Hellerau is the first Garden City in Germany, founded in 1909 by local entrepreneurs and built by several famous architects. One of them, Heinrich Tessenow is also the author behind the Festspielhaus Hellerau – a music theatre house built in 1911 as School of Rhythmics led by the famed educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. Unfortunately, the Festspielhaus didn't see too much of dance and theatre as it was soon taken over by Nazis and subsequently by GDR and Soviet troops who repurposed it and put a block fence around it. It was only in 2006 that the building got
Through FSH, GIF, 2011
renovated and open for its intended use again. However, the surrounding concrete wall remained even in 2011 as I got invited to participate in the Summer Music Academy by the Festspielhaus. In my work I wanted to juxtapose the original architectural idea of the Festspielhaus as a central object opened to its surrounding on one side and its present absurd situation on the other. Conceptually the idea of openness permeated every aspect of the Festspielhaus design, even its stage was one of the first to be without proscenium arch and completely open, which was quite radical for the time. With my piece I invited the organizers to make a radical move and remove the wall around the building as an artistic act.