Despite the Circumstances: On Keeping Going and Striving for Connections

Malin Nagel

We bring people together, across cultural and geographical borders, who are passionate about the power of theatre and the arts as driving forces of empathy and change. These are artists who have an interest in how art, activism, social critique and participation are intertwined. Some of them come from regions and contexts of the world ruled by totalitarian regimes, in which their artistic practice is very restricted or they themselves are even exposed to life-threatening risks – and despite the circumstances, look for ways to continue their work. When we use the words – by now rather hackneyed – “collective resilience” and “resistance” in this context – we and the ITI Academy participants fill these hollow words with concrete experiences, situations and strategies. In doing so, we look at “what’s going on over there” in relation to the tension between the ability to act and the lack of power to act: When is a resilient practice of resistance subjectively possible for an artist and which external and internal circumstances, in interaction, lead to an artist to not being able to continue their work?

Malin Nagel

The NEAP committee – Network of Emerging Arts Professionals – was established in 2014 within the global umbrella organisation. While many of the older members of the ITI, who helped shape it for years through delegations sent from around the world, are often affiliated with institutions and thus have the financial means to travel and meet other members, the younger generation often lacked the means to do this. ITI Germany reacted to this by founding the ITI Academy as a network to support younger artists working across borders. THEATER DER WELT offered us the perfect platform to make the Academy a vibrant reality.
Its early days took place during the COVID pandemic. That was a challenging situation. Working internationally as well as physical gatherings had to be completely reconceived. The first Academy format during THEATER DER WELT in Düsseldorf was created in cooperation with The Festival Academy from Brussels, whose experience helped us to enhance our profile. While in their academy future festival managers come together in various formats, the ITI Academy is aimed specifically at artists. Their work and its content are the basis of the exchange.
From the very start we wanted to establish a sustainable network that connects people to each other and creates synergies – a breeding ground for future cooperations.

Malin Nagel

There are open calls for the ITI Academy Week. We received 500 applications from all over the world for this year’s call, from which twelve fellows were chosen by a five-person selection committee and invited to participate. The ITI Academy Week takes place during the THEATER DER WELT festival. For this one-week, in-person gathering the twelve fellows are joined by other artists from previous formats and editions. All ITI Academy participants become members of the alumni network, which sustains and strengthens international connections beyond the events.

Malin Nagel

When doors close on a political and economic level, it’s important to stay connected on an artistic level where possible. Of course, working together has gotten more complicated due to the global political situation. All the different social, historical, economic and political factors are having a major impact on our lives. Insurmountable differences and unequal circumstances can make it difficult to maintain an open interest in one another and sometimes stand in the way of experiencing common ground across cultures and identities. There are major obstacles when it comes to travel for example; meeting up physically and direct exchange have been severely limited because of this. But as part of the ITI, our mission and understanding of our purpose do not depend on whether the situation is easy is not. Especially in times of crisis, we must continue our collaborative work, with all its contradictions and challenges – without ignoring the individual situations that people we meet are in. And that means fine-tuning formats and adapting them.

Malin Nagel

To us it seemed necessary to first focus on the different local, international performing arts here in Germany. Where are we at? Who’s “we” when we invite the world to Germany? Our impression was: first we have to identify and deconstruct colonial thinking, structures and eurocentrism, and face the challenges we have in our own working lives here in Germany. How do you work internationally and across borders as an artist based in Germany and what challenges do you face working transnationally? That seemed to us to be the foundation for the next step.

Four modules with formats on curation, production and working transnationally, which we developed together with the festival team from THEATER DER WELT in Frankfurt, formed the curriculum and led up to the Academy Week. At the same time, the link to the global ITI network remained of central importance. In cooperation with the NEAP committee from the global organisation, we then hosted a series of talks afterwards about the conditions for successful international collaboration in the arts and with that paved the way for this year’s edition in Chemnitz.

Malin Nagel

We can see this development in many countries in Europe and the so-called West. Societies that have understood themselves as stable democracies for a long time are now seeing a trend of that being eroded. Countries from the supposedly liberal, democratic spectrum are now realising that the basic rights of democracy can be very quickly put at risk and that these must be defended. That’s why the need and the interest in approaches to these issues are growing. But it’s important to bear in mind that the individual situations across the world are very different. What possibilities to act are there in which context? What possibilities to have an influence? What are the legal parameters and where do the responsibilities lie? As an institution, we always work in a specific national context, even if how we look at things is international. That comes with responsibility. We set the agenda, but we also try to be aware of the biases and limitations of our own perspectives. A shifting dominance in discourse in a democratic society like Germany is incomparable to authoritarian systems and dictatorships in other countries – which makes it even more important to create spaces for open exchange and debate and to maintain them, if possible.

Malin Nagel

What’s important to us is that they bring their own stories and experiences, influences and interests into dialogue with each other when they meet. No matter whether in Zimbabwe or India, Uganda or Peri, China or Iran, similar questions are being asked everywhere: What are the basic conditions so that people even have the capacity and resources to, firstly, be open to one another, and secondly, to get to know each other better, and thirdly, possibly cooperate with each other? How can you create a safe space? Incidentally, more as a kind of ideal – because in my opinion that’s almost impossible in larger, diverse groups like here – but as an attempt, and for that the quality of the relationship is crucial. Then, in their exchange with each other, it’s about strategies for resistance and resilience. Resistance often arises as a reaction to the restrictions of one’s own freedom to choose and express opinions. Then it’s a personal challenge to turn the emotions that come with that, like anger and – if it’s repressive – fear too, into a catalyst somehow and to reconcile that with one’s own needs and values. This can then result in clearer positions and also concrete strategies and options for action for the individual person: How do you communicate from prison as a collective? How can you organise meetings that aren’t openly public? Which codes can you use that can’t be immediately deciphered and yet can communicate to outsiders when something is happening? Some artists decide to provide physical training in their collectives so they can strengthen themselves mentally and physically resist if they are attacked. They practise formations for moving around the city without becoming vulnerable as individuals. Strategies like these show how important invisible structures are – alliances that offer protection when it gets dangerous; allies outside the collective and your own community who advocate for you.

Malin Nagel

Maybe that statement seems naïve, or even cynical. But it’s more relevant than ever. Peace isn’t a state, it’s a practice. And that practice begins – just like war – in people’s minds.