Ruhrtriennale achieves marked increase in audience numbers. Highest percentage in the history of the festival. De Materie by Louis Andriessen opening production for 2014. 02 October 2013

"Perception and experience are very personal things, they are different for each and every one of us and, even in the theatre, at the moments when we are most powerfully moved, we are alone. Possibly for this reason we have placed more emphasis in our programme on self-selected encounters, where one may decide for oneself when one enters a space, how long one wishes to spend there, how quickly one leaves and whether one will return."
(Heiner Goebbels in the Editorial of the 2013 programme book)

Heiner Goebbels, Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale 2012/2013/2014 and Lukas Crepaz, Managing Director of Kultur Ruhr GmbH, present their provisional assessment of the Ruhrtriennale 2013 today in Bochum. The Ruhrtriennale comes to an end this weekend, 5th/6th October 2013, with the presentation of the Children's Choice Awards in Duisburg, the dance piece Vortex Temporum by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Le Sacre du Printemps in a concert production by MusicAeterna from Perm/Russia under conductor Teodor Currentzis in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum.
In the second year under the artistic direction of the composer and theatremaker Heiner Goebbels there was a marked increase in audience numbers. 90% of tickets were sold, the highest percentage since the foundation of the festival. Approx. 49,400 tickets were taken up for the 2013 productions. A further 23,000 visitors saw the installation test pattern by Ryoji Ikeda, some 12,000 the video installation by Douglas Gordon in the Mischanlage of the Kokerei Zollverein and altogether (the piece is still running until 6th October) around 8,300 spectators the Unguided Tour by Stifters Dinge in the Kraftzentrale Duisburg. These audience numbers do not include the many visitors to the installations Tower / Instant Structure for Schacht XII by the group of artists rAndom International, produced by Urbane Künste Ruhr, Agora/Arena by Mischa Kuball and the wall window workshop 2013 by Dan Perjovschi in and around the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum.

Numerous performances were sold out including the music theatre productions Delusion of the Fury and Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, the dance productions CRACKz and Partita 2, the concert Ikon of Light, as well as individual performances of FC Bergman, The Last Adventures, Massive Attack V Adam Curtis, Stifters Dinge, several concerts in the Maschinenhaus at Zeche Carl and many of the tumbletalks and freitagsküchen.

The production with the most performances was Situations Rooms by Rimini Protokoll with more than 100 sold-out performances for 20 persons.

The production with the most visitors in 2013 was the ciné-concert Massive Attack V Adam Curtis with an audience of around 7,500 people, followed by Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern with 5,900 and Harry Partch's Delusion of the Fury with 5,000 tickets sold.

In total the Ruhrtriennale brought over 800 international artists to the Ruhr metropolis between 23rd August and 6th October 2013. Over 200 performances of 43 productions, including 20 world premieres, new productions, European premieres and German premieres as well as concerts and artist dialogues transformed the region's outstanding industrial monuments into spectacular venues for music, visual arts, theatre, film, dance and performance.

Looking ahead to 2014 - opening withDe Materie by Louis Andriessen
The Ruhrtriennale will open its 2014 season by staging another exceptional masterpiece of 20th century music theatre: De Materie (1984-88) for soloists, speakers, vocalists and a large ensemble. The first large-scale music theatre work by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen has never been staged again since its world premiere directed by Robert Wilson in Amsterdam in 1989. Louis Andriessen, born in 1939, is one of Europe's leading composers and a key figure in the contemporary Dutch arts scene. His music, which absorbs Stravinsky's influences and shows an openness towards many genres of popular music, is distinguished by a combination of a forward-moving energy, the sparseness and clarity of its material and its characteristic invented sounds, often dominated by the sharpness of woodwind and brass instruments, pianos and electric guitars. Andriessen became known to a wider international audience through his opera works with Peter Greenaway, which were presented at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam in the 90s.
With the Ensemble Modern Orchestra and the ChorWerk Ruhr.
Musical Direction -- Peter Rundel / Director -- Heiner Goebbels

The Ruhrtriennale 2014 begins on 15th August and ends on 28th September 2014.

Further information and facts 2013

New venue
The Zeche Zollern in Dortmund became a Ruhrtriennale venue for the first time and made a strong impression with the sold-out concert Ikon of Light with the ChorWerk Ruhr and the Ensemble Resonanz.

Students populated the International Festival Campus
Once again there was a high take-up rate for our offers for students in 2013. 50 students received free entry to the productions with a festival pass financed by the Friends Circle of the Ruhrtriennale. A 50% discount for all students also contributed to a lowering of the age of the audience.
In co-operation with the Allianz Kulturstiftung we were able to once again host the International Festival Campus in 2013. 238 students (compared to 150 in 2012) from 11 Countries from 19 high schools (4 regional, 7 national, 6 European high schools and 2 high schools from beyond Europe) (compared with 12 in 2012) as well as the East European Performance Art Platform (EEPAP) visited the Ruhrtriennale in four blocks and took part in accompanying seminars, artists' talks and workshops. The International Festival Campus was held in collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
A conference "experiencing space - spacing experience" was held from 4th to 8th September by the European Summer School in Cultural Studies on the site of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. The Summer School was organized in co-operation with the Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, the European PhDnet Literary and Cultural Studies and the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies. A total of 67 doctoral students and lecturers took part in the Summer School.

International arts professionals: more than 350 professionals from 15 countries
The festival received considerable attention from professionals:
More than 350 theatremakers, producers and artists came to the Ruhr from 15 countries including; Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland and the USA.

Around 340 accredited journalists - concert recordings
In 2103 a total of approx. 340 journalists were accredited from Germany and abroad. Alongside many other topics, one focus of the reporting this year on the visual arts installations and the music theatre productions.
Deutschlandradio Kultur, the Ruhrtriennale's media partner, reported live for an hour as part of its programme Fazit from the first night party for Delusion of the Fury. The opening was featured by the ARD Tagesschau and the Tagesthemen.
Two concerts as well as Delusion of the Fury and Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern were recorded by WDR, SWR and Hessischer Rundfunk. WDR3, the Ruhrtriennale's cultural partner, will broadcast a discussion about No Education on 6th October from 7.05 pm under the title cultural education.

Tourtriennale - Ruhrtriennale original productions on tour
Harry Partch: Delusion of the Fury
28. - 29.03.2014 Festival Archipel, Geneva / Switzerland
10. - 12.06.2014 Holland Festival, Amsterdam / Netherlands
24. - 26.07.2014 Lincoln Center Festival, New York / USA

Rimini Protokoll: Situation Rooms
30.10. - 04.11.2013 Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Frankfurt LAB
18. - 30.11.2013 SPIELART festival & Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich
February 2014 Perth International Arts Festival / Australia
April 2014 Onassis Cultural Center, Athens / Greece
May 2014 Grande Halle et Parc de la Viellette Paris / France
June 2014 Schauspielhaus Zürich / Switzerland

Forced Entertainment & Tarek Atoui: The Last Adventures
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Many other Ruhrtriennale 2012 and 2013 co-productions can be seen around the world in the months to come.

Further information on accreditation as well as images and textual material can be found in the press section at www.ruhrtriennale.de

Press contact:
Hendrik von Boxberg, , +49 (0) 209. 605071 37, www.ruhrtriennale.de

The Ruhrtriennale receives support from the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and by the European Union - European Regional Development Fund. Proprietors: State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Regional Association Ruhr.