FREISCHWIMMEN is an international exchange and production platform for artists and groups from dance, theater and performance. It is supported by brut Wien, FFT Düsseldorf, Gessnerallee Zürich, HochX München, LOFFT – DAS THEATER Leipzig, Schwankhalle Bremen, Sophiensæle Berlin, and Theater Rampe Stuttgart.
FREISCHWIMMEN has been supporting up-and-coming artists on the threshold of professionalization since 2004. Founded as a touring festival, Freischwimmer was initially a collaboration between Kampnagel Hamburg, Sophiensæle Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf and Gessnerallee Zurich. For each edition, artists and groups were selected to tour their pieces at the participating venues and thus face the challenges of new waters and audiences. Nine editions of the festival took place up to 2016.
After an intensive transformation process, Freischwimmer finally became the production platform FREISCHWIMMEN. With co-productions, residencies, labs, workshops, showings and guest performances, the platform was able to offer modules that could be combined in different ways depending on the needs of the artists and the capacity of the venues. A festival took place biennially, following on from various festivals of the local independent scene of a partner venue. FREISCHWIMMEN enabled young artists and groups to become better anchored and networked locally, nationally and internationally. This created space for experiments that were freed from the pressure of expectations of quickly produced plays and facilitated long-term development work on the part of the production houses.
Especially young talents in the independent performing arts need spaces for artistic development, networking, trust, sustainable production structures and international visibility in order to professionalize. All of this has been made possible by FREISCHWIMMEN as the platform for dance, theater and performance in German-speaking countries since its foundation in 2004 across the borders between Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2020-2023, this function was ensured primarily through extensive structural funding. At the end of 2023, however, funding under the Federal Association of Independent Performing Arts’ “Verbindungen fördern!” program expired. As a result, the platform celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024 and is facing a major transformation at the same time.
Even though the expiring funding poses challenges for the network, it is clear to us that FREISCHWIMMEN will continue to exist as a platform and that we will continue our work of supporting artists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We see the current transformation process as an opportunity to realign ourselves and adapt our work to the constantly changing challenges and needs of the performing arts.