Panel: Artistic practices of remembrance

Caroline Anne Kapp works as a director and performer on the contamination of bodies and landscapes. Her works are based on historical events, architecture, literary texts and landscapes and find their stage there, in museum or theatrical settings, such as the Pinakothek der Moderne, the Märkisches Museum Witten, Schauspielhaus Leipzig, PATHOS Theater, Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspiel Dortmund and Theater Oberhausen and Bremen. The Netzwerk für freie Theater co-produced her work Electric Mountain Obersalzberg against the neo-fascist appropriation of the mountain and in November 2023 her work on PLANTAGE DACHAU, the largest labor detachment of the former Dachau concentration camp, premiered at the SPIELART Festival in Munich.

Manon Haase conceives performative and museum-like artistic formats. She has worked as a dramaturge at the Münchner Kammerspiele and for Mette Ingvartsen’s dance company, the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, among others. Since MESSY HISTORY LESSONS, which was awarded the Körber Studio Jury Prize for Young Directors in 2020, she has been working with Caroline Anne Kapp on performances about memory and identity politics. After ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN OBERSALZBERG, as a performative inspection of the Obersalzberg, her work on PLANTAGE DACHAU followed as an on-site work at the SPIELART Festival in Munich in November 2023.

Regine Dura works as a director, author and dramaturge. She has worked in London and Berlin, including for the European Film Academy and Wim Wenders Produktion. Film and radio productions for ZDF/Arte, WDR and SWR. Her documentary WEISSES BLUT was invited to the Max Ophüls Prize 2011 in Saarbrücken. In the field of documentary theater she works together with Hans-Werner Kroesinger. She also develops plays/concepts/texts for, among others MYTHOS VOEST (Landestheater Linz, 2018), SCHWARZE ERNTE (Hebbel am Ufer, 2019), BRENNENDE ERDE (Schauspiel Leipzig, 2019),WESTWALL (Staatstheater Mainz, 2021), SAAL 600 (Staatstheater Nürnberg, 2021), VERSCHLUSSSACHE NSU (Theater Heilbronn, 2021), 10 AVE MARIA (Landestheater, 2022), DIE SPIELE MÜSSEN WEITERGEHEN (Residenztheater München, 2022), LETZTE STATION TORGAU (Schauspiel Leipzig, 2023), GOLD, GLANZ und GÖTTER (Oper Basel 2023) and STOLPERSTEINE STAATSTHEATER (Staatstheater Karlsruhe, 2015).

Hans-Werner Kroesinger studied theater and media at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen under Andrzej Wirth and Hans-Thies Lehmann. In 1989, he became Heiner Müller’s artistic assistant for the production “Hamlet/Hamletmaschine” at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Since 1993, his own productions have been seen at theaters such as the Berliner Ensemble, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Schauspiel Leipzig, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin as well as in the independent scene, mainly at HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Kroesinger’s works have been invited to renowned national and international festivals such as “Politik im freien Theater” (Hamburg 2003) or “Impulse” (NRW 2009), and the Berlin Theatertreffen (2016).

Michael Neil McCrae is a freelance director, producer and performer with German-English roots. He is interested in the realization of fiction and the fictionalization of reality. His working center is Dresden and he is among others part of the artistic direction of the art and performance project theatrale subversion.

Dina Zaitev, born in Chişinău, Moldova, is a post-Soviet Jewish artist. Her works are based on transdisciplinary creation. It combines theater, narrative and text with installative and performative elements.

Urs Humpenöder and Hannes Köpke have been writing together since 2021. Urs Humpenöder previously studied cultural and media studies as well as journalism and subsequently published in the academic, journalistic and literary fields. Hannes Köpke studied drama and opera directing and worked continuously with the collective fachbetrieb rita grechen after completing his master’s degree. Most recently, her play “Self Care Strandbefehl” appeared at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in a stage version by her collective fachbetrieb rita grechen. Urs Humpenöder recently wrote the text for choreographer Eva Borrmann’s dance production “Un Amor” or “Die Erfindung meiner Mutter” (Tafelhalle Nürnberg, 2022). Hannes Köpke co-wrote the play “Hält uns wach” (2019) with Laura Immler, which was also performed in a premiere by fachbetrieb rita grechen at Pathos Munich after its world premiere at studio naxos in 2021.

Dr. Frauke Wetzel is a cultural studies researcher, historian of Eastern Europe and cultural manager. She worked at HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden. Since 2020, Frauke Wetzel has been working at the ASA-FF association in Chemnitz for the model program neue unentd_ckte narrative and advises cultural productions on political approaches and diversity development.