flausen+lab: Strategien der Öffnung, Praktiken der Versammlung

In the organizer's words:

Strategies of opening, practices of assembly
Rethinking the connection between theater and the public sphere
flausen+lab on November 15, 2025, 2-5 pm at the FWT Cologne

Registration via email at info@fwt-koeln.de

Cultural venues - and theaters in particular - see themselves as spaces for social discourse and democratic negotiation. Here, artistic means are used to reflect on the complexity of the world and the pressing issues of our time. However, if they want to assert themselves as progressive places where diverse urban societies and their communities actually gather and argue, it is not enough to simply offer a good program and open the foyer during the day.

This is the thesis of this flausen+lab: cultural venues must join forces with those civil society groups that experiment with practices of assembly, negotiation and solidarity. Because there are many reasons to reorganize today - the nationalist, authoritarian and racist "vibe shift" that is emerging globally and locally, the escalation of the climate crisis, unresolved wars and conflicts or growing social inequality.

If (independent) theaters want to become places where urban societies meet, argue and develop perspectives of solidarity, they must not only open up their spaces and foyers, but also try out new forms of artistic collaboration and build sustainable alliances with civil society. At the same time, they must ask themselves how discourses and assemblies critical of power can also change the institutions themselves - in their hierarchies, structures and self-images.

On November 15, we will discuss how this can be achieved together with cultural practitioners who have already embarked on this path and with initiatives from urban society. Impulses will come from Anja Adam and Patrick Oes from the open Foyer Public at Theater Basel, the Vollversammlung für das schöne Leben + The Embassy, Thomas Kaschel from the Union for Cultural Commons and the Palestinians and Jews for Peace Cologne.

The flausen+lab is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media via the "Promoting Connections" program of the Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste e.V. (Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts).

Price information:

Registration by e-mail via info@fwt-koeln.de