EDITORIAL

Something is different: Our feeling is it's unusual that the world has been so radically stirred up between two SPIELART festivals. Whereas during SPIELART 2009 we were unexpectedly discussing the economic crisis, in the meantime the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the revolution in the Arabian world, and the events in Japan and Norway are keeping us in suspense. As if the crisis situations had opened a curtain, theatermakers are once again finding their material in close and distant environments, and are looking with new eyes at the world: at the young Japanese generation's sense of time, at the possibilities of revolt in Greece, at Bollywood in India, at paramilitary organizations and carnival season in Columbia. It has to do with the future of Belgian children and the care of elderly German and Italian fathers, with unmasked police informers in Poland, the living situation in Istanbul, woodcutters in Finland, and missionaries in Congo. And yet like a recurrent theme there are similarities in all of these subjects: insecurity and the search for meaning, definite perspectives on life, but also aesthetic overglorifications, the delight in performing, the desire to dress up in costumes, the art of singing, and prophecies.

Three special programs will also explore the near future: on the three Sundays of the festival artists and scientists of the think tank SOCIAL FICTIONS will hourly explore questions concerning our social and political scope of action; in DO TANK artists from Munich and other cities will develop during the entire festival practical answers to exactly these questions; and in the ‘festival within the festival’ CONNECT CONNECT we present ther world premieres of four new productions, which have each been developed by two young collaborating artists.

SPIELART 2011 presents well-known faces, such as Romeo Castellucci, Gob Squad, Forced Entertainment, and She She Pop, but also for the most part many artists who are performing for the first time in Munich – artists from Japan, the U.S., Columbia, and many European countries.

A SPIELART festival is more than just a sequence of works. It is a fabric made of theater and discussions, concerts and parties, an experimental station for new forms, a forum for current developments, and for controversies. Take the time for a 17-day course through an intensive festival.

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Your SPIELART Team