Blog
In its blog, the Fonds provides in-depth insights into current developments, funding activities, goals, and projects through interviews, video statements, and talks with guests.
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Don't isolate yourselves
© Sebastian Bolesch
11 Sep 2025
In this era of austerity and a shift to the right, isolation is the wrong tactic at the wrong time, according to cultural journalist Janis El-Bira, who calls for unity. An assessment of the current situation in the independent performing arts.
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Perhaps we’re the minority after all.
© Christian Knieps
05 Sep 2025
What to do when so much speaks against the liberal arts? A plea for a reversal of the idea of wanting to reach everyone. - Cultural journalist Tobi Müller on the technological, political, and artistic reasons why thinking in terms of large numbers and majorities has even taken hold in the world of subsidized art. An uncomfortable essay in uncomfortable times in the run-up to the “BUNDESTREFFEN25 der Freien Darstellenden Künste”.
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Art needs reliability – the time to act is now
© Benjamin Krieg
04 Sep 2025
Systematic funding requires the corresponding political will - A personal contribution by Holger Bergmann, managing director of the Fonds Darstellende Künste
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The Art of Staying Many: What role does art play in our times?
© Dorothea Tuch
30 Jul 2025
Under the title “The Art of Staying Many,” playwright and writer Sascha Marianna Salzmann, performance artist and founder of the Center for Political Beauty Philipp Ruch, and FAZ feature editor and author Simon Strauß discussed the role of art. Sophie Gartmann was a guest in the audience—an essayistic reflection.
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C the Unseen - Vlog zur Kulturhauptstadt Chemnitz 2025
© Lora Ganeva + Rike Oehlrich
30 Jul 2025
Die Kulturhauptstadt Chemnitz 2025 hat sich das Motto "C the Unseen" gegeben. Lora Ganeva und Rike Oehlrich haben Passant*innen in den Straßen Chemnitz nach ihrem Verständnis des Slogans gefragt.
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Where East German mopeds and pedigree poodles meet
© Silvan Hagenbrock
30 Jul 2025
Parking spaces, workshops and social meeting places – the garage yards in Chemnitz are much more than ordinary car parks. Built in the GDR era, they exude a feeling that’s often hard to find these days: a genuine sense of community. As part of the city’s Capital of Culture program, the garage owners are opening their wooden doors to the public and to art. A reportage by Ella Rendtorff
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C the bubble, C the gap, C the treasure
© Dorothea Tuch
30 Jul 2025
Chemnitz – a European Capital of Culture caught between millions in funding and cuts to the arts. The Fonds Darstellende Künste is showing “DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN” (“The Art of Staying Many ”) here. A film that aims to strengthen the arts scene and protect it from division, but ends up bursting its own bubble.
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Does art only deserve freedom when it is right?
© Dorothea Tuch
04 Jun 2025
What is the purpose of art? What can it mean to society? Why must it be free and remain so? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung features writer Simon Strauß finds answers to these questions in the works of the Italian director and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini.
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German Winter
© Dorothea Tuch
02 Jun 2025
Sasha Marianna Salzmann's contribution tells the stories of those people who are exposed to racism in the midst of our society and builds a bridge from the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market to Salzmann's own youth and the poetry of May Ayim.
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The last border for the AfD
© Dorothea Tuch
27 May 2025
Does history always repeat itself? In his keynote speech “The last border for the AfD,” action artist Philipp Ruch analyses the socio-political situation and appeals to civil society, which dared to rise up in the GDR in 1989 and thus brought about radical change.
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40 Jahre Fonds Darstellende Künste
© Dorothea Tuch
18 Mar 2025
In seiner Eröffnungsrede am Abend der Filmpremiere von "Die Kunst, Viele zu bleiben" und des 40. Jubiläums des Fonds Darstellende Künste blickt Geschäftsführer Holger Bergmann auf das Verbindende in der Kunst und aktuelle Herausforderungen an eine "Kunst, Viele zu bleiben".
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Transformationsinfarkt
© Benjamin Krieg
10 Feb 2025
Nuremberg, 07. February 2025. From the opening speech of the annual meeting of the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft by Holger Bergmann, managing director of the Fonds Darstellende Künste
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New narratives for a world of the many
© Marcus Lieberenz
11 Dec 2024
At the Ratschlag der Vielen (Council of the Many) on November 28, 2024 at the Akademie der Künste on Pariser Platz in Berlin, many questions were raised, but some momentum was also created. The general consensus: society needs new narratives of diversity, but art must not be appropriated for this without any restrictions. After all, doesn’t its power to unleash new worlds lie precisely in its freedom? In these times, that would perhaps be the most political statement in the negotiation of democratic public spheres.
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Was ist das Spiel mit der Welt?
© Magdalena Emmerig
19 Nov 2024
Am 13. November 2024 hat ein breites Bündnis aus der Berliner Kulturlandschaft zum öffentlichen Protest gegen die geplanten Kürzungen im Berliner Kulturhaushalt aufgerufen. Gegen die Kürzungen sprach sich auch Heinrich Horwitz als Initiator*in der Petition „An den Freien Künsten zu sparen, kostet zu viel“ in einer Rede aus – hier zum Nachlesen:
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Casting an anchor into the future
© Sebastian Bolesch
21 Oct 2024
The art of staying many. The art of staying. The art of changing. The right to stay. The right to have a say. A question that an increasing number of people are asking themselves in an increasing number of places: ‘Should we stay or leave?’ - Contribution by Manja Präkels in the program of “THE ART OF STAYING MANY” at Kunstfest Weimar on August 24, 2024.
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Nazi Hits of the 1930s, 1990s and the Ugliest Chants of Today
© Sebastian Bolesch
15 Oct 2024
This isn’t some Nazi fixation. This is reality. The far-right has long become mainstream in many parts, not just yesterday. Travels around East, East, East Germany. - Writer Anne Rabe gave this speech on 24 August in Weimar as part of The Art of Staying Many – Nationwide Forums for Art, Freedom and Democracy at the Kunstfest Weimar.
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Artistic perspectives on artistic freedom and democracy
03 Jun 2024
What are the rules in art and in society? - To kick off the nationwide forums entitled “DIE KUNST, VIELEL ZU BLEIBEN”, a film team interviewed independent performing artists on the relationship between art, freedom and democracy on behalf of the Fonds freie Darstellende Künstler*innen.
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Artistic perspectives on artistic freedom and democracy
03 Jun 2024
What are the rules in art and in society? - To kick off the nationwide forums entitled “DIE KUNST, VIELEL ZU BLEIBEN”, a film team interviewed independent performing artists on the relationship between art, freedom and democracy on behalf of the Fonds freie Darstellende Künstler*innen.
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Theater der Leerzeichen
© Alexandra Polina
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Prozesse – Strukturen – Resonanz
26 May 2023
Die Fördertätigkeit des Fonds im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR wurde durch das unabhängige Unternehmen KULTUREXPERTEN Dr. Scheytt GmbH evaluiert.
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