Ruhrtriennale 2016 successful once again in its second year under Johan Simons
Festival makers deliver positive report – record ticket sales since the festival was founded yet again – second Ruhrtriennale season under Johan Simons even more political
Bochum, 22nd September 2016 – A provisional report on the Ruhrtriennale 2016 was presented in Bochum today by Johan Simons, Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale 2015 – 2017, and Lukas Crepaz, Managing Director of Kultur Ruhr GmbH. Before this year’s festival season ends there are still performances of ‘Earth Diver’ (to 24.9.), ‘MEDEA.MATRIX’ (to 24.9.) and ‘The Things That Pass’ (to 24.9.). The Ruhrtriennale 2016’s final premiere will be ‘Golden Hours (As You Like It)’ on 22.9. in Bochum. The concluding event at the ‘Refektorium’ will take place on 24.9. with two performances from Teentalitarianism (‘Ask for the Moon #2’, ‘Sexual Education’). The installations ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, ‘well,come’, ‘Truck Tracks Ruhr Album #3’ and ‘Manifesto’ remain open to visitors up to and including 24.9. And the closing performance will take place in the turbine hall of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum with ‘Pantha du Prince presents The Triad’ late at night on 24.9.
During their concluding press conference, Johan Simons and Lukas Crepaz thanked the Ruhrtriennale’s artists and team for making the 2016 such a success. They also thanked the numerous sponsors, funding bodies and partners whose support has made much of the programming of the Ruhrtriennale 2016 possible. The third and final season under Artistic Director Johan Simons will take place from 18.8. to 30.9.2017.
Liberty? Equality? Fraternity?: The Ruhrtriennale 2016 was even more political than before in its investigation of the central values of the Enlightenment: Liberty? Equality? Fraternity? What do these values mean now? The Ruhrtriennale’s productions provoked people to think about these ideas – in ways which were at times obvious and at others more subtle. ‘Alceste’ by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first great opera from the age of the Enlightenment, was a story of freedom and doubt in the face of crisis and fanaticism. In his choreography ‘In Medias Res’, Richard Siegal drew clear parallels between the Purgatory of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and contemporary political discourses. The issue of religion became one of the main themes in the music theatre production ‘Die Fremden’. This world premiere based on Kamel Daoud’s novel ‘The Meursault Investigation’ questioned how difficult it is to assume the perspective of another, whether a refugee or a religious critic. Alain Platel’s ‘nicht schlafen’ was inspired by Gustav Mahler and the period of unrest before the First World War. He drew evident parallels to the frequent brutality of the present day and to the ominous mood which many consider to be on the rise in Europe. The programme in the Refektorium also featured marked political themes with a series of films on the issue of migration and performances and installations addressing cultural conflict.
Ticket sales: A total of 50,000 tickets were sold for the Ruhrtriennale 2016, 4,300 of which for the. film installation ‘Manifesto’. 5,200 tickets more were sold than in the previous year. Altogether a total of just under 53,000 tickets went on sale for Ruhrtriennale events (not including the visitors of ‘Manifesto’ and those of the free installations ‘well,come’, the Campustriennale exhibition or ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’). It is calculated that by the end of the festival on 24.9. 86 per cent of the available tickets will have been sold. The free installations and performances had approx. 23,500 visitors. The 2016 season’s best-attended productions were ‘Alceste’ with approx. 6,000 tickets sold, ‘Die Fremden’ with 5,400 tickets and ‘Ritournelle’ with 4,300 tickets.
Programme: In 2016 there were a total of 40 productions with over 200 individual performances. These included 20 world premieres, new productions, German premieres and installations. The 40 productions, 32 of which were either produced or co-produced by the Ruhrtriennale, were presented in 24 different venues in Bochum, Bottrop, Dinslaken, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gladbeck, Hamm, Marl and Mülheim. Over 900 artists from more than 25 countries took part in the 2016 festival.
New Venues: The Ruhrtriennale staged its first ever performances in Marl in 2016. ‘Die Fremden’, one of the central productions of the 2016 season, was produced in the Kohlenmischhalle of the Auguste Victoria mine which had only recently been decommissioned in December 2015. The premiere on 2.9. was attended by both Federal President Joachim Gauck and author Kamel Daoud, the writer of the novel on which this music theatre piece was based. With ‘Urban Prayers Ruhr’ the Ruhrtriennale explored the religious megacity of the Ruhr region and was the guest of six different faith communities in Bochum, Dinslaken, Dortmund, Duisburg, Hamm and Mülheim an der Ruhr.
Installations: The Ruhrtriennale 2016’s installations ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, ‘Manifesto’, ‘Truck Tracks Ruhr Album #3’ and ‘well,come’ aroused intense interest. The festival’s most popular attractions included ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ with approx. 19,500 visitors and the film installation ‘Manifesto’ at the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord with approx. 4,300 visitors. The installation ‘well,come’ at Dortmund harbour received approx. 2,500 visitors and ‘Truck Tracks Ruhr Album #3’ approx. 1,500 visitors. No figures were recorded for the many visitors to the Campustriennale Exhibition ‘Bude Bett Bargeld’ / ‘Licht unserer Tage’ in the foyers of the Ruhrtriennale venues.
Campustriennale: In 2016 some 120 young artists from 12 different countries took part in the Campustriennale, made up of the College, Masterclass and Exhibition, including participants from Belgium, Finland, Israel, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Russia. In the College they attended Ruhrtriennale productions, took part in discussions with the artists or participated in workshops. For the second year running the Masterclass gave three theatre collectives the opportunity to complete and present their own productions as part of the festival with professional support from the Ruhrtriennale and its three co-producers Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Schauspiel Essen and Schauspielhaus Bochum. For the first time the Ruhrtriennale held a photography masterclass in the run-up to the 2016 season. Four emerging photographers took part in mastercourses with Julian Röder (‘Licht unserer Tage’) and the late Daniel Josefsohn (‘Bude Bett Bargeld’) and created their own photographic works engaging explicitly with the Ruhr region. The results of these mastercourses were transformed into a mobile show for the Campustriennale Exhibition which was presented in the foyers of the Ruhrtriennale venues. These works can also be seen in an online exhibition (www.budebettbargeld.de and www.lichtunserertage.de). In addition a catalogue with the same title (‘Bude Bett Bargeld / Licht unserer Tage’) has been published by Distanz Verlag.
Teentalitarianism: A territory was established under teenage control among the structures built by Atelier Van Lieshout in front of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. Here the group ‘Mit Ohne Alles’, 40 young people from different parts of the Ruhr region with roots in nine different countries worked together with the “Young Mammals” from Toronto and the artists of Mammalian Diving Reflex to create a place where the views, desires and rules of young people were given absolute priority. The young people developed their own contribution to the Ruhrtriennale 2016: a marathon project consisting of twelve individual projects (performances, dares, parties or conferences) culminating in their own manifesto which will be read out on 24.9. in the Refektorium at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum.
“Be Embraced”: This leitmotif as a gesture of geographical and social inclusion links the three years of Johan Simons’ artistic directorship. It is evident both in the festival’s programming and also in its ethos. Alongside a broad spectrum of programming which addressed a young pop music audience as well as the established festival audience, a city-wide project was developed in ‘Urban Prayers Ruhr’ which facilitated a space for open dialogue between believers and non-believers away from known Ruhrtriennale venues. The Refektorium in the Bochum art village ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ once again provided a rich and largely free programme of readings, performances and parties, permitting direct exchanges between the audience and local residents with artists and festival-makers. Surprise concerts given free of charge by the MusicAeterna Chorus at a shopping center in Mülheim, the B’Rock Orchestra in Bochum city centre and the Asko | Schönberg Ensemble in a marketplace in Marl carried art right into the heart of cities in the Ruhr region. This year’s Ruhrtriennale also offered its audience the chance to be an active part of the festival. The Dutch artist Aernout Mik made a film in the Kohlenmischhalle at the Auguste Victoria mine in Marl with some 80 extras from the region which became a central element in the Ruhrtriennale production ‘Die Fremden’. Numerous formats such as ‘Johan’s High Noon’ and the workshops at the ‘Refektorium’ invited audiences and local residents to meet and talk to the Ruhrtriennale’s artists and festival-makers.
Professional audience: In 2016 230 culture professionals, artists and theatre-makers from all over Europe as well as from Australia and the USA were accredited at the Ruhrtriennale.
Accredited journalists: Some 300 journalists from countries including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, South Korea and the USA were accredited at the Ruhrtriennale 2016. In addition to comprehensive coverage in print and online there were also national and international radio and tv reports (including BBC 3, heute journal, Metropolis, Kulturzeit, Westart Live).
Further information about the Ruhrtriennale and its productions plus images and texts can be found at www.ruhrtriennale.de.
Project funders:
Alceste — Stiftung Pro Bochum
Die Fremden — RAG-Stiftung, RAG Montan Immobilien, Ammodo, Kunstsstiftung NRW, Rudolf Augstein Stiftung
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — RWE Foundation for Energy & Society
Teentalitarianism / Mit Ohne Alles – Stiftung Mercator
Medea.Matrix — Ammodo
Campustriennale — Allianz Kulturstiftung
Urban Prayers Ruhr — Deichmann
Studio ORKA: Sumpfland – NRW.BANK and Society of Friends & Supporters of the Ruhrtriennale
Fonds Podiumkunsten - Dutch Performing Arts
Flanders - State of the Art
Further information about the Ruhrtriennale, productions, as well as images and textual material is available at www.ruhrtriennale.de.
The Ruhrtriennale receives support from the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Proprietors: State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Regional Association Ruhr.