Impulse Theatre Festival. Independent theatre between political activism and politically-engaged art

On the occasion of the Impulse Theatre Festival 2022, a group of six festival directors, theatre producers and critics from Egypt, Argentina, Malaysia, Romania and Thailand travelled to North Rhine-Westphalia from 15 to 19 June. As part of the festival programme, the participants of the visitor trip visited the Impulse Showcase in Mülheim an der Ruhr and Essen and also took part in discussions about production processes and collaborations with Kathrin Tiedemann, Artistic Director and Managing Director of FFT Düsseldorf, and Haiko Pfost, Artistic Director of the Impulse Theatre Festival.

The "Digital Networking Programme" on site and in the digital space - a cooperation between Impulse, the Department of Theatre and Dance at the Goethe-Institut Munich and the International Visitors Programme - and the "Impulse Academy #2 - Ar/ctivism" at TanzFaktur (Cologne) invited participants to discussions and lectures on "Art and Activism in Independent Theatre". Together with Haiko Pfost and Impulse dramaturge Wilma Renfordt, the guests also visited this year's Impulse city project "Guggenheim in Oberbilk?". The programme for the international guests was rounded off with a guided tour of the "Folkwang and the City" project at the Museum Folkwang in Essen and a discussion about the planned NSU memorial Herkesin Meydanı (Place for All) in Cologne.