In Coproduction with Aarhus University, Dramaturgy Department & Teatret Svalegangen, supported by Goethe Institut Danmark and Aarhus Teater.

THE ART OF ASSEMBLY XXVII, The Arts as Playground for the Urban White Middle Class?

WITH GLENN BECH, SIGRID JOHANNESEN, SAHAR RAHIMI & JULIA WISSERT. HOSTED BY FLORIAN MALZACHER

For years, theatres, museums and other art institutions have been trying to broaden their audiences – with limited success: the (Western) art field still mainly assembles a white, urban middle class by protecting its borders through distinction and offering cultural capital to those who find access. The 27th edition of “The Art of Assembly” takes an intersectional look at persistent exclusions and privileges: Author and psychologist Glenn Bech, who used to be ashamed about his working-class roots, confronts a homophobic society as much as an urban arts scene that seeks to appropriate the gay writer from the provinces. Theatre-maker Sahar Rahimi raises the question of why classism is rarely openly discussed in the cultural sector: Is her work more determined by her working-class background or her refugee biography? Playwright and theatre director Sigrid Johannesen has taken to both regional venues and public spaces to explore how theatre can offer counter-narratives to the self-contradictions of the bourgeois individualism of her millennial generation. Julia Wissert, the first Black director of a German city theatre, tries to turn Schauspiel Dortmund into an open, safer, and diverse space – backstage, onstage, and in the auditorium.

Café Svalegangen opens at 18.30.

Registrering: https://events.au.dk/theartofassembly2024/sign-up-for-art-of-assembly