Events
Until the Beginnings
Next Date: 4.5. 20:00
Schauspiel Köln | Depot 2
"Until the Beginnings" is an energetic dance poem. The dancers and musicians from West Africa and Europe weave a choreographic tapestry from their different worlds that questions the nature of hospitality. Political implications of the criminalisation of hospitality and images of utopian community spaces are the impetus. The team embarks on a journey to deconstruct the concept of "home" and cultivate a communal garden.
Kiosk
Next Date: 4.5. 21:30
As an open-air kiosk, the festival center moves between our venues: from the large Theater-Carlsgarten in Mülheim to Oskar-Jäger Straße, from there to the garden of the Orangerie Theater and to the Cologne-Ossendorf prison. KIOSK is a meeting place for you and everyone in between.
Enrique Rottenberg - above and about
Next Date: 5.5. 11:00
Galerie Horbach
Enrique Rottenberg's works subtly incorporate a critical examination of political and social conditions in his adopted home of Cuba. Formulated with great empathy, humour and satirical acuity, the expansive photographs can be experienced as an installation.
ON THE MOVE
Next Date: 6.5. 19:00
ehem. Autohaus
ON THE MOVE is a multimedia exhibition on the situation of refugees at the EU's external borders. The works of photographers Abdul Saboor, Giorgio Morra and János Buck depict the developments of recent years on the so-called Balkan route. With panels, a film screening and special events, we will shed light on different perspectives with the Balkan Bridge and the Cologne donation convoy.
SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO - AM UFER DES SEES
Next Date: 7.5. 20:00
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
The FORWARD DANCE COMPANY takes a critical and personal look at one of the most famous works of classical ballet: Swan Lake. The six dancers with different backgrounds and physicalities engage with the iconic piece that still shapes our viewing habits today. SULLE SPONDE DEL LAGO opens up spaces of repair and renewal in which our ideas of norms can encounter new narratives.
Queere Revolution
Next Date: 8.5. 19:30
Freies Werkstatt Theater
"Queer Revolution": a participatory theatre project based on the novel "Lavender Sword" (1966) by Cologne author Felix Rexhausen, which describes the attempt at a "homosexual revolution". In 2024, the Petra P. production office, together with queer experts, travels back in time to the beginning of the queer emancipation movement and asks: Does "We Are Family" still apply to today's community or is there now only a coexistence of queer bubbles?
Der kleine Container_setzt Grenzen
Next Date: 9.5. 14:00
Lenauplatz Köln Ehrenfeld
Art Meets Empowerment: In the walk-in installation, you can explore feminist issues surrounding the topic of setting boundaries together with the artists from Der kleine Container. Over four consecutive days, the 12.5 square metres of a wooden container with audio and video installations and text works will become an experiential space that invites you to lean back or get involved.
Crossing Common Borders
Next Date: 9.5. 19:00
Orangerie Theater | Bühne
Crossing Common Borders is not only theatre, but also film, light and sound composition - and everything is live. It is an ode to failure. A confession of loneliness. A longing for a great collective. The piece is a collaboration between Studio Trafique and the editorial team Ohrenkuss.
we in a box
Next Date: 9.5. 20:00
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
The concert event we in a box with Everline Akinyi Odero on the punching bag and percussionist Joss Turnbull is a beat battle between concert and performance. An improvised exchange of blows that touches on archaic questions of the "fighting" human being and explores the limits of musicality.
Wuthering Heights
Next Date: 10.5. 20:00
Theater im Bauturm
Long marginalised as a Victorian tearjerker, Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, has been experiencing an astonishing renaissance for some time now. For Mithu Sanyal, it is even "the postmodern novel of the 19th century". Frederik Werth reinterprets the dark material. In a multimedia theatre performance, the narrative positions of the novel are questioned by the safe fireside of our own perspectives: the True Crime Podcast.
Athirukal
Next Date: 11.5. 18:00
Kunsthafen
The South Asian diaspora in Germany is as diverse as its music. In a programme that spans generations and styles, musicians and artists reinterpret the boundaries of what is possible and what can be said. In the context of (post-)migrant narratives, they celebrate the diversity between traditional Indian raga and pop, between tabla and electronic beats.
Gratwanderungen
Next Date: 11.5. 18:00
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum
Gratwanderungen explores physical and psychological limits and probes the boundaries of intimacy. To this end, director Svetlana Fourer and her performers take us on a dance journey to the edges of the human condition.
MUTTER*SEIN
Next Date: 12.5. 16:30
Freies Werkstatt Theater
MUTTERSEIN brings together the polyphonic experiences of women* and gives space to their stories and diverse realities. The result is a collection of things and narratives that take everyday life seriously. The exhibition is opened by a choir that observes and comments on motherhood in our society and itself becomes a collection of attributions, observations and experiences - sometimes tender, sometimes angry and with necessary humour.
HALT
Next Date: 13.5. 18:30
JVA Köln Ossendorf
HALT is set in the Cologne-Ossendorf correctional centre. It is about security and structure, about setting boundaries and setting oneself free in the absence of freedom.
The performers from the prison bring strong, original texts to the stage in an intense mix of music, movement and words.
to learn from the light
Next Date: 14.5. 19:00
Orangerie Theater | Bühne
VESNA's music is characterised by acoustic beats, electronic soundscapes and intense vocal art. In their programme "to learn from the light", contemporary poetry from the Ukraine forms the backbone for the songs. VESNA invites you to a special evening of music in the Orangery Theatre, where the Jewish, Muslim and Christian music of today's Ukraine come together.
DURST
Next Date: 14.5. 19:00
Ebertplatz
Experience a future in which our use of water has fundamentally changed. On the journey with our theatre bus from Cologne to the Rheinische Revier mining area and Türnich Castle, you will become part of the action and help shape a vision that is committed to a sustainable world. Climb aboard and be inspired by the possibilities of a water-conscious future.
Near My Ears
Next Date: 14.5. 19:30
St. Aposteln
"To be in a time of war", a text by Lebanese philosopher Etel Adnan, is the starting point for a stroll through the streets of Cologne. At the same time as reports of war and world events, tourists stream towards the city centre, following homeless people, workers and partygoers as they go about their everyday lives. Near My Ears seeks out places where the everyday and the political meet and creates an approach to global networking.
ZOO JUTSU
Next Date: 17.5. 20:00
Orangerie Theater | Bühne
Inspired by playfighting, the players in ZOO JUTSU fight and wrestle for a blueprint of new forms of dialogue. They and the audience are confronted with physical boundaries in a playful way. The wrestlers enable a physical dialogue in which physical conditions and self-imagined rules are mixed in a variety of ways.
Mein Onkel David
Next Date: 17.5. 20:00
Alte Feuerwache | Halle
Director Svetlana Fourer follows the traces of the Shoa in her family and the unspeakable aspects of their history. Like her uncle before her, she does not remain silent. She devotes herself to the incomprehensible, which runs through the generations right up to the present day. A theatre piece about not being allowed to know, the fear of experience, the force of knowledge and the search for a way to deal with it.
Pickup Artist
Next Date: 18.5. 15:00
Sankt Peter Köln (Kunst-Station)
A forklift truck transports the young Viennese performance artist Philipp Muerling from place to place in a large art transport box. As a mobile sculpture, Philipp, who is in a wheelchair, pushes the boundaries - his own, but also yours. At Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, he will be showing a new version of the performance "Light / Dark" by Marina Abramovic & Ulay.
Koche und Klaafe mit Cassy Carrington
Next Date: 18.5. 16:00
Buchforster Nachbarschaftstreffs (BuNT)
Cologne's Zu Huss e.V. invites you to a queer cooking show for seniors and allies. At Koche und Klaafe, Cassy Carrington, one of Cologne's hottest drag queens, will be behind the cooking pot to answer questions. Traditional Rhenish cuisine will be served. After the meal, the singer and activist will show off her show talent and take the audience on a journey through her eventful life.
JEZEBEL
Next Date: 19.5. 20:00
Orangerie Theater | Bühne
Video Vixens: The models who appeared in hip-hop video clips of the late 90s and early 00s, often in hypersexualised images, inspired Cherish Menzo to create the performance JEZEBEL. When MTV still stood for Music Television, the sensual and scantily clad video vixens played a central role in the clips of the mostly male-dominated rap genre. JEZEBEL refuses to be defined by others. She navigates her way through hip-hop culture and looks for ways to reclaim her image.
MAD PRIDE
Next Date: 20.5. 14:00
Neptunplatz
We make ourselves loud against the far right and peacefully take to the barricades against discrimination and marginalisation. The MAD PRIDE marches colourfully, loudly and together with you from Ehrenfeld's Neptunplatz to Odonien. In all our colours, we will confidently demonstrate for diversity and difference.
Minor Swing
Next Date: 30.5. 18:00
Join us on a journey into the worlds of Sint:izze- and Rom:nja. The bus will take you from Bonn via Cologne to Düsseldorf. Sinti:zze and Rom:nja tell you in songs and monologues about their lives, their culture, their work at the university, in the state parliament, in companies, etc. Cologne violinist Markus Reinhardt and director Stefan Herrmann - both Sinti themselves - will accompany you on the journey.
