Unordentliches
Denken
Awareness
At the FAVORITEN Festival there is no place for sexism, queer hostility, transphobia, any form of racism or discrimination such as anti-Black, anti-Muslim racism or antisemitism or ableism. The same applies to any kind of violent, aggressive or abusive behavior.
If you experience or observe an encroaching situation, you can contact our staff or our festival phone (+49 (0)152 235 239 59). Our festival phone is manned as follows during the festival period: One hour before the first event on the programme up to half an hour after the last event on the programme. Information are given here in German and English.
During our Thursday, Saturday and Saturday parties there will be a two person awareness team on site who will be identifiable and approachable. There will also be a place of retreat on site.
For us, awareness means that people receive support if they have experienced a encroaching situation or are not doing well for other reasons. It is a subjective decision when one’s own limit has been exceeded. We do not question experiences and act in the interests of the people concerned, in a partisan and power-critical manner. The awareness team is authorised to ask people to leave, especially at parties.
Awareness means being there for you. It does not replace professional, medical or psychological care or long-term psychological care during the festival. However, we are happy to refer you to offers of support and contact professional help if necessary.
For us, awareness means learning. If you have structural, content-related or general feedback or criticism, we are open for feedback to adam@favoriten-festival.de. If you would like to share an experience with us after an event that is on your mind, please also write an email.
All content warnings we know of are located under the descriptions of the productions.
Art-Mediation
The design of art-mediation can be multifaceted. In this festival, art-mediation includes offers and structures that try to break down barriers on various levels in order to simplify access to theatre and performance art and to inspire people for the medium of theatre. It is the task of mediation to build a connection between the theatre audience and the works of this year’s FAVORITEN Festival.
Barriers can also arise from the unfamiliar viewing experience of theatre. Mediation tries to break down these barriers with offers and thus create access to the medium of theatre in a playful way. We are happy to cooperate closely with local groups from/around Dortmund and design individual programmes and mediation offers.
Mediation can also mean organising follow-up discussions with artists. On request, we can also offer individual educational programmes for children, school classes and young people that introduce them to productions and viewing habits in the theatre in a playful way and with regard to specific content. We can also engage in digital conversation.
For the production dÄmonen, a theatre-pedagogical, preparatory workshop can be taken up. We can also come to your school class.
Mediation also means discursively bringing together the artistic focal points of the productions with local urban social perspectives and thus stimulating (un)learning processes. Together we want to question the issues of the present and the future at the level of society as a whole.
We will examine the (un)learning process in the climate struggle on 24.09.2022 at 12.00 with artistic director Philipp Grüneberg, Lillith Kuhn and activist Zade Abdullah.
We ask ourselves how we can (un)learn the concept of revolution on 19.09.2022 at 19.30 with Aie Al Khaiat, Efsun Kizilay and the Anarchist Group Dortmund.
On 22.09.2022 at 19:00 we link perspectives on depression, shame and fear with dÄmonen director Hannah Biedermann, dancer Monica-Fortez-Uta, active at the LWL Klinik Dortmund with her choreo-sophrology method, and Nova Gockeln from the sunrise Dortmund counselling centre for queer youth.
Mediation also means enabling families to participate in discourse formats. We offer a guided tour for children through the nature museum Dortmund during our discourse format ,Klima(kampf) (ver)lernen’ on 24.09. at 12.00 and child care during the discourse event ,Revolution (ver)lernen’ on 19.09.2022 (19.30).
Art-mediation also means trying to make barriers visible and break them down on an ongoing basis. We explain below why we also understand content warnings as breaking down barriers.
Our facilitator Leonie Adam is always available for enquiries and questions: adam@favoriten-festival.de.
How do we understand content warnings?
In a world structured by mechanisms of violence and power, all people are always at the mercy of triggers, i.e. painful memories of experiences through e.g. pictures, films, smells, social interactions etc.. Triggers are very individual and subjective. Our understanding of content warnings takes the individual, subjective perception as a starting point for guidance in not having to expose oneself unprepared to triggers that we or the artists could recognise.
We understand theatre and art as a space of (un)learning, as a space with social and artistic research questions and as a space with self-empowerment potential. A space where there is the possibility to design structures differently, to be considerate and aware. We understand content warnings as an emancipatory (auxiliary) means to allow people with experiences of violence to participate in theatre and art experiences as self-determinedly as possible and not to have to expose themselves to a painful memory unprepared. In doing so, we start from a concept of self-empowerment that puts the determination of one’s own ways of dealing and protective mechanisms in the foreground and thus supports a self-determined way of dealing. We are in a process of transformation that is far from complete. We are always learning and depend on feedback from people.
What does this mean?
If the unannounced depiction of violence is negotiated in an artistic work or such a realm is dramaturgically aimed at (out of an artistic interest), negatively connoted memories or re-traumatisation can occur. Since we have an emancipatory approach to the representation of violence and artistically produced spaces of experience, we strive to recognise and thus be able to announce them. This allows people to decide whether or not to engage with the issues raised in the work at a particular time. And, if necessary, also to plan space for it or to take a trusted person with them as a companion. Self-empowerment can also include consciously confronting issues in a self-chosen setting.