Ruhrtriennale 2025 - many highlights in the final festival week

There is still plenty to see, hear, and do in the final week of the Ruhrtriennale festival: three major premieres are on the program, and the Wunderland is preparing for the last weekend of the festival.

Tonight, CHORWERK RUHR will present David Lang's nature meditation before and after nature as a German premiere at Maschinenhalle Zweckel in Gladbeck, celebrating its 25th concert anniversary at the same time. Tomorrow, on September 18, the music theater production of the Junge Triennale GenZ Don't Cry will premiere at the Turbinenhalle in Bochum, featuring nine young performers from the Ruhr area. And there is another world premiere on Friday: Guernica Guernica by FC Bergman will premiere at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, a visually stunning stage installation with a total of 80 extras. The Ruhrtriennale will conclude on September 21 with the Mortier Awards ceremony at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum. After the awards ceremony, the winners Hartmut Haenchen and Frieda Lange will discuss the topic “Work and Artistic Freedom” with playwright Sivan Ben Yishai and dramaturge Yvonne Gebauer.

The Wunderland festival center is currently preparing for the final weekend of the festival, which will begin on Friday afternoon with the live podcast Zwischen Gellek & Duisi from the culture magazine STROBO. On Saturday, in addition to workshops and discussions, there will be the final edition of Ruhr Diamonds with Bochum newcomer MARNELE and the last festival party of the year with Cute Community Radio.

Artistic director Ivo Van Hove: "This year once again, the themes of the Ruhrtriennale resonated deeply with people. I was delighted by the many conversations and discussions - whether with participants of the International Festival Campus or with our festival guests. The topics ranged widely: from the promises and pitfalls of artificial intelligence in Oracle; to our relationship with nature in Falaise and before and after nature; to questions of crisis, war, and violence, explored by FC Bergman in Guernica Guernica and by the dance production Último Helecho, among others. I am truly encouraged by this positive response and look forward to next year, with its many productions and conversations that will continue to engage with the pressing issues of our time."

This year's visitor highlights included the opening production I Did It My Way by artistic director Ivo Van Hove, the multimedia production Oracle by Łukasz Twarkowski, which will be performed at the Dailes Theater in Riga starting this weekend, the dance production Delay the Sadness by Sharon Eyal, and Guernica Guernica by FC Bergman. The first two performances are already sold out, with a few tickets still available for the last performance. 

Dr. Vera Battis-Reese, Managing Director of Kultur Ruhr GmbH: "We expect a total capacity utilization of 87 percent. We have managed to attract around 77,000 people to the festival. We have issued around 36,000 tickets, 41,000 people attended free events such as the Ruhr Diamonds, Spoken Acts, workshops, and parties at Wunderland, or the exhibition Zwischen Erfinden und Erfassen by Urbane Künste Ruhr in Duisburg's inner harbor. We were particularly pleased with the positive response to our accessible offerings, such as the German sign language interpretation at I Did It My Way and the new Relaxed With... series, which makes art accessible in an inclusive setting."

Every year, the Ruhrtriennale invites contemporary artists to transform the monumental industrial architecture of the Ruhr metropolis into spectacular performance venues.

This year, more than 630 artists from 38 countries were guests. There were a total of 35 productions and projects with 136 events at eleven different venues in Bochum, Duisburg, Gladbeck, and Essen.

Further information about the program can be found on our website at www.ruhrtriennale.de/en or in the Ruhrtriennale press kit at http://ruhr3.com/pressemappe