Festival Theaterformen
2021
Raschplatz Hanover, Germany
We are in this together but we are not the same
There are different perspectives on one and the same thing, and only with this understanding can we address complex issues and challenges and find solutions.
The new director of Theaterformen, Anna Mülter, approached us because she wanted to use her festival to initiate a credible discourse on the topic of climate justice beyond the classical theater spaces, in urban space and with urban society. To this end, she brought us into her team at an early stage and we spent a year and a half in close exchange and process together negotiating which location and which form could be the most suitable intervention to give the topic of climate justice and marginalized perspectives in the city an appropriate place for the period of just under two weeks. We decided together on the Raschplatzhochbrücke, because this place - together with the Raschplatz below, which is spread over two levels - is in any case a super illustrative example of an urban, oversized disaster on all levels, from the age of the car-oriented city. Because the climate justice discourse also includes the issues of accessibility and ways to make the city more inclusive, we said that we definitely wanted to open up a space for the urban lab that is otherwise inaccessible. And so it became the four-lane elevated road, which was previously not intended for and accessible to anyone but cars. It was a logical step to open up this space, which was inaccessible to all visitors, for the duration of the festival. The bridge was to become a gigantic urban open space, appropriated by the urban community for 11 days - thus the bridge became not only a new form of festival center, but also a public terrace.
For three weeks, this main traffic artery was completely closed to motor traffic and instead numerous local initiatives and local, national and international artists were offered space for exchange with the urban society. There were performances, lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, parties and talks - in a place that is otherwise reserved exclusively for car traffic.
Even though we often cursed during the later planning process what a big nut we had to crack, in the end we managed to do what no one had done for 60 years and actually held the approved building application in our hands one week before the festival began!
An architectural invitation to self-reflection
Since people who belong to marginalized groups often feel "invisible", their perspective on the world seems "unseen", and since the festival is supposed to be about making different perspectives visible, we decided to make a part of the bridge disappear by means of gigantic mirrors and, with the help of this spatial-artistic intervention, to create a rupture in the urban fabric, a disruption in everyday urban life, which should bring the central themes and perspectives that the festival illuminates out of the theater into public space and thus also into public perception. The structure cantilevers over the bridge on both sides of the elevated road - actually creating the appearance that part of the bridge is missing. The mirror effect creates a visual break in the urban fabric and is also the architectural invitation to self-reflection: this "conspicuous invisibility" of the design was intended to draw attention to the themes of the festival.
The bridge becomes the city's biggest stage
During the festival, the closure of the bridge was THE topic, no matter in which café you sat during this time, no matter which newspaper you opened - everywhere in Hanover people discussed and argued whether the measure was justified or not - We even made it to the front page of the Bild newspaper! The scenographic and narrative power of the theater - in interaction with this architectural intervention - has thus created a place in the short term that not only offers space for artistic and activist debate, but especially through the confrontation (you probably can't put anything more in the way of the citizens in Hanover than on this bridge) really creates a dialogue with the local urban society that would never have been possible on several levels in the "closed" space of the theater in this form and intensity. This created not only brief attention, but a longer-lasting awareness of marginalized perspectives. The perspective of the viewers were changed through the use of mirrors - not only metaphorically, but actually in reallity.
The elevated highway and Rudolf Hillebrecht
"The Miracle of Hanover" is still said today when people talk about Rudolf Hillebrecht - the man who not only rebuilt Hanover as a city planner, but directly redesigned it into a presentable car-friendly city. Above all, the Cityring, on which the festival also stood, made Hillebrecht famous as an urban planner. What is talked about less often and, above all, with much less pleasure is Hillebrecht's steep career in the Third Reich, the management of forced laborers and the Nazi silos, which are an undeniable part of his professional work and, indeed, of his success. This part of the architect and the "miracle with Nazi background", Ivana Rohr has elaborated and brought to the fore in a lecture-performance.
Accessibility
We particularly enjoyed and intensively collaborated with Sophia Neises and Noa Winter who advised us and the festival on the topic of accessibility. For example, we created a tactile wayfinding system and shortly before the opening we used an old book press and 3D printed matrices to create site plans that can be touched with Braille.
Photos: Julius C. Schreiner und Moritz Küster
Festival Theaterformen
2021
Raschplatz Hanover, Germany
We are in this together but we are not the same
There are different perspectives on one and the same thing, and only with this understanding can we address complex issues and challenges and find solutions.
The new director of Theaterformen, Anna Mülter, approached us because she wanted to use her festival to initiate a credible discourse on the topic of climate justice beyond the classical theater spaces, in urban space and with urban society. To this end, she brought us into her team at an early stage and we spent a year and a half in close exchange and process together negotiating which location and which form could be the most suitable intervention to give the topic of climate justice and marginalized perspectives in the city an appropriate place for the period of just under two weeks. We decided together on the Raschplatzhochbrücke, because this place - together with the Raschplatz below, which is spread over two levels - is in any case a super illustrative example of an urban, oversized disaster on all levels, from the age of the car-oriented city. Because the climate justice discourse also includes the issues of accessibility and ways to make the city more inclusive, we said that we definitely wanted to open up a space for the urban lab that is otherwise inaccessible. And so it became the four-lane elevated road, which was previously not intended for and accessible to anyone but cars. It was a logical step to open up this space, which was inaccessible to all visitors, for the duration of the festival. The bridge was to become a gigantic urban open space, appropriated by the urban community for 11 days - thus the bridge became not only a new form of festival center, but also a public terrace.
For three weeks, this main traffic artery was completely closed to motor traffic and instead numerous local initiatives and local, national and international artists were offered space for exchange with the urban society. There were performances, lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, parties and talks - in a place that is otherwise reserved exclusively for car traffic.
Even though we often cursed during the later planning process what a big nut we had to crack, in the end we managed to do what no one had done for 60 years and actually held the approved building application in our hands one week before the festival began!
An architectural invitation to self-reflection
Since people who belong to marginalized groups often feel "invisible", their perspective on the world seems "unseen", and since the festival is supposed to be about making different perspectives visible, we decided to make a part of the bridge disappear by means of gigantic mirrors and, with the help of this spatial-artistic intervention, to create a rupture in the urban fabric, a disruption in everyday urban life, which should bring the central themes and perspectives that the festival illuminates out of the theater into public space and thus also into public perception. The structure cantilevers over the bridge on both sides of the elevated road - actually creating the appearance that part of the bridge is missing. The mirror effect creates a visual break in the urban fabric and is also the architectural invitation to self-reflection: this "conspicuous invisibility" of the design was intended to draw attention to the themes of the festival.
The bridge becomes the city's biggest stage
During the festival, the closure of the bridge was THE topic, no matter in which café you sat during this time, no matter which newspaper you opened - everywhere in Hanover people discussed and argued whether the measure was justified or not - We even made it to the front page of the Bild newspaper! The scenographic and narrative power of the theater - in interaction with this architectural intervention - has thus created a place in the short term that not only offers space for artistic and activist debate, but especially through the confrontation (you probably can't put anything more in the way of the citizens in Hanover than on this bridge) really creates a dialogue with the local urban society that would never have been possible on several levels in the "closed" space of the theater in this form and intensity. This created not only brief attention, but a longer-lasting awareness of marginalized perspectives. The perspective of the viewers were changed through the use of mirrors - not only metaphorically, but actually in reallity.
The elevated highway and Rudolf Hillebrecht
"The Miracle of Hanover" is still said today when people talk about Rudolf Hillebrecht - the man who not only rebuilt Hanover as a city planner, but directly redesigned it into a presentable car-friendly city. Above all, the Cityring, on which the festival also stood, made Hillebrecht famous as an urban planner. What is talked about less often and, above all, with much less pleasure is Hillebrecht's steep career in the Third Reich, the management of forced laborers and the Nazi silos, which are an undeniable part of his professional work and, indeed, of his success. This part of the architect and the "miracle with Nazi background", Ivana Rohr has elaborated and brought to the fore in a lecture-performance.
Accessibility
We particularly enjoyed and intensively collaborated with Sophia Neises and Noa Winter who advised us and the festival on the topic of accessibility. For example, we created a tactile wayfinding system and shortly before the opening we used an old book press and 3D printed matrices to create site plans that can be touched with Braille.
Photos: Julius C. Schreiner und Moritz Küster
