A teenager power territory will be established on the open space in front of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, right in the middle of the Van Lieshout installation. Here, the teenagers of Mit Ohne Alles and the Toronto-based Young Mammals will work with the artists of Mammalian Diving Reflex to build a space where the views, wishes and rules of young people are given absolute priority. During the festival season they try out what it means to have and use their power, no doubt learning the difficult lessons that possessing power inevitably produces: following is easy, leading is hard.
This teentalitaristic zone in the middle of the festival center of the Ruhrtriennale is open to adults, school classes and other teenagers – as long as they keep to the laws and rules of the teenagers in charge. The teenagers invite the public to Dare Nights and Parties, to Nightwalks and guided tours on the power territory of art in the Van Lieshout installation. They hold conferences where they look closely at social reality and develop a utopia of living together in the future. Together with the public they try to find out what it means if teenagers are in power.
You can find the detailed schedule of the program here: refektoriumsprogram
Darren O`Donnell, artistic director of Mammalian Diving Reflex states:
“Teenagers are very interesting people, situated as they are between the full vulnerability and dependence of children and the full autonomy of adults. As such, they are a valuable resource. They ask very pointed questions about the many contradictions that adults have come to accept as utterly normal. They possess an expertise that is rarely understood, acknowledged nor deployed.”
The Festival will try to find out how it can collaborate with the teenagers and how new forms of being and working together can be developed which accord youth a modicum of power over our lives. It´s a joint journey, leading to a future that is created together. Teentalitarianism is a project of Mammalian Diving Reflex.