The most important things

12.05.2021 – Over 30 projects, including ten world premieres, from Casablanca to Tokyo, from London to Bogota. Hardly ever, and almost to our surprise, has the festival seen more debut performances. On the Saffainsel, a 20 metres high installation will be erected. A Columbian boat will land on the shores of Lake Zurich. At the Werft, a Wild West opera will be showcased. At Nord, Portuguese women will dance to the Bolero over and over again. Avatars from Hong Kong will appear on the stage of Rote Fabrik. 15 artists are currently developing monuments for the Landiwiese. This August, the most important things will be present at the Mythenquai: the arts, good food, happy people in a park bordered by lake and trees, with some tweaking done to meet the demands of coming together in the covid era.

Projects for children – from Switzerland, Germany and Australia

Being a child has not been easy during the pandemic. As there will be a lot less of the usual hustle and bustle on the Landiwiese this year, we have invited more shows for children and families. The Zurich company Kolypan celebrates its 20th anniversary with a grand open air revue. The choreographer Lea Moro presents her first production for children: colourful underwater creatures tell of the (un)cleanliness of the oceans. Fundus Theater invites its audience to a self-experiment on the effects of sugar. Circa from Australia, one of the most innovative circus companies worldwide, presents «Bounce» on the Saffainsel, in a huge inflatable installation.

Asymmetry of events

Everything is back to almost normal: one could so think when looking out on the streets. Yet, the situation remains asymmetrical. Switzerland is one of the few countries in which the situation has improved to this degree. Artists from several continents are working on projects for the Theater Spektakel. In many of their countries, social issues have intensified and made the return to a pre-pandemic «normality» inconceivable. Those are realities which easily vanish from our perspective in the face of the current local «improvement». Maybe it is all the more important to get together for an international festival. Because, as the Indian artist Shilpa Gupta wrote into the sky over Lake Zurich last year, «I live under your sky too».

Sarah Wendle, Veit Kälin, Matthias von Hartz
Festival Direction