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Hauptsache Frei #9
Festival der Darstellenden Künste Hamburgs
April 20th – 29th 2023
You are a performing artist from Hamburg and would like to visit the festival and discuss what you have seen with colleagues? Are you interested in digital artistic practice and topics, but have little experience so far? Then apply now to become part of the #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit and get in touch with digital artists!
As an interdisciplinary team of Hamburg and international artists, you will accompany the first week of the festival. Inspired by the works of your colleagues, you develop speculative reactions and invent alternative, futuristic narratives. In doing so, you go in search of the digitality in the program: Which interfaces were used and which ones would we use if we were working in the year 2050? What open source technologies could we use? How would an AI have directed and how did the play feel in virtual space? The team creates benevolent, serious, humorous, and perhaps self-critical sketches of a speculative, digital performance world, commenting on the festival for the entire festival community.
How can I participate?
Hamburg artists from the field of performance/performing arts can apply. You explicitly do not need any previous knowledge in the field of digital art or digitality - interest is enough! You also need to have time to actively participate in the festival from 19-22.04.2023. Apply by 26.03. with a short (max. 2000 characters) motivation text and a short biography via mail to beyond@hauptsachefrei.de! If you participate, you will see the program of the first festival week for free and receive an allowance of 1.000 € (gross) for your participation.
Continuation
28.02.2023
The fact that the independent scene is indispensable was commented by Senator for Culture Dr. Carsten Brosda on Twitter at the beginning of 2023. It is therefore so important that it is impossible to do without it. To continue the conceptual chain: It is necessary and essential! This necessity drives us as actors in the independent scene to work artistically again and again. But how can we continue to work if the current situation offers hardly any perspectives for art and artists?
For our third and last festival edition as a team, we have chosen the theme »Continuation«. To continue means to go on, despite all adversities. Continuing also means leaving, saying goodbye, leaving behind. In view of the crises that are unfolding very closely, our aim in issues HF#7 and HF#8 was to highlight the strengths and diversity of Hamburg's independent performing arts scene. During the Corona years, the scene in Hamburg has grown, new collaborations with institutions have been established. Artists have become more professional and the Hamburg scene and the festival have gained in radiance. It became clear that the scene had to expand and become more diverse. The artists of the Hamburg scene confront themselves and the audience with the barriers and contradictions of our society in order to enable new approaches and perspectives.
The ninth edition of the festival comes at a time when the future of the independent scene in Hamburg is at stake. The current precarious funding situation in Hamburg means that Hamburg artists, some of whom tour and are known beyond the region, rarely receive funding for their projects in Hamburg. As a result, Hamburg's independent scene is affected by high fluctuation, as many artists leave. The gain in professionalism cannot be maintained in any way. The scene, which is said to be indispensable, is on the verge of disappearing.
At the festival, we want to keep all these grievances in mind while celebrating the performances that make up the upcoming festival program: A casually approachable evening of musical theater (YOUR OXY). An exploratory journey into everyday objects (DIE VERSAMMLUNG DER DINGE). A dance production that opens up a variety of perceptions (PHRASES). A tear-jerking agit-pop collage (NAH AM WASSER GEBAUT ON TOUR). An action-packed dance performance in a running car workshop in St. Pauli (AUTO-FIKTION: DER STRUGGLE SO REAL). A philosophical-political dance installation in an air sphere made of balloon silk (VOID). A Kurdish circle dance on techno beats (RETOUR-KILAMS AN KOFFERKINDER). A multi-sensory poetic time travel through the Kurdish past (QBX - SAD BIRDS PAVILION). A world full of fantastic creatures (SNITMØNSTER). A racy and feminist computer game humorously staged on stage ((SAVE ME) NOT), as well as a criminal search for clues in family biography and a musical homage to Freddie Mercury (INNUENDO).
We continue to work on breaking down barriers to make progress possible for all: Through translations of the productions, audio descriptions, tactile tours, awareness workshops, encounter formats and a participation team on site. The festival module »#Beyond Digital« takes a digital artistic look at the festival without focusing on digital technologies. In this year's edition, Hamburg and international media artists* develop multimedia interventions and speculative, digital extensions to the invited festival productions. The team will design serious, humorous and perhaps self-critical responses and prototypes, while commenting on the festival in a digital diary for the whole festival community.
We are looking forward to two festival weeks, to a full program where Hamburg's independent scene shows itself in its diversity and where we celebrate art together with you.
See you at the festival!
Open Call for the &FRIENDS VISIT
26.01.2023
You are a freelance producer of the independent scene with a focus on Germany and want to visit the Festival of Performing Arts Hamburg #9? Then apply for the &FRIENDS VISIT!
Together with the FESTIVALFRIENDS association we offer you the unique opportunity to experience 4 festival days. In addition to various performance visits, you can get to know the other participants, as well as artists and actors from the local scene in workshops and practice sharings, and participate in a networking meeting with directors of festivals and institutions of the independent scene.
THE FESTIVAL
The ninth edition of the Festival of the Performing Arts of Hamburg - HAUPTSACHE FREI will take place again, this time already in spring. After the last festival focus "RELATIONSHIPS" we set the theme "PROGRESS" for the upcoming edition. Despite all the turns and cuts, things go on. Things go on. The theater continues. So do we. In our last festival edition, which we are creating together as a team, we would like to celebrate with you again what is there and what is going on: From April 20 to 29, we will pitch our tents in eight venues in Hamburg and welcome you to diverse dance, theater and performance art productions from Hamburg! In addition to monsun.theater, Hamburger Sprechwerk, LICHTHOF Theater and Kampnagel/K3, this year we will open the festival in the new theater spaces of FUNDUS and also play St. Pauli with Autowerkstatt Altona and Kulturkirche Altona.
FESTIVALFRIENDS
With &FRIENDS BESUCH, artists accompany one festival each as observers. The networking format &FRIENDS BESUCH serves the exchange and initiation of collaborations between performing artists from different regions of Germany and is made possible by the solidarity-based association FESTIVALFRIENDS, a network of regional festivals of the independent performing arts. It is both a laboratory for artistic production and an engine for long-term supra-regional networking, as well as a platform for strengthening nationwide structures of the independent scenes.
APPLICATION INFO
FOR WHOM: All freelance artists* in the performing arts with a work focus in Germany, whether very fresh on the scene or established and experienced. We are aware that art and culture scenes are not equally accessible to everyone. Therefore we especially invite people to apply who are affected by discirmination(s). We specifically encourage BIPoC, people with dis_abilities, queer people, and people of all ages to apply.
WHEN: April 26-30, 2023 (arrival day 4/26, departure day 4/30).
LOCATION: Hamburg
LANGUAGE: Most program items will be offered in German spoken language, but we will make every effort to provide translation.
APPLICATION: We ask for a short biography (max. 1 page) and an explanation (up to 1500 characters) why participation is appealing to your own work. Alternatively, you can make a video of up to 3 minutes in which you briefly introduce yourself and answer the two questions above. If you have already participated in a format edition of FESTIVALFRIENDS, we ask for a short note in the application. Applications can be submitted in English or German. If you have any needs or questions in the area of accessibility, please note it in your application - we will try to find a solution.
CONTACT & DEADLINE: You can submit your application as a collected PDF or video file via email to Lisa Florentine Schmalz at lisa.schmalz@hauptsachefrei.de by February 20, 2022.
TRAVEL EXPENSES/ALL-INCLUSIVE & LODGING: The FESTIVALFRIENDS association will cover the travel expenses of all invited artists* as well as the hotel accommodation and will pay you an expense allowance of 400,00 EUR.
We are looking forward to your application!
Open Call: Be part of the #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit
Continuation
Open Call for the &FRIENDS VISIT
For our third and last festival edition as a team, we have chosen the theme "Continuation". To continue means to go on, despite all adversities. Continuing also means leaving, saying goodbye, leaving behind. In view of the crises that are unfolding very closely, our aim in issues HF#7 and HF#8 was to highlight the strengths and diversity of Hamburg's …
→weiterlesen
Four performers frolic across the stage wrapped in huge padded bulges. They cuddle and fight. They talk about being a mother, not being a mother and the meaning of life. What influence does the bonding hormone oxytocin have? Does it guide our behavior? Or is it we who control the hormones? The performers approach these big questions with classical vocals …
→weiterlesen
About the content: Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects of the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on a research trip with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could …
→weiterlesen
A body on stage in repetitive movements: Stop and Go. Realigning, circling, steps. The dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki is surrounded by surfaces onto which text is projected that explains, supplements and comments. In this way, the spectators are given free space for new trains of thought and contexts of meaning. PHRASES reduces the stage action and focuses …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Hydra is a creative coding environment developed by Olivia Jack to create and publish visualizations in real time, especially in the web browser. Hydra is ideal for beginners and allows for the development of interactive visuals with little or no coding experience. Participants will learn how to generate glitchy images and how to use code to create their …
→weiterlesen
Whether you are a young artist, a newcomer or a seasoned veteran - we invite you to an informal meet and greet over coffee and cake with representatives of prominent funding institutions in Hamburg. Friday, 21.04.2023 2–4 PM FUNDUS Theater (Foyer) Sign up for the event
→weiterlesen
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→weiterlesen
Do you sometimes feel lonely, exhausted or lazy? Then this evening might interest you. In the theatrical and promotional event of an un-security service, you will learn why your feelings are political. The INSECURITY uncovers a secret that everyone knows about but no one talks about. The INSECURITY is lonely, exhausted and lazy. The INSECURITY doesn't know …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→weiterlesen
With the musician Leo Hofmann we explore unconventional settings and potentials of sound design and theater music. Microphones and loudspeakers become instruments and co-performers. Thanks to wireless devices we get into motion and explore how sound can become a performative tool. We leave the usual stereo boxes switched off and think about alternative ways …
→weiterlesen
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
We invite all actors of the independent scene to envision the future of theater or that of a contemporary cultural institution. The focus will be on new ways of looking at "theater" as well as on the social and spatial potential of public space. The event in the form of a fishbowl discussion will take place in the former car dealership at Rentzelstraße 36, …
→weiterlesen
A kilam is a special form of Kurdish poetry. From the 1970s to the 1990s, countless kilams on tapes traveled back and forth between Germany and other countries. They bear witness to the Kurdish diaspora. Listening to them over and over again helped in the loneliness. In her performance, Jacqueline Saki Aslan plays cassettes. In front of a curtain in a …
→weiterlesen
"Every story has a starting sound. Ours sounds like that." With a first sound, the two Kurdish performers take us into a story of birds, migration, love and civil war. Their starting point is the novel of the same name by Bakhtyr Ali, set in southern Kurdistan. They build bridges between traditional Kurdish narrative techniques, following the beauty of this …
→weiterlesen
Over coffee and tea, (up-and-coming) artists from Hamburg, artists from different regions of Germany, as well as directors of festivals and institutions of the independent scene come together. Similar to speed dating, the artists then have the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves personally, finally get rid of pressing questions, or quite gallantly …
→weiterlesen
It's business as usual: the independent performing arts scene is in a process of reorientation. For years, artists have been busy with new projects, new collaborations, new themes, new funding applications, new funding models and new audiences. Young artists have become part of the scene in Hamburg. Artists from other German states have moved to Hamburg. …
→weiterlesen
Do you know the story about the "damsel in distress"? You certainly do! Because she's everywhere: whether as Andromeda in Greek mythology or King Kong's white woman in the movies. A beautiful young woman is kidnapped by a monster and it takes a male hero to rescue her. In the context of a computer game based on interviews with real, defensible women, three …
→weiterlesen
At this workshop, the Hamburg-based collective Meine Damen und Herren will draw attention to barriers from their practice and explore them together with the participants: What does accessible curation mean? What are the needs of collectives with artists with disabilities? On which levels of the programming process must barrier reduction be considered? …
→weiterlesen
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→weiterlesen
We invite the makers of [in]operabilities to answer this question together with their accomplices by means of good practice examples. The workshop is part of [in]operabilities -- an arrangement for open artistic research, initiated by Benjamin van Bebber, Leo Hofmann, Franziska Henschel and Jeanne Charlotte Vogt. [in]operabilities links the art form opera …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→weiterlesen
For this purpose, the Participation Office invites you to richly set tables with full glasses of our famous mediation drinks (wine and non-alcoholic beverages). And there is still room for you and your practice at the tables: artists and organizers are invited to get various impulses for low-barrier productions and inclusive artists can present their work. …
→weiterlesen
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→weiterlesen
Friday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→weiterlesen
On stage
TITLE
ARTISTS
AUTO-FIKTION: DER STRUGGLE SO REAL
Verena Brakonier
▾
In her solo, dancer and choreographer Verena Brakonier invites her audience into a car repair shop. She dances and tells of experiences and memories. What is true and what is not remains unclear: an autofiction. Playfully and with critical humor, she shows how one's origins can affect one's body and one's path through life. Between lifting platform, tires …
→read moreFriday, 28 April 2023
7:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
3:30 pm
Saturday, 29 April 2023
7:30 pm
Autowerkstatt Altona
More info →
DEIN OXY
A team around Lisa Florentine Schmalz/staatsoper24
▾
Four performers frolic across the stage wrapped in huge padded bulges. They cuddle and fight. They talk about being a mother, not being a mother and the meaning of life. What influence does the bonding hormone oxytocin have? Does it guide our behavior? Or is it we who control the hormones? The performers approach these big questions with classical vocals …
→read moreDIE VERSAMMLUNG DER DINGE
FUNDUS THEATER | Forschungstheater
▾
Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects from the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on an expedition with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could your object have? …
→read moreINNUENDO
Lea Ralfs and Jan Geiger
▾
"You can be anything you want to be". This song line by Freddy Mercury could be written over Hans' biography. For Lea Ralf's grandfather had many identities: National Socialist, leftist, family man, free-loving homosexual and finally stigmatized AIDS patient. Three performers and two musicians bring the granddaughter's research episodically to life: with …
→read moreNAH AM WASSER GEBAUT ON TOUR
Die Soziale Fiktion
▾
Do you sometimes feel lonely, exhausted or lazy? Then this evening might interest you. In the theatrical and promotional event of an un-security service, you will learn why your feelings are political. The INSECURITY uncovers a secret that everyone knows about but no one talks about. The INSECURITY is lonely, exhausted and lazy. The INSECURITY doesn't know …
→read morePHRASES
Venetsiana Kalampaliki
▾
A body on stage in repetitive movements: Stop and Go. Realigning, circling, steps. The dancer Venetsiana Kalampaliki is surrounded by surfaces onto which text is projected that explains, supplements and comments. In this way, the spectators are given free space for new trains of thought and contexts of meaning. PHRASES reduces the stage action and focuses …
→read moreQBX - SAD BIRDS PAVILION
Ban Theatre
▾
"Every story has a starting sound. Ours sounds like that." With a first sound, the two Kurdish performers take us into a story of birds, migration, love and civil war. Their starting point is the novel of the same name by Bakhtyr Ali, set in southern Kurdistan. They build bridges between traditional Kurdish narrative techniques, following the beauty of this …
→read moreRETOUR-KILAMS AN KOFFERKINDER
Jacqueline Saki Aslan
▾
A kilam is a special form of Kurdish poetry. From the 1970s to the 1990s, countless kilams on tapes traveled back and forth between Germany and other countries. They bear witness to the Kurdish diaspora. Listening to them over and over again helped in the loneliness. In her performance, Jacqueline Saki Aslan plays cassettes. In front of a curtain in a …
→read more(SAVE ME) NOT
Frauen und Fiktion
▾
Do you know the story about the "damsel in distress"? You certainly do! Because she's everywhere: whether as Andromeda in Greek mythology or King Kong's white woman in the movies. A beautiful young woman is kidnapped by a monster and it takes a male hero to rescue her. In the context of a computer game based on interviews with real, defensible women, three …
→read moreSNITMØNSTER
Teresa Hoffmann
▾
The performers dive into oversized terrycloth slippers, losing their orientation and having to be fished out again by a four-meter-long sock. A giant sun hat transformed into the moon stands in the sky and watches them. He wonders: Where do these people actually come from? And what are they doing? SNITMØNSTER opens up a world full of images, sounds and …
→read moreVOID
Véronique Langlott
▾
The audience enters a sphere made of white balloon silk and is immersed in a multimedia installation. Fragments from the movements of two dancers, from light and sound are assembled kaleidoscopically into ever new images - quickly paced, jerky, enigmatic. The source material for this choreography was the digital score of an earlier work by Véronique …
→read moreFriday, 21 April 2023
9:00 pm
Saturday, 22 April 2023
9:00 pm
Sunday, 23 April 2023
6:00 pm
LICHTHOF Theater
More info →
Workshops and discourse
TITLE
ANALOGE VISITENKARTEN
▾
Over coffee and tea, (up-and-coming) artists from Hamburg, artists from different regions of Germany, as well as directors of festivals and institutions of the independent scene come together. Similar to speed dating, the artists then have the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves personally, finally get rid of pressing questions, or quite gallantly …
→read moreANTI-THEATER — A speculative space for possible futures
▾
We invite all actors of the independent scene to envision the future of theater or that of a contemporary cultural institution. The focus will be on new ways of looking at "theater" as well as on the social and spatial potential of public space. The event in the form of a fishbowl discussion will take place in the former car dealership at Rentzelstraße 36, …
→read moreLOW-BARRIER CURATION
▾
At this workshop, the Hamburg-based collective Meine Damen und Herren will draw attention to barriers from their practice and explore them together with the participants: What does accessible curation mean? What are the needs of collectives with artists with disabilities? On which levels of the programming process must barrier reduction be considered? …
→read moreLOW-BARRIER PRODUCING
▾
We invite the makers of [in]operabilities to answer this question together with their accomplices by means of good practice examples. The workshop is part of [in]operabilities -- an arrangement for open artistic research, initiated by Benjamin van Bebber, Leo Hofmann, Franziska Henschel and Jeanne Charlotte Vogt. [in]operabilities links the art form opera …
→read moreCAFE OF (FUNDING-)POSSIBILITIES
▾
Whether you are a young artist, a newcomer or a seasoned veteran - we invite you to an informal meet and greet over coffee and cake with representatives of prominent funding institutions in Hamburg. Friday, 21.04.2023 2–4 PM FUNDUS Theater (Foyer) Sign up for the event
→read moreTHE CULTURAL POLICY CONVERSATION
▾
It's business as usual: the independent performing arts scene is in a process of reorientation. For years, artists have been busy with new projects, new collaborations, new themes, new funding applications, new funding models and new audiences. Young artists have become part of the scene in Hamburg. Artists from other German states have moved to Hamburg. …
→read moreFESTIVALERÖFFNUNG
▾
For our third and last festival edition as a team, we have chosen the theme "Continuation". To continue means to go on, despite all adversities. Continuing also means leaving, saying goodbye, leaving behind. In view of the crises that are unfolding very closely, our aim in issues HF#7 and HF#8 was to highlight the strengths and diversity of Hamburg's …
→read moreHANDS-ON: INTRODUCTION TO LIVE-CODING WITH HYDRA — with Naoto Hieda
▾
Hydra is a creative coding environment developed by Olivia Jack to create and publish visualizations in real time, especially in the web browser. Hydra is ideal for beginners and allows for the development of interactive visuals with little or no coding experience. Participants will learn how to generate glitchy images and how to use code to create their …
→read moreHANDS-ON: MOTION CAPTURING — with Gloria Schulz
▾
The workshop starts with a technical introduction, a presentation of application scenarios and different MoCap methods. Together you will test the possibilities of working with MoCap suits: How do different motion dynamics behave in the software? What are technical limits in terms of duration and complexity of choreographies? What technical requirements are …
→read moreHANDS-ON: SONIC ACTORS — with Leo Hofmann
▾
With the musician Leo Hofmann we explore unconventional settings and potentials of sound design and theater music. Microphones and loudspeakers become instruments and co-performers. Thanks to wireless devices we get into motion and explore how sound can become a performative tool. We leave the usual stereo boxes switched off and think about alternative ways …
→read moreCREATING SPACE FOR ACCESSIBILITY
▾
For this purpose, the Participation Office invites you to richly set tables with full glasses of our famous mediation drinks (wine and non-alcoholic beverages). And there is still room for you and your practice at the tables: artists and organizers are invited to get various impulses for low-barrier productions and inclusive artists can present their work. …
→read moreWORKSHOP: DIE VERSAMMLUNG DER DINGE
▾
About the content: Welcome to the exhibition of the FUNDUS Theater. Choose one of our many everyday objects of the Fundus and elicit its possibilities! Here, adults and children can dive in, discover a thing of their choice sensually and go on a research trip with it to its personality. The various stations offer you ever new inspiration. What name could …
→read moreModules and formats
TITLE
#BeyondDigital
▾
This year, an interdisciplinary team of Hamburg and international artists will accompany artists will accompany the first festival week, visit performances by colleagues and develop digital artistic responses and reactions to the program. As #BeyondDigital Speculation Unit, the unit is looking for the unasked questions about digitality in the program: What …
→read moreThe main thing for all: participation
▾
Barrier-free progress? Since our start as a festival team, one of the main focuses of HAUPTSACHE FREI has been on breaking down barriers. In our last festival edition as a team, we invite you and ourselves to change perspectives: In three formats we want to learn how inclusive artists curate, how inclusive working and producing can work, and make space for …
→read moreWE PRESENT @ Hauptsache Frei #9
▾
WE PRESENT is the LICHTHOF Theater's platform for networking and presenting Hamburg's up-and-coming performance artists. WE PRESENT invites up-and-coming artists to show works that have been created freely or in a training context at the LICHTHOF Theater and also offers them a new network, access to the independent scene and the chance to develop …
→read more&FRIENDS BESUCH
▾
The format of FESTIVALFRIENDS enables artists to explore festivals and their programs as visitors. In this way, the invited artists* can establish contacts with new accomplices, scenes and contexts. &FRIENDS BESUCH is supervised by Lisa Florentine Schmalz as part of our festival. If you have any questions about the format, feel free to send her an email …
→read more&FRIENDS GASTSPIEL
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With this format, FESTIVALFRIENDS connects existing productions with the nine festivals organized in the network and thus strengthens the supraregional visibility of artists. The guest performances of this year's edition are INNUENDO by Lea Ralfs and Jan Geiger and NAH AM WASSER GEBAUT ON TOUR by Die Soziale Fiktion & Friends.
→read moreBest Guests
▾
For selected events we offer the possibility to visit the festival in small groups (up to four friends) together with artists, to get to know the scene and to exchange ideas. Included is the visit of an event, a bottle of wine as well as the exchange of ideas half an hour before and after the performance. If you are interested please send an email to …
→read moreVenues
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Website
Autowerkstatt Altona
Norderreihe 59
-
Website
FUNDUS Theater
Sievekingdamm 3
-
Website
Kampnagel
Jarrestraße 20
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Website
Kulturkirche Altona
Max-Brauer-Allee 199
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Website
Lichthof Theater
Mendelssohnstraße 15
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Website
monsun.theater
Gaußstraße 149
-
Website
Rentzel Center
Rentzelstraße 36
-
Website
resonanzraum
Feldstraße 66
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Website
Sprechwerk
Klaus-Groth-Straße 23
About the festival & FESTIVALFRIENDS
Hauptsache Frei is the festival of Hamburg's independent performing arts. Founded in 2015, the festival provides a platform for the artists of Hamburg's independent scene and invites professionals of the scene from all over Germany to Hamburg for exchange and networking. Concentrated on one week, the festival becomes a platform for artistic productions, contemporary trends, aesthetic innovations, socio-political discourses and scientific impulses. Hauptsache Frei is supported by the Bündnis für Festivals der Freien Tanz- und Theaterschaffenden Hamburgs e.V., a sponsoring association consisting of various institutions - venues but also interest groups such as DfdK Hamburg e.V. - in the city.
The Hauptsache Frei festival is a member of the FESTIVALFRIENDS network, an association of regional festivals of the independent performing arts in Germany. FESTIVALFRIENDS is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media through the program "Promoting Connections" of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e. V. (Federal Association of the Liberal Performing Arts).
Our team
Contact
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