Festival
Freiraum Festival 2020
A Pan-European hybrid festival on the State of Freedom & State of the Arts today
About Freiraum
Freiraum is asking some questions: What is the state of freedom in Europe? How is that freedom weakened, how can it be strengthened? Especially in pandemic times that result in restrictions of our habitual freedom, these questions seem more important than ever.
The Europe wide project Freiraum (Engl.: Free Space) was launched by the Goethe-Institut in 2017 due to the rebounding of nationalism and populism, scepticism towards the EU und varying successes of integration. Since then, Goethe-Institutes all over Europe and more than 50 partners have been exploring the ever-changing state of individual, economic and political freedom, involving people of the culture and arts, the research community and, of course, the civil society.
Freiraum is a project for everyone who has experienced limited freedom of any kind in Europe, but also those who take open mindedness toward the EU for granted, and many more.
For information about Freiraum projects in Ireland, please see here.
About Freiraum Festival
Freiraum Festival is a Pan-European festival about the current state of freedom in Europe, taking place both online and physically in 20 European cities, from Brussels to Prague to Athens. Jointly developed by the Freiraum partners on the occasion of the German EU Council presidency, it consists of an Online Summit and various local events in the participating cities, both physically and online.
The Online Summit will be live-streamed from Brussels on the festival’s website, starting on 30 October at 6:30pm CET, including an introduction by the general secretary of the Goethe-Institut, Johannes Ebert, the reading of the Freiraum-Manifesto and a panel discussion about the new normal after Corona.
On day two, 31 October from 2:00pm to 7:00pm CET, the focus will be on the biopolitical crisis, social movements and emerging solidarities, including live streams from all over Europe.
The third and last day, 1 November (time tbc), will be dealing with the state of the arts, new formats and audiences.
A local event in Dublin will take place online as well, in the form of the podcast The Confines of Freedom: Expressions of Youth Voice in the COVID Context, hosted by Daniel McFarlane and supported by Goethe-Institut Irland. It gathers the voices of three generations of under-represented students involved and interested in discussing how the limits of freedom questioned their entire identity once the pandemic took hold of Ireland. The student participants have all been involved in different Freiraum projects organised by the Dublin partners.
For the full programme of local events all over Europe, please click here.
Everyone is welcome to take part in the festival, listen to discussions and renew their perception of freedom in Europe!
Details
Online and Europe wide
Language: English
Price: Admission free.