FRAGILE 2024
Pina Bausch Zentrum under construction
Wuppertal, 10 October 2024: Thirteen days, eleven productions, 24 performances, a diverse audience of all generations, equality across all participants and team, biotopes from the Amazon to the Wadden Sea. FRAGILE 2024, the international festival for sustainability and art, ended in Wuppertal on October 6, 2024. FRAGILE was filled with joyful moments, thrilling performances, artists from diverse cultural backgrounds., a togetherness of generations, lots of movement and encounters. What happens when people aged 4 to 75 venture into the unknown with Kate McIntosh or passionately dance Krump with Tanzkomplizen? FRAGILE is the first and only festival in Germany and internationally that tackles climate change, economic reform, and social sustainability through dance and performance. The aim is to encourage people to take action.
With the Pina Bausch Centre “under construction”, the Schauspielhaus opens to the citizens of the city and broader public during the interim period before its renovation and expansion – because it belongs to them. The refurbishment of the historic building, designed by Gerhard Graubner, along with the new extension by the renowned architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is in the planning phase. Until the groundbreaking ceremony, the Schauspielhaus will serve as a space for experimentation, paving the way for the future.
The new institution for the 21st century will also serve as a best-practice model for sustainability. The sixth edition of the "under construction" series has just taken place with FRAGILE 2024. With a special focus: thanks to the support of the German Federal Cultural Foundation’s Zero Fund, the ÖkoKult NRW fund of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Sparkasse Wuppertal, the Knipex company, WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke, and the Goethe-Institute, a sustainability strategy is being developed for the future Pina Bausch Centre. Important partners are the Wuppertal Institute and the Szenografie-Bund. Art and cultural institutions play a key role in securing our future by setting an example. "Wherever people come together and take action, the future and a sense of optimism are created. With FRAGILE, we inspire change! We are part of nature and the diversity of this world, not above it. The challenges we increasingly face can only be overcome together—through movement, encounters, and co-creation," says Bettina Milz.