practice and work. What goals and visions do they bring to the table? What aesthetic Role Models... Read more
- Format: Fishbowl Discussion
- Venue: HAU1, Fuchsbar
Waacking – Physical Introduction
As part of a hands-on introduction, Yeliz Pazar/Mānuka presents the methods and concepts she developed for the production “POINT OF NO RETURN.” The starting point is Waacking, a dance style that emerged during the disco era of the 1970s within the Afro-Latinx American LGBTQ* community in Los Angeles... Read more
- Format: Movement Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Houseclub, Ground Floor
Don’t stop, meme it! Physical Introduction
Miller de Nobili (Chiara de Nobili & Alexander Miller) share movement material from their production „Hype the Pain” (2025). How can selected memes circulating on social media platforms be reinterpreted through the body? How does this change their impact, particularly in terms of the emotions... Read more
- Format: Movement Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 0, Upper Floor
On Stumbling. Research Practices in Documentary Forms
What can become material during the research process? Who speaks? Selections are made even during the research phase. How are performance and theater texts created? From stumbling and the courage to leave gaps, from “creating documents” to “performing documents”... Read more
- Format: Research Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 1 (Pavilion 1), 1st floor
Research-based Theater with Children and Teens
Esther Pilkington shares insights into her artistic research practice, which views research and research-based theater as a participatory process involving children and young people. Drawing on past and current projects, she begins by explaining... Read more
- Format: Research Workshop
- Venue: HAU3, Studio 1 (Pavilion 2), 1st floor
- 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Don’t Stop Me Now – Reflection and Outlook
To conclude BUNDESTREFFEN26, the Fonds Dartstellende Künste invites Klaus Lederer to a “Face It” – don’t stop me now: A look at the present, possibilities, and visions of the future. Where familiar artistic practices reach their breaking points, spaces emerge... Read more
- Format: Keynote Presentation
- Venue: HAU1, Stage