Freischwimmer Festival (2004-2017)
The Freischwimmer festival was founded in 2004 by Sophiensælen Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Gessnerallee Zurich and FFT Düsseldorf and offered young theater makers the possibility to try out their own artistic concepts and present them to audiences in the four different cities. Freischwimmer emerged from Außer Atem, a festival organized by Sophiensælen and Kampnagel in 2003 which was already intended as a platform for up-and-coming theater makers: six young theater directors were invited to tackle cinematic themes in a stage context. Interrupted by short breaks, two productions per evening were shown in the same stage setting. Encouraged by its success, the joint project was continued and expanded within the network of the theaters. Young theater formations were invited to realize new projects at the host theaters in the first festival editions. By 2016, nine editions of the Freischwimmer Festival had taken place, each touring to all participating theaters with a showcase of six to eight artistic positions that responded to an overarching theme. During this time, the individual festival editions were financed by project funding from the Capital Cultural Fund, Pro Helvetia and, in two editions, the Berlin Senate, as well as individual project funding and the venues’ own funds. In 2017, following an intensive discussion process, Freischwimmer was transformed into the production platform FREISCHWIMMEN and has since seen itself as an international exchange and production platform for groups and artists from dance, theater and performance. Furthermore, a biennial FREISCHWIMMEN festival took place in programmatic connection with a house and its local scene.
The programmes of the respective festivals are available for download as PDF files.
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