Julian Warner, the new director of the Augsburg Brecht Festival, has presented his ideas for 2023. An artistic reorientation is emerging.
If you look at Julian Warner’s recently published plans for the Augsburg Brecht Festival 2023, one term immediately catches your eye: opening parade. A year ago, the artist and cultural anthropologist initiated a parade at the Spielart Festival in Munich. It became an expansive spectacle, guided by the idea of participation. Now he is bringing the idea to Augsburg for Bertolt Brecht’s 125th birthday. Which makes it clear that Warner will set different accents than the concept of his predecessors Jürgen Kuttner and Tom Kühnel, which was conceived by the artists’ theater.
Warner has just presented his ideas for the 2023 to 2025 editions in the Augsburg Culture Committee. Under the title “The Great Method” he wants to put Bert Brecht’s process-based working methods at the center of the festival. “It is transformed into a productive, participatory total work of art in which civil society initiatives and local associations – hijacking Brecht’s method – come to the fore.” There will be new, temporary venues, the opening parade, a ceremony, wrestling as political theater and conversations with Brecht as artificial intelligence. The Long Brechtnacht with its music focus will remain. There is also an Artists-in-Residence program. The festival takes place from February 10th to 19th.