The DISKURS Festival
DISKURS is a festival at the interface between art and theory. Since 1984, it has been held annually or every two years at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. It was founded still under the name European Theater Student Meeting Diskurs.
Who is invited, where the performances take place or who the festival is aimed at is renegotiated for each edition. The organizational team also changes. The common denominator is the name: DISKURS.
about smash | pause | trash or this year's edition
With the motto smash|pause|trash we want to think together about a reorientation of social and artistic practices in the 2022 edition. We destroy what was (smash), we pause and think about what could be (pause) and create something new from the broken parts (trash). What of the old is usable and how do we create something new from individual parts? At what point is it necessary to close the gaps that have opend or to replace individual parts with new ones?
Deceleration is intended to serve DISKURS Festival 2022 as a means of inclusion. For us, it is important to reduce barriers that might give access to our event. In addition to consuming and presenting, we also want to provide a space for discussion about what we have seen, about current political issues and cultural-political debates. It is also intended to create a space for exchange between performers from different theatrical and artistic fields and the audience.
smash: 14th - 16th october
This first weekend is dedicated to art or practices that deal with destroying or breaking structures in any sense. By the term we mean an active action to change / deconstruct existing systems of art practices and working conditions.
pause: 22-23 October
On the second weekend we want to show art practices that deal with pausing. It is meant to be a commentary on our current stimulus-flooded society, characterized by the idea that more and more has to be produced. It is also intended to serve deceleration and to locate the pause as something new.
We want to create space for the common reflection of the given social and political circumstances.
trash: 27. - 30. Oktober
The third weekend is to give space to new ways of thinking. The individual parts of what has been destroyed are to be reassembled for a creation of new art and work practices. Perhaps in other circles this would be looked at as -trash- and maybe this trash already has its own definition. We also consider trash as a form of sustainable and alternative art and knowledge production, as a counter design to hierarchies within art. By repurposing old structures or forms, something new opens up.
