FAVORITEN 2020 – WHILE WE ARE WORKING. Festival for the Independent Performing Arts in North Rhine-Westphalia

The theater festival FAVORITEN was the focus of the first event trip that could be realised in 2020. Two guests from Slovenia and the Netherlands took part in the festival from 16 to 20 September, which focused on the theme of work. In addition to visiting performances in Dortmund, the small group met for a networking brunch with Fanti Baum and Olivia Ebert, the artistic directors of FAVORITEN, as well as the artist Antje Velsinger and Ulrike Seybold, managing director of the NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste. A visit to the festival exhibition "Arbeit am Apparat" in the Galerie im Depot Dortmund was also on the guests' extensive programme.

In addition, there was a meeting in Dortmund with Dr. Inke Arns, Director of the HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein, which was combined with a visit to the exhibition "25 of 78 - International Media Art from the HMKV Video of the Month Series". In Bochum, the group of visitors met with Eva Busch, founding member of the Bochum atelier automatique, a place where eleven artists from various art disciplines work together. In Mülheim an der Ruhr, there was a discussion with Dr. Justin Fonkeu from the Silent University Ruhr and Omar Mohamad from the Collective Ma'louba, as well as an exchange of talks with the artistic director of the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Matthias Frense. The final farewell dinner in Dortmund brought the guests together with Christoph Rech, chief dramaturge and co-director of the FFT Düsseldorf, among others.