Experiences of public aggression, media scandals and de-escalation strategies

How do we deal with aggressive public reactions? How can we as artists respond to the rise of violence and radicalized opinions?

A laboratory that gathers artists, representatives of theaters and communication experts around the questions: How do we deal with aggressive and violent public reactions? What strategies and tools do they have as artists to deal with harmful fake news and populist rhetoric? How can they respond to the rise of violence and radicalized opinions?

The lab is divided into three phases: The first phase consists of a round of online meetings with individual artists, led by a protocol of questions feeding into the second phase. The second phase is a two-day physical gathering at Tanzhaus NRW with five artists from Germany, Spain and Norway, alongside two dramaturges from NRW. Beside the sharing among the participants, there is an input from a guest speaker and a workshop by the organization HateAid. In the final phase, there is an online workshop by HateAid open to other interested artists.

The approach of the lab is both reflective and proactive, looking at past lived experiences to learn from them collectively, as well as offering relevant tools and new skills through inputs and workshops. The core team is Alfredo Zinola, Micaela Kühn Jara (A.Z. productions), accompanied by Agnes Sander as moderator.

Agnes Sander, Alfredo Zinola, HateAid / Katharina Heffe, Micaela Kühn Jara, Wagner Schwartz & other artists