Favorites of the week – five recommendations from the SZ editorial team – culture

Madhouse as a foundation: “Freischütz” in Kassel

Hardly anyone was interested in the fact that Carl Maria von Weber’s “Freischütz” was set shortly after the end of the Thirty Years’ War. From its premiere in 1821, the opera was regarded as Germany’s national musical epic, with trees, hunters and a ghost. But the reference to the massacres of the previous war is in the libretto. The director Ersan Mondtag found him, and on that basis he designed a bizarre pandemonium at the Staatstheater Kassel, a mad dance of death, a world of the apparent dead, the disabled, the insane, garishly furnished by Nina Peller and Teresa Vergho. German romanticism rests on a madhouse as its foundation, the song about the “maiden wreath” becomes a despairing polonaise of severely disturbed figures. It cracks and crunches, not everything works out, but overall it’s great. Egbert Tholl

High on the agenda: Dresden speeches

The “Dresdner Reden” is a bit like Rock am Ring – just before the headliners are announced, curiosity is always greatest. Every February since 1992, four well-known and/or renowned people have formulated their “current thoughts” in the Schauspielhaus, organized by the theater in cooperation with the Saxon newspaper. And if you were to honor this series with a festival shirt for its anniversary, the line-up on the back would include the following big hits: Willy Brandt, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Elke Heidenreich. Helmut Schmidt, Regine Hildebrandt, and Christa Wolf. Naika Foroutan, Roger Willemsen.

The former artistic director Wilfried Schulz liked the series so much that he now has the “Düsseldorfer Reden” at his new place of work. In Dresden speak this year the former Federal Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer, the philosopher Svenja Flasspöhler, the writer Mithu Sanyal. The writer Clemens Meyer already spoke last Sunday and of course there was nothing off the shelf. Meyer put the great Saxon liar and storyteller Karl May on the presence of fake news and conspiracy myths – and he asked if the humanistic and crazy heroes of “Doctor May” could help now, “or are they already in a madhouse?”

Of course, there were also Sunday speeches in Dresden from time to time in the sense of: European ideas, state-political responsibility, “Let me finish briefly…”, yawn. But the matinees often have a special magic, especially in Dresden’s urban society, which tends to be unforgiving and stubborn. Theses, doubts and also deliberative thoughts are given space on stage – in the audience you listen and turn what you hear in your head, and later talk about it with third parties. Those invited don’t always cater to the needs of the audience, and their presentations don’t always ring out with a timbre like that of the Charlemagne Prize. Sometimes the audience can feel good and confirmed, then it is challenged again. All this necessarily contributes to the discourse. And, with all due respect, he can use any help. Cornelius Pollmer

With NFTs against colonialism

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During the global economic crisis of 1930, the Kingdom of Belgium and Unilever (then: Lever Brothers) tightened the already very tight screws on the palm oil plantations in the Congo. The Pende people received even less wages, and colonial taxes were further increased. The working conditions led to an uprising that cost the lives of at least 500 Pende. There was only one casualty on the Belgian side, colonial official Maximilien Balot. Following an old tradition, the Pende made a statue of the dead. This statue now stands as a bitter punchline in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, USA.

Together with Belgian artist Renzo Martens, the Congolese Plantation Workers’ League of Arts (CATPC) has now found a way to take back both their land and their art: they split the photo of the statue on the VMFA’s website into small pieces and sell them as NFTs . Proceeds go to land repurchases and reforestation. The gallery KOW Berlin shows the progress of the project until April 9th. Felix Stephen

Essay by Ulrich Wickert: In the universe of values

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The pandemic shed an unmerciful light on the state of our values: while some worked to the point of exhaustion in care and prevention, Union politicians made small fortunes trading masks so scarce, so vital. Some pondered day and night how to get themselves and their families through this time, how to behave prudently and in solidarity – but Wolfgang Kubicki boasted about visiting his favorite pub. There were many moments to think of the title of this famous non-fiction book: “The Honest is the Stupid”.

Wickert’s essay on the loss of values ​​was published in 1994, in a different time: before globalization, the internet and social media. Now the book is being reprinted with a new foreword, and the reading is as fresh as if it were written for the present.

Some things can also be better appreciated in retrospect: Wickert emphasizes the importance of credibility and trust in politics, and in a way Angela Merkel has provided proof of this: her reputation at home and in the world is based on the fact that at there was no corruption and no personal scandals. On the other hand, the willingness and ability to talk about values, to set an example and to demand them, are still underdeveloped. The high goods, the goals of life in our society, include prosperity and self-realization rather than the example of certain values. Stubbornness and the cultivation of a personal lifestyle are valued above duty and solidarity. The social pandemic of increasing loneliness is a consequence of this.

Even when it comes to current politics, long debates about compulsory vaccination in the nursing profession do without any reference to values. And who dares to recall in geopolitical debates that, unlike Russia and China, the West not only has interests to defend, but also values?

In this respect, this rousingly written exploration and reconquest of the universe of values ​​is the ideal accompanying reading, even all these years after its first publication, in order to understand the madness of the time and to bear it better. Nils Minkmar

Jeff Koons: Superhero Car

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The nice thing about being a little kid is that you can paint toy cars, put imaginary superheroes in them and push them across the carpet to fantastic sounds. The nice thing about being Jeff Koons and being an artist by profession, that is, a big kid: You can still do it – and again and again. In 2010, like many artists before him, the American designed the “BMW Art Car”; with spermoid streaks flying forward, it looked like it was overtaking itself. Koons obviously didn’t let that rest. Now he has designed an entire edition of the M850i ​​xDrive Gran Coupé for BMW and presented it at the Frieze Art Fair in Los Angeles: a blue-striped superhero mobile with painted exhaust sounds (“Pop”) for people for whom the world is still a children’s room carpet. Almost democratic in times of NFTs: 99 pieces are available, price on request. Peter Richter