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Wiesbaden Biennale 2025

The Wiesbaden Biennale 2025, which will present various artistic projects with a connection to Wiesbaden from September 12 to 21 at the Staatstheater and in the urban space, has the motto "Making Space". The festival will open on September 12 at 6 pm. Tickets can be booked online from July 2.

Dancing women on stage
Guest performance FAMPITAHA, FAMPITA, FAMPITÀNA by Soa Ratsifandrihana

What does the motto "Making space" mean? Making space means making invisible spaces visible and asking the crucial questions: Who has access? Who is being pushed out? It is not about occupying space, but about opening up space and questioning existing structures.

The projects developed especially for the Wiesbaden Biennale are based on
research trips by the artists to Wiesbaden, during which they examined the historical references of the places they are performing in as part of the Biennale. They are complemented by various guest performances, the exhibition "The Relatives" and film screenings.


Excerpt from the projects

  • Colored resurrect - Colors that do not fade
    Sasapin Siriwanij

    Colonnades Hessian State Theater
    The performative and interactive installation on the colonnades of the Staatstheater can be experienced daily. From September 12 to 20, visitors will have the opportunity to take part in the rituals at 5 pm each day. There will also be a workshop on the opening day at 2 pm.

  • Birdsong from elsewhere - The Flight of Quassi and Folivi
    Barby Asante and Memory Biwa (London/Berlin)
    Radio play walk starting at the Hessian State Theater
    Inspired by a Sankofa phrase from the Ghanaian Akan language that says: "Go back and get what was lost", the radio play follows the fictional flight through the city of two real boys abducted from Togo to Wiesbaden during the colonial era.

  • Nursing the Empire
    Donna Miranda
    Wilhelm-Arcade & Warmer Damm

    What do Filipino nurses have to do with Wiesbaden? A lot! "Nursing the Empire" shows their paths to Germany - with powerful stories and images. It tells of hard work, big dreams and the question: who actually nurses whom and why? The project traces the history and experiences of migrant nursing staff from the Philippines in Germany.

  • Water Songs I + II
    Elischa Kaminer, Mayah Kadish, Alex Paxton and Joseph Havlat
    Front garden of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme

    Songs about memory, fluidity and new beginnings. The result is a contemporary queer Jewish song tradition - with improvisations, new compositions and old songs about queer desire, identity and the first memory of the sea.

  • Valley of the Shadows - Rituals of Resistance
    Imperial tour of the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden
    Touretteshero invite you to a multi-sensory festival for all generations at the Staatstheater: while the audience travels through the Kaiserfahrt, the space is rethought - as a path for rituals, protest and play. Sounds, projections and performances create a low-barrier, immersive sensory journey that celebrates the power of disability culture and social justice.

  • The relatives
    exhibition in the urban space

    The exhibition shows people who have lost relatives through racist or right-wing violence. Photographer Jasper Kettner collaborated with İbrahim Arslan, who survived the right-wing extremist arson attack in Mölln as a child. Together, they asked many families and bereaved friends which places were important to the victims. This is where the portraits were created. Part of the exhibition is a book that tells more about the individual fates, the loss, but also the courage of the relatives.

A project of the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden. Supported by the Kulturfonds Rhein-Main. Supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

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