THE ART OF STAYING MANY | Düsseldorf

"LECKEN“

Performance by CHICKS* independent performance collective

We lick, we lap, we slurp. "LECKEN" is the sex education of our dreams. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that are forgotten in school: What do we mean by sex? Which body parts give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out and address these questions.

• ​​Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 2​​​
• ​​​Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de

Opening: Welcome and keynote speech: „HASS: Von der Macht eines widerständigen Gefühls“ ("HATE: The power of a resistant feeling")

Lecture by Şeyda Kurt

Hate and democracy are generally regarded as opposites. Hate is often attributed to the opponents and enemies of democracy - as a feeling directed against democracy. But what about all those structures that enable hatred, which are part of democracy itself and are protected and legally enabled by it, e.g. in the rigid exclusion mechanisms of migration policy? In her analysis of a "politics of feelings", author and journalist Şeyda Kurt works out the ambivalences of hatred as a political feeling and also reveals its potential for resistance in democracy.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 1

Working phase I: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: Discussion with Şeyda Kurt

Referencing her latest book "Hass," journalist and author Şeyda Kurt discusses a "politics of emotions" and thus opens up a space for reflection in which "strategic emotions" become (tangible) as potentials for empowerment and resistance in the political space/struggle.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer

Alliances: "Anti-discrimination and artistic freedom: legal bases in funding contexts and the tension between the clause and artistic freedom"

Lecture by Dr. Lino Agbalaka (lawyer)

This session will focus on the legal basis in funding contexts and the tension between possible anti-discrimination measures (such as the anti-discrimination clause that was withdrawn in Berlin at the beginning of the year) and artistic freedom. But also about general legal principles for protection against discrimination, such as those enshrined in the German Basic Law, and their implementation in the field of the independent performing arts.

Practice: “Hitlergrüße und Theaterpistolen” (“Hitler salutes and theater pistols”)

Lecture by Oliver Zahn on the thresholds at which art ends.

Using examples from over 10 years of artistic practice, theater maker and performer Oliver Zahn looks at the dividing lines between what is permitted as art and what is instead prohibited by law - from the Hitler salute to terrorist attacks in Germany in the recent past.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Seminar room​

joint lunch break

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer

Work phase II: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: ​​​Antifatheater & legal situations online and on the street

Workshop with Gin Müller

The working session focuses, firstly, on the relationship of theater and performance to law, injustice and justice. It also deals with questions of (il-)legal scope for resistance against right-wing extremist movements as well as examples and connections of anti-fascist theater to activism and antifa.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, seminar room

Alliances: Workshop session on codes of conduct, voluntary commitments, crisis management and Co.

Workshop with Anne Schneider​​ ​​​​​​

The B.A.L.L. in fall 2023 painted a picture of a diverse, lively and supportive scene. However, uncertainty was palpable in many conversations. Some voices fell silent, more and more perspectives disappeared and are still disappearing from public discourse. This means that an elementary foundation of our democracy is at risk. What instruments and agreements do we currently need as a basis for productive cooperation in projects, institutions and events?

• ​​Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage1​​​
  
• ​​​Only possible with registration/more information to follow shortly

Practice: ​INTERNATIONAL UNFAIR

Workshop with LA FLEUR​​

In the international theater and dance world, there are great inequalities when it comes to the travel opportunities of the involved artists. While European and North American artists can travel worldwide without any problems, artists from the Global South are repeatedly denied visas, even if they are part of professional European companies. The group La Fleur exposes and explores this problem in the play/film "Les Chercheurs." The performer will show excerpts and discuss concrete solutions to address the injustices in transnational cooperation.

• ​​Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer​​​
• Language: In English, German and French​ ​​

"Lecken"

Performance by CHICKS* independent performance collective

We lick, we lap, we slurp. "LECKEN" is the sex education of our dreams. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that are forgotten in school: What do we mean by sex? Which body parts give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out and address these questions.

• ​​Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 2​​​
• ​​​Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de

Coffee break

"Schattendemokratien: Das Subkutane in der Rechtsetzung"

Keynote Speach by Luce de Lire

At the end of the forum day, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire will give a daily response, opening up philosophical, legal and performative approaches to legal and political scope for interpretation in order to (re)appropriate their foundations in the spirit of "creative democracy" and reinterpret them - for a legal future for the many. Luce deLire states:

"We can observe a double movement in recent years: Legislation is retreating behind the courts and individual responsibility. At the same time, it is creating sub-legislative, subcutaneous norms that may not be justiciable, but are nevertheless effective. The result is a depoliticization of politics in the light of a shadow democracy."

Luce deLire is a ship with eight sails and lies at the bottom of the quay. In addition to academic articles on topics ranging from Spinoza's metaphysics of infinity to postcolonial perspectives on social contracts and anti-fascism, she has published extensively on art and politics.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer
• Further informationen: getaphilosopher.com
  

Departure of Impulse Theater Festival shuttle bus to venues in Cologne and Bonn

"Introducing Living Smile Vidya”

Performance by Living Smily Vidya

Smily was the first trans woman to have her name and gender changed on her passport in India. But she wanted more: belonging, justice, protection from hostility. In 2018, she fled to Switzerland to escape the rise of Hindu fascism. In a personal, approachable and humorous way, she takes the audience with her on her path to liberation.

• Venue: TanzFaktur, Cologne
• Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de
  

"Lecken"

Performance by CHICKS* independent performance collective

We lick, we lap, we slurp. "LECKEN" is the sex education of our dreams. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that are forgotten in school: What do we mean by sex? Which body parts give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out and address these questions.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage2​​​
• ​​​Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de

Welcome & keynote speech: "The possibilities of an AfD ban and the legal scope for action in the arts"

Helge Lindh (MP, cultural policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group) in conversation with Jean Peters (Correctiv) on whether an AfD ban is possible, realistic and sensible and how art can use its own legal leeway in terms of artistic freedom and defend itself against attacks.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 1

Working phase I: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: Living Smile Vidya in conversation with Gin Müller

Living Smile Vidya and Gin Müller speak as trans activists and performers about specific transgender issues in theater and in different societies. They engage in an open dialogue about the connections between trans visibility in the performing arts and the fight for the rights of transgender people as a political issue.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer
• Language: In English

Alliances: “Der Zug is abgefahrn! WIR BLEIBEN HIER” (“The train has departed! WE ARE STAYING HERE”)

By and with Maren Barnikow and Tommy Neuwirth/AGENTUR FÜR

What does it mean to stand in the same squares in Thuringia that are used weekly by authoritarian populist loudmouths? AGENTUR FÜR is yelling back, getting involved and helping to shape things. Excerpts from the AGENTUR FÜR portfolio will be presented and tried out: orderly ranting and complaining, igniting the constructive-creative power of anger FOR THE FOR, artistic strategies for remeasuring public space.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 1

Practice: “Zurück an die Front der Repräsentation. Performativer Kulturkampf um die Geschlechterordnung” (“Back to the front of representation. Performative cultural struggle for the gender order”)

By and with Arne Vogelgesang

Using examples from a new generation of far-right video activists, we will examine the argumentative set pieces, affective offers and self-presentations with which the cultural struggle for the representation of gender identities, inclusive ways of speaking and body images is currently being waged against the young target group.

• Venue: Stadtfenster

joint lunch break

Work phase II: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: „Entnazifiziert euch!"

By and with Luce deLire

Using original texts, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire explores the "strategies used by the courts of the young Federal Republic to keep Nazi crimes unpunished. We also look at the role of German jurisdiction in the financial stabilization of West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, we take a look at continuities of these practices in the present using the example of rights for trans people in the Self-Determination Act."

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer

Alliances: “Soundtracks of the transformations”

Discourse format by and with Dr. Anna Lux (University of Freiburg/Leipzig)

What are the sounds of social ruptures and changes? The workshop will focus on songs about historical experiences of transformation in East Germany after 1989 and in the Ruhr region as a result of structural change. And what do the current processes of change actually sound like?

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 1

Practice: „Colonastics" - Trainingslecture

Trainingslecture with Joana Tischkau (Performance), Frieder Blume (Sound), Onur Agbaba (Performance)

Colonastics is a fitness workout that deals with the social construction of whiteness. It creates a blueprint of white male embodiment to illuminate the colonial and neo-colonial practices of the fitness industry that produce and shape our bodies and, in turn, our ideologies.

• Venue: tba

"Lecken"

Performance by CHICKS* independent performance collective

We lick, we lap, we slurp. "LECKEN" is the sex education of our dreams. SO WET, SO SOFT, SO SAFE. The queer collective talks about sexualities and asks the questions that are forgotten in school: What do we mean by sex? Which body parts give us pleasure? CHICKS* speak out and address these questions.

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Stage 2​​​
• ​​​Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de

Coffee break

"Vibrators for Dictators"

Keynote by Luc deLire

At the end of the forum day, the philosopher and performer Luce deLire will give a daily response, opening up philosophical, legal and performative approaches to legal and political scope for interpretation in order to (re)appropriate their foundations in the spirit of "creative democracy" and reinterpret them - for a legal future for the many. On the second day, Luce deLire asks about the seductive power of progressive politics and states: "Fascism is the counterculture in this country. That makes it sexy. And that's why people vote it into parliament. Where is the seductive power of progressive politics? We need a sexy counter-paradigm. Sexy socialization. Pink camouflage. Hospitality for all. Castrate the Nation! Vibrators For Dictators!"

• Venue: FFT Düsseldorf, Foyer

Departure of the Impulse Theater Festival shuttle bus to venues in Cologne and Bonn

„Introducing Living Smile Vidya”

Performance byLiving Smily Vidya

Smily was the first trans woman to have her name and gender changed on her passport in India. But she wanted more: belonging, justice, protection from hostility. In 2018, she fled to Switzerland to escape the rise of Hindu fascism. In a personal, approachable and humorous way, she takes the audience with her on her path to liberation.

• Venue: TanzFaktur, Cologne
• Further information & tickets at: www.impulsefestival.de