A project by
Winterwerft is the festival for wild, organic, uncivilized theater. Theater that changes perspective and pace, that looks fearlessly into the abysses of our time and goes in search of visions with the means of critical creative debate.
What remains when we stop pretending that everything is fine?
We invite them, the bee dancers and storytellers, shamans, Brahmins and visionaries, street children, city pirates, forest gnomes and spirit seers. We go in search of stories and perspectives that supposedly or actually help us to better understand these wild times. We stoke the fire and invite you to look into the flames, dare to look into the abysses, lay the crown of creation in the grass for once and sneak through the undergrowth of this world together.
Winterwerft seeks and creates spaces for critical and creative engagement with the crises and challenges of our time. In particular, the prevailing narratives, such as the idea of limitless growth or the superiority and detachment of humans – with all their consequences and traces for and in culture, nature, philosophy and the economy – should and may be questioned and examined. The focus is on changing perspectives and researching alternative, regenerative points of view.
Unconventional and transdisciplinary approaches in theater and performance will be presented and space will be given to the creative examination of acute ecological, political and social challenges. The focus is on the quality of our cultural narratives and the influence they have on the way we see ourselves as human beings in the context of the natural world around us. The question of narratives that see us as embedded in and dependent on the natural world around us is posed and examined, researched and creatively processed using models of regenerative, sustainable culture and nature connection.
Every Friday and Saturday from 18:30 and Sunday from 15:00, the Winterwerft invites visitors to take part in readings, discussions, lectures and workshops on forest and change, catastrophe and culture, the great course of things and a small species in the midst of all this – the human being. Each evening, visitors can look forward to a top-class evening program, during the week workshops invite participation, on Sundays and in the mornings there is a children’s program, the yurt invites visitors to conversations, concerts and readings and food and drink can be enjoyed at the bar and in the Babushka Café.
Background thoughts
The place by the fire. Stories we tell each other and the responsibility that arises from them.
Our place by the fire is our place by the fire, but above all the theater stage. The ritual of sitting together in a circle and listening to stories as well as telling stories has existed and created culture since the first days of mankind. It is indeed the place of origin for ritual, for dance, for song. The winter season in particular invites us to conjure up this image. The nights are still long and dark, the borders to other worlds thinner and more permeable. This is important for the Winterwerft. Theater needs a space that is not afraid to cross these boundaries.
There are a few extremely successful stories that our society has strongly internalized and driven enormously. One example is the story of growth and progress: this story has many variations with different emphases: religious, economic, mystical or scientific. And common to all variants are the assumptions that man is detached from his environment and has transcended his animalistic roots; that man is increasingly capable of mastering and “mastering” the nature around him, to which he no longer belongs, and the prospect of growth and prosperity once this mastery has been achieved. It is the story of human centrality that exists beyond the limitations and dependencies that apply to all other species. What makes this story so dangerous is above all the fact that people have forgotten that it is a story. A story that has been repeated so often that society is convinced that it is the only true, the only possible story.
However, the example of unlimited growth or the endless exploitation of finite resources and the consequences of such ways of seeing and acting are raising more and more doubts about the accuracy and sustainability of this narrative. This story seems to be reaching the limits of its credibility. The obvious dangers and effects are now reaching the center of society. Unrest, concern and uncertainty are spreading. But many people are also looking for ideas, visions and solutions with a great deal of creativity and commitment. There is enormous potential for positive change in this situation. Winterwerft is a theater and cultural festival that consciously takes on the role of the artist as storyteller in this situation and creates spaces on stage for the expression of criticism, grief and uncertainty, as well as researching positive and creative visions and concrete possibilities for action in a joint process.
With the Winterwerft, the association creates space for joint reflection and research. What other stories are out there that might tell a different story? From a different perspective on our own being and the world around us? The Winterwerft provides space to search for these stories, which are told using the means of theater, physical theater and dance. Classical storytellers, scientists and researchers, musicians and poets will also join the group.