Bildstörung Festival 2026

BILDSTÖRUNG 2026 – shared spaces. spaces, relations, connectionsBILDSTÖRUNG is a biennial festival for contemporary performing arts in public space, situated in the predominantly rural region of East Westphalia-Lippe. The forthcoming edition, scheduled for May 22–25, 2026, will feature approximately 25 national and international ensembles across the city of Detmold. The program encompasses theater, dance, contemporary circus, site-specific interventions, as well as hybrid and participatory formats conceived specifically for public space.Entitled shared spaces – spaces, relations, connections, the 2026 edition conceptualizes public space not merely as a site of presentation but as a socio-political arena of negotiation. The curatorial focus lies on artistic practices that understand public space as a relational field of action and critically engage with the shaping of shared environments, social relations, and collective processes of negotiation.With its transdisciplinary approach, BILDSTÖRUNG seeks to foster novel entanglements between art and publics while underscoring the cultural and political relevance of the arts within rural contexts. Accessibility remains central to the festival’s mission—secured through the embedding of performances in the urban fabric and the predominance of admission-free events. By facilitating inclusive forms of cultural participation, BILDSTÖRUNG establishes sustainable access to contemporary performing arts for heterogeneous audiences beyond metropolitan centers. Audience figures of up to 80,000 in previous editions attest to the potential of this model.The artistic program privileges international productions that are presented as world premieres, German premieres, or site-specific adaptations, deliberately brought to locations outside established cultural infrastructures in order to engage new publics. As a member of the European network IN SITU (www.in-situ.info), BILDSTÖRUNG is integrated into a transnational framework of artistic production and mediation. Beyond its artistic programming, BILDSTÖRUNG promotes critical reflection on the theoretical and practical dimensions of performing arts in public space. Formats such as panel discussions (in cooperation with the Federal Association for Theatre in Public Space) and low-threshold encounters of conviviality serve to interweave international perspectives with local experiential knowledge. The festival will undergo qualitative with a focus on the interrelations between audiences, artists, and public space in rural environments. The analysis aims to capture processes of reception and appropriation, generating insights for the further development of the festival and comparable formats.By positioning public space as a platform for aesthetic inquiry, social interaction, and cultural participation, BILDSTÖRUNG affirms its role as a vital site of contemporary artistic production.