Editorial by the festival direction
Such as Rwanda … «People who arrive in the UK illegally will instead be detained and swiftly removed to their home country if safe, or another safe third country, such as Rwanda.» That is what the British government’s new «stop the boats» bill says. The law against illegal migration was one of the central promises of the new Prime Minister. The interior ministers of the EU states have recently agreed that asylum procedures be dealt with at the EU’s external borders cessing applications directly in North Africa. The increasingly restrictive asylum procedures in Europe have become so normal that tightening them is hardly noticed and instead absurdities are discussed that obviously violate European values. For some time now, the fear of «foreign infiltration» has been successfully used in politics here as well. At the same time, little is heard about the fight against global inequality or other causes of flight.
Even before the war in the Ukraine, the themes of flight and migration were sad regulars at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel, as they are an integral part of the lives of many artists from the Global South. Two freely accessible installations on the Landiwiese by Plastique Fantastique and Border Forensics explicitly deal with borders this year. Other productions throw light on the colonial background and its underlying correlations. In her musical performance «Symphony of Progress», Moldovan theatre-maker Nicoleta Esinencu uses the stories of Eastern European migrant workers to describe the exploitation between East and West, power-political entanglements and the calculations of Western capitalism.The philosopher and environmental researcher Malcom Ferdinand from Martinique makes another point in the excerpt from his book «Decolonial Ecology» that is published in this journal: he shows the connections between colonial history and ecological crisis, between the exploitation of people and of nature. He pleads for a new bridge to justice and jurisprudence and describes the prerequisite for this as the genuine recognition of all, i.e. also of non-human living beings, as partners in a shared world. The Chilean-Mexican-Austrian choreographer Amanda Piña brings this broader perspective on our environment to life with a performative walk across Zurich’s Allmend. In the «School of Mountains and Water», she and her artistic colleagues examine various forms of colonial, exploitative thinking and contrast indigenous knowledge with a different view of nature and our relationship to it.
The 2023 programme fulfills some of our long-cherished wishes. We can finally present the special concert project by Canadian musician Leslie Feist that was created during the pandemic, or projects by artists with whom we have been in contact for several years, such as Juan Onofri Barbato from Argentina or Mallika Taneja from India. Many young theatre-makers are appearing in Switzerland for the first time. And among the established artists, some particularly outstanding works have emerged: Miet Warlop’s impressive performance «One Song», for example, was declared performance of the year by the «New York Times», and with «All right. Good night», Rimini Protokoll’s acclaimed, haunt-ing work about dementia comes to Zurich.
This year’s festival looks almost «like it used to» – at first glance, it is much like it was before the watershed created by the pandemic. In this way, we too contribute to the overall social semblance of restored normality. Yet in the international cultural scene, the situation remains somewhat tense. In many countries, funders are more reluctant to support art in the wake of the pandemic, and in ideological values, a reactionary backlash is emerging. It is not only in this country that a polemical culture war is being waged against diversity and achieved liberalisations and adjustments are being fought.
As always, the Zürcher Theater Spektakel tries to broaden horizons by all artistic means. Several hundred international artists and over 100 000 culturally interested visitors will again create a wonderfully improbable social space on the Landiwiese. The world does not offer many opportunities for such a low-threshold contact with contemporary art and other realities. Many artists also open up surprising perspectives with their works. Together with the guests of the Talking on Water lecture series and the Stammtisch every evening, they offer you the chance to see the world in new and different ways with their ideas and art. A warm welcome to you all!
The festival direction
Matthias von Hartz, Sarah Wendle, Veit Kälin