Digitally conducted visitors' programmes

1st half-year 2021

The visitor programmes planned for the first half of 2021 with numerous partners could not take place due to the ongoing global travel warnings and cancelled events related to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Seven visitor programmes could instead be held as multi-day digital programmes or in the form of individual digital network formats. Depending on the event format, participants met in virtual spaces to visit digital events or exhibitions.

The International Visitors Programme organised the programme and the communication with the participants. In addition, supplementary online meetings were organised, moderated and carried out in order to bring cultural actors and institutions from NRW together with the international participants in a small circle and to support the formation of international networks in the virtual space as well as possible, as well as to make the digital range of cultural events in NRW globally visible and to promote them.

VIDEONALE.18: Fluid States. Solid Matter – Video, Film and Media Arts in North Rhine-Westphalia

Digital: several days

From 3 to 6 March, eight programme curators, festival directors and film scholars from Argentina, Greece, Colombia, Croatia, Poland, Turkey and the United Kingdom were invited to a digital visitor programme on the occasion of the VIDEONALE.18 in Bonn. The participants were offered a varied programme of keynotes, panels, guided tours, discussion formats and informal encounters in the virtual VIDEONALE bar. The international visitors' programme supplemented the offer for the guests with further networking opportunities, e.g. with the imai Foundation in Düsseldorf and up-and-coming media artists from NRW.

(Digital) guests were:

Bárbara Cerro, Director, founder and producer, BIT BANG International Animation, Videogames, Digital Art and VR Festival, Buenos Aires/ARGENTINA

Fatma Çolakoğlu, Associate director of research and programs, SALT Galata, Istanbul/TURKEY

Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Curator and a founding member LUC (Laboratory for the Urban Commons), Athens/GREECE

Marina Kožul, Film programmer and producer 25 FPS Festival, Zagreb/CROATIA

Felipe Cesar Londoño, Founder and director International Image Fest, Bogotá/COLOMBIA, Dean of the Faculty Arts and Design, University Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá/COLOMBIA

Myriam Mouflih, Curator and author, Glasgow/UK, Programme coordinator Africa in Motion Film Festival, Edinburgh/UK, Programming fellow Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, Berwick-upon-Tweed/UK

tanz nrw 21 – The Contemporary Independent Dance Scene in North Rhine-Westphalia

Digital: Single date and access to the festival stream

From 28 April to 9 May, two participants from Hungary and the Arab Emirates were invited to the eighth - and this year, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, purely virtual - festival edition of tanz nrw. They followed the festival programme via a live stream and got an overview of outstanding productions by established greats and up-and-coming artists of the independent dance scene in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to a series of performances, guest appearances, special projects and discourse formats, visitors also had the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes with the format tanz.backstage. In addition, the newcomer format Sprungbrett (in cooperation with the "Tanzrecherche NRW" programme of the NRWKS) once again offered a platform for young artists from NRW who are taking their first steps into choreographic practice.

In addition to the online programme, the international visitors also took part in a digital meet & greet with the project director of tanz nrw 21 and head of the NRW Landesbüro Tanz, Heike Lehmke, and the programme director of the tanzhaus nrw, Stefan Schwarz.

(Digital) guests were:

Anikó Rácz, International relations manager SÍN Arts Centre, Budapest/HUNGARY, Programming "Theatre and Dance Tent" Sziget Festival, Budapest/HUNGARY

Beata Stankevič, Co-founder HIBA Project, Dubai/UAE, Programmer and cultural manager, Dubai/UAE

CircusDanceFestival Cologne and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen – New Circus in North Rhine-Westphalia

Digital: several days

From 14 to 25 May, five international festival directors and programme curators from the field of New Circus were virtual guests at the Circus Dance Festival Cologne and the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.

The participants from Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain followed the online programme of the two festivals, took part in the hybrid symposium "Re-Writing Circus" and met the artistic director of the CircusDanceFestival, the chairwoman of BUZZ - Bundesverband Zeitgenössischer Zirkus e.V. (Federal Association of Contemporary Circus) and the two programme directors of the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.

(Digital) guests were:

Noemi De Clercq, Director Circuscentrum (Vlaams Centrum voor Circuskunsten), Ghent/BELGIUM

María Folguera de la Cámara, Artistic director Teatro Circo Price, Madrid/SPAIN

Daphne van Iperen, Financial manager and programmer Theatre & Circus Korzo, The Hague/NETHERLANDS

Sebastian Kann, Circus artist, theorist, pedagogue and performance dramaturg e. g. Manor House and Circus Dialogues (2018-2020), Ghent/BELGIUM

François Bouvier Montréal/CANADA

Ruth Wikler, Deputy director of programming, Circus Arts TOHU, Montréal/CANADA

50 Years of Moers Festival – Border Crossing between Jazz and Contemporary Music in the Lower Rhine and the Ruhr Region

Digital: Individual meeting / press briefing and access to the festival stream

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Moers Festival, the visitors' programme invited participation in the digital festival edition from 21 to 24 May. The seven guests of the network programme - international journalists from Israel, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal and the USA - also met with artistic director Tim Isfort for a press conference.

(Digital) guests were:

Réjean Beaucage, Freelance journalist, writer, Québec/CANADA

Nuno Catarino, journalist, PORTUGAL

Tom Greenland, journalist, New York/USA

Eyal Hareuveni, Freelance journalist, Jerusalem/ISRAEL

Bouke Mekel, Producer, journalist, Gonzo Circus, Groningen/NETHERLANDS

Yinka Freda Olatunbosun, Arts and review section, ThisDay Newspapers, Lagos/NIGERIA

Kazue Yokoi, Journalist, Tokyo/JAPAN

Photoszene United 2021 – Current Positions and Institutions of Photography in Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia

Digital: several days

From 20 to 27 May, a digital networking programme for the virtual kick-off of Photoszene United 2021 took place in Cologne. Nine photo curators, collection and festival directors from Ethiopia, Italy, Croatia, Cuba, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Rwanda and the USA took part in the online symposium "Theory and Practice of the Archive" and the virtual opening of the exhibitions Artist Meets Archive#2.

Through supplementary online meetings, the guests also had the opportunity to exchange ideas with the participating institutions and artists and met for a virtual conversation with the director of the International Photoscene and the head of the photographic collection of the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

(Digital) guests were:

Heba Hage-Felder, Director Arab Image Foundation, Beirut/LEBANON

Maheder Haileselassie Tadese, Founder, director CPE - Center of Photography in Ethiopia, Addis Abeba/ETHIOPIA

Jacques Nkinzingabo, Director The Kigali Centre for Photography, Kigali/RWANDA

Nelson Ramirez de Arellano Conde, Director der Havana Art Biennial, Havana/CUBA, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana/CUBA

Anke Reitz, Curator and conservation “The Family of Man”, Steichen-Collections CNA (Centre National de l'Audiovisuel), Clervaux/LUXEMBOURG

Arianna Rinaldo, Artistic director Cortona On The Move, Cortona/ITALY

Iris Sikking, Curator and writer, Amsterdam/NETHERLANDS, guest curator Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg 2022/Deutschland

Leila Topić, Senior curator, Head of Photography, Film&Video and Media Art Collections muzej suvremene umjetnosti - museum of contemporary art, Zagreb/CROATIA

Gary Van Zante, Curator MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge/USA

Impulse Theatre Festival 2021: Independent Theatre in Times of Pandemic

Digital: several days

The Impulse Theatre Festival provided the occasion for the last multi-day (digital) visitors' programme in the first half of 2021: eleven international theatre professionals, specialist journalists and festival directors took part virtually in the festival performances and the Impulse Academy #2 between 1 and 14 June.

In addition, the participants from Argentina, Brazil, China, Hungary, Finland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Northern Macedonia and Romania met with the artistic directors and programme curators of the festival as well as with the participants of the Impulse Showcase for a digital artist talk.

(Digital) guests were:

Rithaudin Abdul Kadir, Dancer, producer, choreographer, Kuala Lumpur/MALAYSIA

Akintayo Abodunrin, Cultural journalist, editor e. g. goldentonesng.com theculturenewspaper.com, NIGERIA

Ivanka Apostolova Baskar, Head of and programme producer Macedonian Center ITI/PRODUKCIJA, Skopje/ORTH MACEDONIA

Moïra Gilliéron, Scenographer, stage designer, SWITZERLAND/GERMANY

Tamás Jászay, Theatre critic, editor, curator and lecturer, Szeged/HUNGARY, Chefredakteur von Revizor

David Kozma, Artistic director European Theatre Collective, Helsinki/FINLAND

Luiz Felipe Reis, Artistic director and curator, Cena Brasil Internacional, Rio de Janeiro/BRAZIL, Co-founder, director and playwright Polifônica Cia., Rio de Janeiro/BRAZIL, journalist, critic and researcher DIALOG, Rio de Janeiro/BRAZIL

Urbane Künste Ruhr: "Ruhr Ding: Climate" and Emscherkunstweg – Art in Public Spaces in the Industrial Landscape of the Ruhr Region

Digital: Individual appointment / network meeting

On 17 June, guests from eight different countries were invited to the digital visit of Ruhr Ding: Klima. After an initial meet & greet with Britta Peters, director of Urbane Künste Ruhr, and a digital guided tour followed by a Q&A about the current exhibition project Ruhr Ding: Klima, the Emscherkunstweg project was also on the agenda: curator Marijke Lukowicz presented the Emscherkunstweg and the guests were given a digital guided tour of the newly created work "Neustadt" by Julius von Bismarck and Marta Dyachenko. In a subsequent group discussion, the contents were deepened and the visitors were given the opportunity to network with each other.

(Digital) guests were:

Zainab Gaafar, Founder and manager The Urban Episodes, Khartoum/SUDAN, Architect, researcher and designer, Khartoum/SUDAN

Laura Marleena Halonen, Freelance artist, Ilmastokirkko collective, Helsinki/FINLAND

Solvita Krese, Director Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga/LATVIA

Katrina Petter, Director Art in Public Space Lower Austria, Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government, Department of Art and Culture – Art in Public Space, St. Pölten/AUSTRIA