Utopia as a programme? The Festspielhaus Hellerau in the 1990s

A text by Manfred Wiemer

Prologue

Detlev Schneider, theatre and cultural scientist and initiator of the new beginning at the Festspielhaus, still speaks today of the "utopia of a workshop of universal artistic research" when he recapitulates the 1990s in Hellerau.

The visible and audible start is legendary: On 27 September 1992, at 12 noon according to the permit, the gates to the Festspielhaus grounds open. With the sound of the game, musicians, theatre people, dancers, visual artists, interested Hellerauers and even guests who had travelled here took possession of the expansive site and marked the area, along with the as yet inaccessible Festspielhaus, as a future art venue.

The history of the Hellerauhill, which goes back over a hundred years, has been described in many different ways. But who occupied this legendary and militarily contaminated site in 1992? What "capital" was brought in? The expertise of (existing) institutions? As early as the 1980s, free artistic "uncontrolled growth" had spread beyond GDR ideological censorship. An excerpt from Dresden: In 1982, Wolfgang Engel staged his Büchner project at the Schauspielhaus, a crystal-sharp mirror of conditions in the country. Underground magazines such as the Dresdner UND (from 1982) buried the country's language regulations for themselves. Artists interpreted Beuys, the Viennese Actionists and the Polish avant-garde in their depictions of socialist claustrophobia. Punk bands demolished the facades of "Ostrock" à la Puhdys and Karat. Summarising much of this, there was already a kind of "Hellerau prelude" in nearby Coswig in June 1985: At INTERMEDIA I, performers, musicians, Super 8 film-makers and painters arranged a genre-busting large-scale happening. Fine Kwiatkowski and Lutz Dammbeck were there, and we were able to see them again later in the Festspielhaus. Such experimentally orientated protagonists from the official, "supervised" art scene and artists who had previously worked "underground" were now looking for a new space for articulation beyond the established art institutions. detlev Schneider became aware of the "right place" in 1987 when Swiss theatre people reported on "Hellerau". It still existed, that legendary meeting place for European artists from the "aristocratic calendar of classical modernism" (D.S.). The utopian and hitherto failed art venue. After all, it still stood, as a dreary, maltreated shell.

A utopia, disenchanted, discredited, destroyed - to think anew, to live anew? Impossible, considering the fragile material existence of the existing cultural institutions. On the other hand, the opportunities in the nineties were not bad: on the underside of the upheavals and upheavals in the "new federal states", there was marvellous freedom. A time of almost limitless artistic freedom, uncontrolled ideas, cultural visions, social utopias and ruthless, lustful exploitation of our own resources began. We tried to get rid of the GDR in us as quickly as possible.

Awakening - first an association!

On Detlev Schneider's initiative, the "Association for the Promotion of the European Workshop for Art and Culture Hellerau e.V." was founded in 1990 at the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK) - the festival theatre was still in Soviet hands and a withdrawal of the troops in the wake of Gorbachev's policy of détente had already been conceivable for a few years. The founding board: Detlev Schneider as chairman, the Dresden dancer and choreographer Arila Siegert, the Hellerauteacher and author Michael Faßhauer and Johannes Heisig, painter and then rector of the HfBK as deputy, and the politician and then president of the HdK Berlin, Ulrich Roloff-Momin, as treasurer.

However, "Hellerau" is not alone in this founding period of the association in the former GDR, which is unique even in Germany's club-ridden history. In Dresden alone, around eighty associations were founded to promote culture and/or art, including new foundations of older associations that had been banned during the Nazi and GDR era. Competing with each other in a virtually assetless environment. A special field of activity is therefore the acquisition of financial resources. The initial reluctance of the public sector forces the association to acquire private sources. In particular, the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Werkbund Foundation and the Dresden Cultural Foundation of the Dresdner Bank (to the credit of Bernhard Freiherr von Loeffelholz) provide funding for the refurbishment of the Festspielhaus, the latter also for the incipient art programme. For the Getty Foundation, the combination of careful refurbishment and practised art is the perfect reason to make a commitment of 250,000 US dollars in 1995. For experts (architects, lawyers), too, Hellerau soon became an interesting project with a (legitimate!) reputation of its own. The association benefits from highly sought-after expertise.

The rubbish, the house and the art

When "the Russians" left in the summer of 1992, Detlev Schneider and a circle of interested architects had long since developed - sometimes divergent - ideas about how the Festspielhaus should be developed. The first task was to secure the site as a place for the arts, i.e. to prevent it from being commercially exploited, but above all to protect it from further decay. Two strategies are the subject of professional and political discussion: careful, use-orientated refurbishment with simultaneous revitalisation of the Festspielhaus through art or complete refurbishment as quickly as possible. There is also a conflict of objectives for both options: "pure doctrine" monument preservation - "A monument is not an object of disposal for the zeitgeist" (catalogue Hellerau 1990-2006) - or a monument with contemporary functionality. The art activists are concerned with restoring the building to its original condition of 1912. In a nutshell, the "philosophical" question is: reconstruction or deconstruction? Or an answer, as formulated by Joseph Beuys in 1976 with the title of his installation "Show your wound". Three layers of time were inscribed in the Festspielhaus. That of the founders, labelled "art" and "life reform" (for short). This was followed by the brown layer of the Nazi era and finally the Soviet occupation with the red star in the gable. All this has to be shown in times of the proclaimed "End of history" (Francis Fukuyama).

On 27 September 1992, the ruinous Kunstpalais, which promised a great future, was stormed. Declared as a "big party", it began on 24 September in the Kleines Haus of the Staatstheater. (This is not the only support for the Free State institution under Artistic Director Dieter Görne; offices, logistics and stage technology are also included) The "Great Festival" quickly leads to the daily routine of clearing out the remaining Soviet inventory, removing fallen clods of plaster, scraping out pigeon droppings, i.e. freeing up spaces for the simplest stay and artistic action, with the first structural safety work running in parallel. Today, the commitment of the Hellerau pioneers in making the Festspielhaus and the West Wing habitable and playable is almost unimaginable. The mostly unpaid performances of those involved are more than a side note.

in 1993, the Federal Property Office transfers the "Festspielhaus property Hellerau" to the Free State of Saxony. The property quickly becomes a "hot potato" for the state. Rumours of a sale are doing the rounds: everything from a wellness hotel to a carpet warehouse is on the cards. However, the diverse activities of the association, which have long since mobilised the local and international public, but above all the historical dimension of the site, turn the property into a political issue: "too big to fail". Selling it off is therefore not an option. So is keeping it. The huge investments, which are difficult to estimate, will have to be shared. But the Free State is out of the question in view of the burdens imposed by the 1993 Cultural Areas Act, which also maintains the largest cultural institutions in Dresden. The city also throws up its hands. Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1993, the Förderverein is allocated ABM positions and material resources. In February 1994, the Förderverein für die Europäische Werkstatt für Kunst und Kultur Hellerau e.V. was granted provisional ownership of the property.

The move in September 1992 is followed on 23 May 1993 by the symposium "Zeitschichten - Spuren in Hellerau" and the subsequent production "Der Obelisk", the next impressive signals from Hellerau. The future of the Festspielhaus as an art venue is discussed with the Geneva theatre scholar Misolette Bablet, the former dramaturge of Pina Bausch, Raimund Hoghe, Johannes Odenthal, performing arts expert and others. In the evening, Carsten Ludwig will impressively demonstrate where the new "artistic journey" can take us. Sixty-one years after Gluck's "Iphigenia", Vladimir Sorokin's "Obelisk" is the first staged production in the theatre and under the responsibility of the Hellerau association.

The International Performance Art Festival in September 1993, entitled "Großes Fest II", presents a wide variety of theatrical productions. Curated by Thomas Kumlehn and Matthias Jackisch, Dresden sculptors and performance artists, artists from eighteen countries made guest appearances at Hellerau (Black Market, Jo Fabian's "Whisky & Flags" and others).

The "Fest III" in September/October 1994 is the most memorable of all, daring between fascist-influenced aesthetics and proletarian irony, the "Fest" touches on the nerve centres of recent German history. Riefenstahl and Bolsche wistische Kurkapelle, introduced by the Slovenian retro avant-garde band Laibach! Tabori, Syberberg, Bazon Brock, Helma Sanders-Brahms and Lutz Dammbeck correlate violence and aesthetics in a captivating discourse. Appropriate to the location. The following day, Carsten Ludwig's second work for Hellerau - "A Month in Dachau", again based on Sorokin, here as a scenic premiere. A light railway travels through the Great Hall. Ambivalent overwhelmingness, party atmosphere only superficially masks the violence that was exercised and suffered. Hellerau is not Dachau, but it is not "cosier" at Ludwig and not in this place. Next to it is the exhibition "EINSCHRITT", curated by Claudia Reichardt. The "frozen cosiness" of everyday (non-military) life in the East Wing connects artists with precise interventions. Minimal to the point of unrecognisability, they refrain from artificial gestures, even political instruction. Didn't Veit Stratmann's ("misconstructed") handrail serve to orientate the soldiers in the dark corridor? Are the piled-up parquet strips moisture damage or a brutally filigree installation?

The conference "Conceptual framework conditions for the revitalisation of the Festspielhaus Hellerau", organised by the Wüstenrot Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and the Förderverein on 24/25 February 1995, deals with questions of construction and design as well as future forms of use. The memorandum "Perspectives for Hellerau" calls for a "simultaneity of repair and (artistic) operation". Architect Fabian Zimmermann is in charge of the structural refurbishment from 1995, with 30 ABM employees at work. A heating system is installed in autumn. the refurbishment of the portico and the outside staircase begins in 1996. In 1995, the city's Department of Cultural Affairs also supports the organisation's convincing concept with institutional funding. The Cultural Foundation of the Free State had already been two years ahead of it. The "Dresden Days of Contemporary Music" moved from the city to the "Green Hill of Modernism" (Udo Zimmermann) for individual performances from 1994 and the "International Dance Week" in 1995.

Even more art

Of course, "The boat of my life" by Ilya Kabakov is one of them. This ark of the banal, stranded in the Festspielhaus in July 1995, somewhat lost in the monumental hall, reveals its depth on closer inspection of the artefacts and texts. Or, in January 1996, Stefan Schröder's grandiose "Feld", an abstract, summery yellow "sea of flowers" in the winter-cold large hall. Beauty is possible in this room. Still in winter 1996, the work by DEREVO, the dance theatre based in St. Petersburg and Dresden, dedicated to Hellerau follows. "Grey Zone" is a typical DEREVO spectacle that conquers the icy forecourt with drastic dream images. In June 1996, the renowned "Theatre of the World" festival lands in Dresden. Hellerau is prominently represented with three productions and an installation and enjoys great international attention. Christian Boltanski and Jean Kalman take their "memory theatre" called "Alltage" to the farthest corners of the Festspielhaus. In September, Carsten Ludwig stages "Mal hören, was noch kommt" based on Hans Joachim Schädlich. The Dutch actor Chaim Levano "plays", hovering over the audience, a dying man whose

Reflections can also be understood as a parable for a recently defunct state or the world as a whole. Kokoschka's "Murderer, Hope of Women" with the art berserker Alfred Hrdlicka as "illustrator" and the Volksbühne production "Ernst Jünger" by Johann Kresnik also caused a stir in autumn 1996. With "Genetik Woyzeck", Harriet and Peter Meining present their first work at the Festspielhaus in 1997. Büchner's soldier is exposed to "modern times", attacked by celebrities and new media. In the end there is - we know - "a beautiful murder". After the Meinings had founded various illegal clubs in Dresden at the beginning of the 1990s, they established "club culture as an art form" (P.M.) in the Festspielhaus at the end of the millennium (e.g. "AKA Elektrik - more free time for women").

In 1998, on the initiative of Susanne Altmann, supported by Claudia Reichardt, the American artist couple Nancy Spero and Leon Golub took on Hellerau. Nancy Spero works on the Festspielhaus as (historical) "material", on which she inscribes feminist messages after almost sixty years of male-bellicist dominance: stamp prints with depictions of mythological and historical female figures. "The Rebirth Of Venus" remains preserved in the western skylight room, a landmark in Hellerau.

The summer academy "Theatre and Media. Interaction and Reality" in June/July 1999 is dedicated to linking "analogue" theatre and digital interaction.

Politics and headwinds

Since its foundation, the Förderverein has faced organisational, personnel and financial challenges as initiator, operator, organiser and client. The establishment of the Festspielhaus Hellerau GmbH in 1997, initiated by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony (25%), the Förderverein für die Europäische Werkstatt für Kunst und Kultur Hellerau e.V. (50%) and the Heinrich Tessenow Foundation (25%), can therefore be seen as a sensible step. The involvement of the Cultural Foundation (Director: Jürgen Uwe Ohlau) signalled the responsibility of the Free State and ultimately led to the transfer of the property along with a substantial contribution to its renovation, agreed in 2004 in the "Capital City Culture Contract" with the City of Dresden. in 1999, Meier-Scupin & Petzet Architekten won the realisation competition and were awarded the contract for the renovation and conversion of the Festspielhaus.

At the turn of the millennium, the conditions for the development of Hellerauare actually favourable. From 1999, the progress of the building work enables the theatre to be open all year round. This increases the "pressure to play". In view of the budget consolidations - the years around 2000 are characterised by this - the city council questions the attendance figures of all cultural institutions. The subsidy per ticket sold is compared. Politics and culture face each other as adversaries. Insinuations meet arguments "from another world". It is openly surmised that Hellerau is deliberately profiling itself against the stuffy city below. People refuse to understand the other side, the "bubbles" fail to communicate. The city council cuts institutional funding considerably. The political pressure on Hellerau is growing, with reduced funding intended to increase "public impact".

Strategically largely in agreement, opinions on the association's programme practice are increasingly divergent. To put it bluntly: experiment vs. visitor numbers. The conflict correlates with the accusation that too few local artists are given a voice or receive funding in Hellerau. in 2001, the differences escalate-also due to the fragility of the organisation's structure-with the dismissal of the spiritus rector Detlev Schneider as chairman.

Summary and outlook

Dresden, 1989, 1990: The Saxon flags are flying on the "Wendepodiums", the first blue bloods are raving about golden times. (Soon afterwards, they "acquire" and sue for villas, forests and vineyards with their land surveyors and angle lawyers) At the same time, artists, architects, theatre scholars, etc. travelled to Hellerau to test the "combination of visionary thinking and the latest artistic means" (D.S.) in a historical location. From the outset, Schneider and his colleagues recognised the international dimension of the project, which naturally included the restoration of the site. Over the 1990s, they realised an impressive sequence of sometimes spectacular art actions by local and international actors, which dealt with the wounds and sediments of the 20th century (not only at this site). Century (not only) at this location: Research, discourse, action. Accompanied by permanent reflection. Between shamanic gesture and digital experiment, artists explore the possibilities of cross-genre interaction in ever new constellations. Artistically successful, politically observed with scepticism, they largely elude mainstream performance practice. The pop-cultural injections administered by Harriet and Peter Meining contribute to the dissemination of the Hellerauperformance.

Nevertheless, then as now, some of the initiators were sceptical about the development. Increasingly, it has been forgotten where the "Hellerau founders" wanted to start: the Festspielhaus, the "Stone Tent" (Hellerau idiom) as a "centre of universal theatrical research", as a "laboratory for the arts and media" (D.S.). As the programme shows. But this was hardly to be expected in the political context - finances, "audience expectations", prioritisation, mental specifics, etc. The Festspielhaus cannot be run as a "clean room" for artistic research. The venue was/is too big for that, as is the tableau of interests of actual and supposed "stakeholders".

Since 2015, HELLERAU - European Centre for the Arts has been a member of the alliance of international production houses and thus part of an important instrument for combining cooperation, reflection on the field of tension between contemporary arts and society, research and experimental practice with programme relevance. In the meantime, the European Centre for the Arts HELLERAU has launched an international and interdisciplinary residency programme in which around one hundred artists HELLERAU can work each year. The opening of the newly designed East Wing is expected to offer completely new work opportunities from the end of 2023. The initiating, curating and staging pioneers Detlev Schneider, Claudia Reichardt and Carsten Ludwig, to whom the second establishment of HELLERAUas an art venue is largely due, will have to be remembered.

Manfred Wiemer has been employed by the Dresden Cultural Office since 1991 and was at times involved with HELLERAU. The author is aware that he has not (sufficiently) honoured numerous important personalities and has not noted significant events. Reference is made to a large number of existing publications. The author would particularly like to thank Gabriele Gorgas, who has closely accompanied HELLERAU as a journalist from the very beginning, for important memories and archive material. Thanks to Detlev Schneider, Carsten Ludwig, Jörg Stüdemann and Peter Meining for detailed discussions. In memoriam thanks to Wanda (Claudia Reichardt).

Although the masculine form has been used in some parts of the text, the information refers to members of all genders.