In-between time

This notion of a time in-between was the theme we chose when we started planning the Ruhrtriennale three years ago. It contains a certain scepticism about the present and the hope of change. We saw in-between time as a chance to help influence things. None of this has changed. In this third year we are concerned with restrictions of freedom that creep up by stealth but are becoming increasingly obvious. We are concerned with fear as an instrument of control and we are concerned with the sense of loss and dislocation felt by many people who no longer belong to any social context. The photographer Fatih Kurceren has created some moving photographs on these themes. At the same time the artists in this programme have been looking for signs of a new way of thinking and feeling, of new possibilities and new ways of sharing, of cohabitation and inclusion. Here we will once again focus more firmly on perspectives from outside Europe.

Many artists from the previous two years will return: in the Jahrhunderthalle our Artiste associé Christoph Marthaler will produce a music theatre project for a large orchestra about people who have disappeared, and about the loss and reappropriation of utopias. William Kentridge presents a remarkable new work of images and music about the life that happened and the life that never happened: about life that could have been lived but wasn’t. Serge Aimé Coulibaly will premiere a creation about fear and violence that has been developed in several African countries and in Europe. In his new creation Mariano Pensotti tells about corrupt résumés. In his two films which we additionally show Pensotti follows individuals in Buenos Aires and in Athens in single episodes. Together they make up a theatre audience. The story of the oppression and the energy of a young woman that Kornél Mundruczó has to tell us will certainly move many of you. The American artist Olu Oguibe will portray former coalminers and the South African artist Candice Breitz will create a video installation for the Ruhrtriennale and the Museum Folkwang about aggrieved men and right-wing populism. The Argentinian director Lola Arias has devised a documentary play with and about teenage refugees, while the American director Tina Satter tells the true story of a whistleblower. In her new work for the Ruhrtriennale with a set designed by Philippe Quesne, Meg Stuart will compare life that is going too slowly with life that is going by too fast. Brigitta Muntendorf and Stephanie Thiersch will examine unconventional configurations of sound and movement in a fantastic architectural structure by Sou Fujimoto.

Chorwerk Ruhr celebrates its 20th anniversary as part of this year’s Ruhrtriennale with performances of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Elijah in five different cities in the region. MaschinenHausMusik also returns in our third year with an unusual programme, extended by two special world premieres in the Salzlager. Steven Sloane unites the Bochumer Symphoniker with the Malmö Operaorkester
in one concert with Gustav Mahler’s 6. Sinfonie and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Stille und Umkehr.

Of course raumlaborberlin’s Third Space will be back and this year it will focus on the themes of knowledge and archives.

I would like to wish you broader perspectives in every possible way.
Stefanie Carp
Artistic Director Ruhrtriennale 2018 2019 2020