Freedom cannot be taken for granted, it must be defended - as multiple crises in the present and the resulting freedom protests make clear. But what contribution can the arts make here? They show what is and what could be; they can visualize the utopia of equality and freedom for all people. On this occasion, we at ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS announced the first scholarships for the performing arts in spring 2024 to enable and support projects, concepts, research and investigations dedicated to the major theme of “freedom”.

In response to our call, we received over 120 applications, which illustrate the great need for support in the independent performing arts. The expert jury has now selected the recipients of the first seven scholarships from the high-quality applications: We congratulate Yolanda Gutiérrez with Dolph Banza and Chris Schwagga, Miriam Ibrahim, Daniel Dominguez Teruel, Helge Schmidt, the collective Spitzenberg, Schabraque and Reith, the duo TÒ SU and the collective Tremenda Corporea.

Seven grants of 10,000 euros each were awarded. The grants are aimed at professionally producing artists and artistic collectives from all areas of the independent performing arts who live and work in Hamburg or northern Germany (Bremen, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). They are intended to facilitate in-depth exploration, intensive artistic questioning, transdisciplinary or transcultural exchange and new cooperative approaches. The grants can be used for a preparatory and research phase, the continuation or finalization of a project.
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The jury's statement:
With their diverse work, the scholarship holders have distinguished themselves as strong representatives of the performing arts. The works supported by the scholarship include artistic research, networking, performances and productions. They examine socially relevant topics such as poverty, asylum and border protection, artificial intelligence and religion, resource extraction and colonial raids. The artists and collectives also research and work on topics such as black theater aesthetics and practice or the stories of trans and non-binary people under National Socialism.

Statement from Yolanda Gutiérrez MAGANAKENDA is a performative project with dance and visual art that deals with the German colonial past, in particular with the human remains that were looted from Rwandan graves by German scientists and brought to Berlin.