Four Divisions

De-hierarchization is also the credo for planning our program. This is reflected in our four equitable divisions: Playground, Theater, Academy, and Digital. There are no side events, but rather everything is part of the main program. What we do within the divisions may not be new, not even at Neumarkt. But we want to radicalize these attempts and bring them together on an equal footing under the same roof.

PLAYGROUNDstands for artistic experimentation and playful interventions. Here we are looking for practices of art production beyond the well-rehearsed routines and conventional spatial treatment.

THEATER stands for different methods of production and new formats of performance. Here we are looking beyond the canon for contemporary formats, aesthetics, and material on the stage for an audience.

AKADEMIE stands for the exploration and questioning of knowledge, thinking, and the world. Here we are looking for artistic and playful forms of content-related confrontation that go beyond experts, arrogance, or barriers.

DIGITAL stands for the Internet as a stage for pre- and post-performances,
as a space for trans- and multimedia storytelling, for trans-border formats (geographically and ideally), as media theater, as a space of opportunity for community interaction. . And: We are prepared for further extraordinary situations.

Our four divisions complement each other and intermesh. This also conveys our idea of Unconditional Theater: a theater based on an expanded concept of theater; a theater that wants just as much to be a gathering place as a place for experiments. Neumarkt envisions itself as an institution that aims to provide a good example. As discussed with Achille Mbembe, the question is, “How can mankind create a common, cosmopolitan self-concept that would allow us to bring about long-lasting changes?”