Podcast from HELL

Part I

As a visitor, you might already be familiar with a festival like this in HELLERAU. But what actually happens behind the scenes the year before? How are the pieces selected, what is explore dance and how is all the publicity created?

In March, the festival Watch Out will take place in the Festspielhaus HELLERAU and on this occasion we asked some of the team exactly these questions. Be curious! 

In Part 2 of the podcast on Watch Out! you can find out more about how the artists from all over the world and their stage sets come to HELLERAU, what is important for the artists and the team in emergencies in the evening and what the piece “Forever!” by Tabea Martin is all about. Why eternal life and death? Why a stage set and costumes made of white plastic? Listen in now!

Moderation: Chiara Magirius (FSJ Culture, Audience Development)

Part 2

The Watch Out! Festival is just around the corner and there is still a lot to plan and organise. How do the artists get to HELLERAU? How are the different stage sets created and what happens if someone forgets their costume?

And speaking of costumes and stage sets: What’s the deal with the white look in Tabea Martin’s play “Forever!” and why does she want to address eternal life and death in a play for children?

All this and more in Part 2 of the podcast on Watch Out!

And if you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, make sure you do! Because there we’ll hear more about everything that happens in the HELLERAU team to get such a festival off the ground, to make it visible and what it’s all about with explore dance and the pop-up plays as part of Watch Out!

Moderation: Chiara Magirius (FSJ Culture, Audience Development)

10 years of go plastic company – an anniversary for which we invited the two co-leaders Susan Schubert and Cindy Hammer to tell us something about their three plays “mind the rage”, “WE’RE USED TO BEING DARKER” and MOTEL VIBES, which can be seen at the Festspielhaus as part of the festival time & s_pace!

Do we need anger? Why 10 women on a bowling alley? Is the motel room an unreal paradise? And how do the works of the go plastic comany actually come into being?

Questions upon questions, which we will explore in the form of a collage of musical performance excerpts and answers by Cindy and Susan.

Moderation: Chiara Magirius (FSJ Kultur, Audience Development)

Credits Musik: go plastic company

To kick off the 22/23 season, we invited choreographer Fang Yun Lo and her project assistant Duc Vu Manh to a relaxed conversation in the Kuturgarten HELLERAU. Everything about their piece “Home Away From Home”, the performers, their idea and an answer to why exactly about 100 interviews with Vietnamese in Germany and Taiwan were important for their work can be found here.

 Moderation: Chiara Magirius (Volounteer Audience Development)

Every year, HELLERAU offers a position for a Voluntary Social Year in Culture in the three areas of Audience Development, Production and in Press and Public Relations. This year, creative volunteers Charlotte Vieweg, Charlotte Schicketanz and Kilian Ritter have joined forces for their year-long project to give resident artists:in the fields of visual arts, textile art and music a space for their work, to experiment together and to explore new processes.

Four Faced Residency

This time the dancer and choreographer Antje Pfundtner is invited.  We talk about “Antje Pfundtner in company”, why sitting is a good idea and how she came to work with accomplices. 

Moderation: Charlotte Schicketanz (FSJ Kultur, Audience Development)

We start the year 2022 with a podcast episode on 13 February.  
We invite Elisabeth Krefta from the programme department at HELLERAU and Daniel Theiler, the artist for this year’s poster campaign by the WOD Weltoffenes Dresden. 
Elisabeth introduces the WOD and answers questions about the action on 13 February for a Weltoffenes Dresden.  
We talk to Daniel Theiler about art in public space, what freedom has to do with politics and humour, and his project “Zusammenführungsanlage”.

Moderation: Charlotte Schicketanz (FSJ Kultur, Audience Development)

In this episode we talked with the choreographer and dancer Charles Washington. We are talking about his project “Eine Andere Welt ist möglich”.  

Charles answers our questions about the 48hrs experience workshops and about his performance, which was supposed to run at HELLERAU this December, but had to be postponed to April 2022 due to Corona. 

Moderation: Charlotte Schicketanz (FSJ Kultur, Audience Development)

Where do invisible borders run in the city? How can borders be moved? “Moving Borders” uses artistic methods to initiate encounters between people of different origins and social milieus that would hardly be possible in real life.

In seven European cities with very different cultural, demographic and historical backgrounds, seven different editions of a community art project are created over 24 months. In Dresden, Moving Borders found its “shape” in the form of the Ark for Underestimated Knowledge in July 2021.

Listen to the interview with the local agents of ARK Dresden: Katja Heiser and Mustafa Ahaikh Hasan. In the English-language episode of the 7th edition of the Podcast from HELL, Richard Gregory from the English group Quarantine, artistic co-producer of the project, talks about the production process and about his view on borders.

This audio feature of the podcast from HELLERAU provides insight into the piece “Living Minus Dead” by the theatrical subversion with original sounds and original questions about life and death. You can access the archive of the Living Dead here. 

To be heard are: Artistic Direction | Direction | Performance: Alexander Bauer, Romy Weyrauch, Michael Neil McCrae Musical Direction | Composition | Performance: Mathias Monrad Møller Performer | Text: Katharina Bill Performers | Singers: Paula Götz, Wolf-Dieter Gööck, Leila Schütz Editing | Moderation: Eleanor Müller

Whether in your own living room, in the park or in another favourite place where you feel comfortable and can move well – turn on the podcast and turn off your head. Follow Sarah Weber’s instructions and get into your own flow of movement.

We hope you enjoy the first dance workshop to listen to on the Podcast from HELL.

Production/Speaker: Sarah Weber (Education Manager of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company)

Moderation: Elisa Kneisel, Eleanor Müller (Audience Development HELLERAU)

The volunteers at HELLERAU take you on a fictional audio walk through the Festspielhaus and meet faces that fill the place with art and life. In this episode you can expect a journey behind the scenes with the HELLERAU team. Have fun! The FSJers from left to right: Charlotte Hänsel, Eleanor Müller, Ludmilla Tallon, Janne Arp

The Other in Music? A panel discussion on different perspectives on coming to terms with the music of the GDR on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Dresden Centre fora Contemporary Music Moderation: Jakob Auenmüller (PhD in music, history and cultural studies) Guests: Hilke Wagner (Director of the Albertinum of the Dresden State Art Collections), Claudia Schmidt-Krahmer (Prorector for Artistic Practice at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music Dresden), Clara Bergert (student teacher of music and mathematics at the HfM Dresden).

This year, the Dresden Centre for Contemporary Music celebrates its 35th anniversary. In the 4th episode of the Podcast from HELL, moderated by the musicologist Jakob Auenmüller, various perspectives on the reappraisal of East German art in the post-reunification period are discussed. How is the current treatment of music and art from the GDR perceived? Where and in what formats does the representation of East German art take place? What role can and should the art of the former GDR play in the future negotiation processes in the all-German debate and integration?

The volunteers at HELLERAU take you on a fictional audio walk through the Festspielhaus and meet faces that fill the place with art and life. With this auditory collection, different impressions, voices and experiences are made audible. We invite you to a little head cinema. Sound on! The first episode deals with the topics of admission, stage and audience space. In the next episode you can expect a journey behind the scenes with the HELLERAU team. Have fun!

The FSJers from left to right: Charlotte Hänsel, Eleanor Müller, Ludmilla Tallon, Janne Arp

We discuss what will happen at our digital art festival HYBRID – CUTTING EDGE CANADA from 11 – 14.03.2021 and how the connection to Canada came about.

International guests in the episode: Moritz Lobeck (Programme Director for Music and Media HELLERAU) | Alain Mongeu (Founder and Director of MUTEK) | Pierre-Luc Lecours (Composer and Transdisciplinary Artist) | Sahar Homami (Audiovisual Artist) Moderators: Elisa Kneisel and Eleanor Müller (HELLERAU)

In Episode 2, the artist:in “Born in Flamez” talks about her debut album and the residency in HELLERAU. We also answer the question of what our music festival “Bandstand” will actually look like under pandemic conditions.

The first episode revolves around the production “Learning Feminism from Rwanda” by the Berlin group Flinnworks, which was originally scheduled to be shown at HELLERAU in early December 2020. The sisters Lisa and Sophia Stepf (artistic directors) and Wesley Ruzibiza, the Rwandan choreographer of the project, talk about the women’s quota as a political instrument and go on the trail of Rwandan fast-track feminism.