Events

In Harmonia, Unusual Symptoms and Hungarian choreographer Adrienn Hód invite us to explore the human body and its significance in dance and society in a new way. Between joyful exuberance, explorations of physical diversity and a good dose of self-irony, an ensemble of dancers with and without disabilities questions the hierarchies of classical dance. Afterwards, we will celebrate with you and a DJ set by careless in the Carlsgarten of Schauspiel Köln.

SONA lets you see the world with your ears. You hear your steps on virtual surfaces and experience adventures made of interactive sound. A team of visually impaired and blind game designers has created new levels for the virtual reality game and invites you into an acoustic labyrinth.

She was Hitler's secretary: Traudl Junge. Once blue-eyed, in old age she reflects self-critically and full of guilt on her actions at the time. 80 years after the end of the war, the Petra P. production office approaches this figure and, together with young people, explores how great the willingness to stand up for a defensive, democratic civil society is today. 

The Future is Unwritten is a group of modern revolutionaries. They are united by one goal: to save Europe from fascist rule. In an inclusive, multimedia live film performance, they take a stand against the fatal consequences of right-wing politics and declare war on the “post-factual age”, because the future is not yet written. 

She doesn't look her age questions the myth of the fountain of youth and the longing for immortality. In the swimming pool of the Residenz am Dom Cologne, BKM Performance creates a pleasurable, queer-feminist universe in the water with senior citizens, dancers and singers - a utopian space for transformation, confrontation and the renegotiation of ideals of beauty and youth.

Cologne 2025: The number of people living in homelessness and homelessness continues to rise. Even though the city has pledged to end this by 2030. The DRUGLAND Ensemble reoccupies the so-called Platz im Draußen and tells of social utopias, uprisings and the many invisible people. It shares its own experiences of resistance: of consumption as an exit, courage and shared spaces of solidarity.

What does “reparation” mean? How does someone go from being an “object” to a “subject”? ON MY WAY HOME is a performance, film and conversation. It uses personal stories to convey proximity to democracy and identity from a decolonial perspective. Time is treated in a non-linear way, given a second and third chance (and as many as necessary) - so that new narratives, new paradigms emerge and we resist together.

We live in an uncertain world in which crises are increasingly shaping everyday life. The legacy of exploitation, oppression, environmental destruction and right-wing extremism jeopardizes democratic values such as equality and justice. In his solo performance Erb-beben, which oscillates between dance, narrative, poetry and music, artist Dessa Ganda explores this conflict.
 

The film trilogy “EINZELTÄTER: München, Hanau, Halle traces the constants of right-wing violence in Germany and critically questions narratives about it. Supplemented by a city tour of places of right-wing violence and a panel discussion, the film makes tangible what the term “lone perpetrator” obscures: The string of right-wing extremist acts of violence in Germany has never been broken.

The Festival of Religions brings together people of different (and no) religious affiliations. Artists, religious representatives and experts discuss democracy in the context of religion and spirituality. A Hindu-Daoist-Confucianist-Christian-Muslim-Buddhist-Sikhist-Jewish inspired festival of joy!

Immerse yourself in Das Erdreich - a theatrical bus trip to the Rhenish lignite mining area. In Bürgewald, on the edge of the Hambach open-cast mine, decay becomes a creative force. Between researchers, residents and a mysterious fungus, a world unfolds in which new things grow from collapse. An immersive expedition into the hidden world beneath our feet.

The SONA team, together with Raphael Netolitzky from Blindenverein Köln and other co-creators of the virtual reality game, will give an insight into the joint creative process: from collective worldbuilding and sound design workshops to ideas, stories, texts, the creation of characters, voices and sounds for the virtual world. The evening combines the talk with concerts by Debasish Bhattacharjee, Ramesh Shotham and Keshav Purushotham.

With the discussion format “We need to talk”, the FWT wants to challenge and redesign the theater as a place of radical imagination. The dialog will take place in a temporary “kitchen for all” in the foyer of the FWT, which will become a stage for encounters and exchange. Following the podium, a long table will invite people to eat together and discuss issues as equals.

What images do you have in your head when you think of “the East”? Nazis, AfD, whining Easterners? Why still talk about the East? OSTBEGEGNUNGEN sheds light on the experiences of post-reunification children - the first East German generation without experience of the GDR, but with a complex legacy. In an installative performance, they show what Eastern identities mean today and why we still talk about “East” and “West”. Shared histories, shared future.

In 2037, Volkswagen collapses and with it the German car industry. Society disintegrates, an alliance of extreme parties bans cars. In the midst of this crisis, a secret circle forms - a resistance, a funeral service or a final homage. FINAL CELEBRATION is an artistic experiment in which over 20 young artists from the fields of composition, interpretation and dance work together. With the interdisciplinary live performance and installation, NULLNULLEINS invites you to a special happening.

Stefanie Anna Miller's Medea.silence tells the ancient story of Medea about love and betrayal with a new visuality. The deaf actress Cindy Klink plays Medea in a production with deaf, hearing-impaired and hearing people. The play builds bridges and sheds light on topics such as exclusion, inclusion and justice.

A square on the stage: What position do you take? What is important to you? Sounds, movements and words create a dialog that challenges everyone. The core of democratic processes is revealed in the question of who decides what and who must be given more attention. DEMOCRATIC PLAYGROUND - exploring the room is a dance and theater performance by and with young performers. 

The Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, the first Black Library in NRW, invites you to 'Reimagining Democracy'. Based on the work of choreographer* Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, artist Virginnia Ogechi Krämer gives a performative reading ('WACHE') and shows the potential of storytelling in creating the future we want. Bestselling author and journalist Alice Hasters will read from her latest non-fiction book 'Identity Crisis' and shed light on the impact of identity and identity politics on today's democratic capitalist systems.

Let's imagine a happy ending! A choir of people whose voices have become fragile due to age, illness or transition, sings and speaks about breaking and healing. In UNBREAK! - UNBREAKING INTO RECONCILIATION, *POLAR PUBLIK combines personal crises and social rifts with utopias, seeking hopeful narratives and conciliatory endings.

If we could start again together, what would be important to us? What ideas from history(ies) that have been pushed aside do we want to take with us? With the “Sharing Card Game” by Anna Kpok, set off into the infinite expanses and times of space and play through with us what it could be like...

“Human dignity is inviolable” - this is Article 1.1 of the German Basic Law. Lost Paradise contrasts the original, universal equality of human beings with the neoliberal marketplace. How does this contradiction affect our social coexistence?

We make ourselves loud against the right and peacefully take to the barricades against discrimination and exclusion. The MAD PRIDE marches colorfully, loudly and together with you from Heumarkt to the Alte Feuerwache. In all our colors we demonstrate confidently for diversity and difference.

The end of MAD PRIDE is the beginning of Big Bääm. It's going to be really wyld, nice and exciting. We'll celebrate with music and be encouraged by powerful word contributions. Jugendchor St. Stephan, Pablonski Bader, Trommelwerk and Äh Nein! will be there.

KIOSK is our traveling festival center. With stools in its luggage, KIOSK becomes a bar, a DJ booth, a mini-library or a performance stage. It creates moments of encounter and togetherness everywhere in the city - where you least expect it.