Ruhrtriennale kicks off the festival season 2024

Premieres, parties and performance art - the Ruhrtriennale kicks off the 2024 festival season

Bochum, 13.08.2024 - The Ruhrtriennale 2024 kicks off the festival season on Friday, 16 August with the premiere of I Want Absolute Beauty. The production by artistic director Ivo Van Hove with actress Sandra Hüller in the lead role and music by PJ Harvey rapidly mixes elements of singing, acting, dance, music, scenic effects and video art.

The festival weekend continues Saturday and Sunday with a packed programme. Visitors of the Ruhrtriennale can attend one event after another from morning to evening. The festival centre Wunderland is the meeting point between events. Here, guests can take part in workshops, enjoy food and drinks or simply relax before the next event.

Ivo Van Hove: "The Ruhrtriennale is set to be a huge festivity, which we will kick off this weekend with a firework of premieres. I am looking forward to the many fantastic artists from all over the world who will be coming to us in the Ruhr region and I would like to thank all Ruhrtriennale employees for their great commitment and enthusiasm for the festival. I hope that there will be a lot of exchange and encounters with our guests and artists, at the performances, but also at parties, talks, workshops and other events in the festival centre Wunderland."

On Saturday, the Ruhrtriennale audience can choose between three premieres: the dance performance Y by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Museum Folkwang in Essen, the music theatre production The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum and the play LEGENDE by Kirill Serebrennikov at the Kraftzentrale in the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. The festival centre Wunderland invites you to a workshop for barrier sensitivity in the morning and to the first edition of the Down the Rabbit Hole party series in the evening (free of charge for a limited number of participants). The installation City of Refuge IV by Berlinde De Bruyckere in the Turbinenhalle Bochum and the exhibition Landscapes of an Ongoing Past by Urbane Künste Ruhr in the Salzlager at Zeche Zollverein in Essen will open on Friday.

The Sunday Dancers workshop series (free of charge) starts on Sunday morning in the festival centre Wunderland. The first guest of the Brave New Voices literature and discourse series in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum will be the shooting star of the French literary scene, Édouard Louis, at midday. In the afternoon, pianist and composer Yshani Perinpanayagam will present the first Appetizer Concert in the Turbinenhalle, where admission is also free. Those who want to delve deeper into the work of director Kirill Serebrennikov can watch the film Лето (Leto) at 5 pm as part of the Artists at Work film series at the Metropolis cinema in Bochum main station. And if you want to get a taste of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company and its productions À la Carte and One One One, drop by at 6 pm on the forecourt of the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, where the dancers will be giving a free one-hour performance.

The Ruhrtriennale dramaturges offer further in-depth insights into the programme during the introductions before the events and the artist talks afterwards. Audio introductions and introductions in sign language are available on the Ruhrtriennale website. On Sunday afternoon, the Junge Triennale invites children aged 6 to 11 to attend the Happy Sundays workshop while their parents attend the performances.

Over the course of the festival, visitors can look forward to further highlights such as the world premieres of the music theatre productions Haugtussa by Eline Arbo and Abendzauber by Krystian Lada together with Chorwerk Ruhr, FUTUR PROCHE by Jan Martens and the anniversary concert Celebrating 40 years by Angélique Kidjo.

Every year, the Ruhrtriennale invites contemporary artists to transform the monumental industrial architecture of the Ruhr metropolis into spectacular performance venues. This year, the festival starts on 16 August and ends on 15 September. More than 660 artists from 37 countries can be experienced at ten different venues. In total, there are 32 productions and projects with 140 events in Bochum, Duisburg and Essen.

Shortly before the start of the festival, around three quarters of the 41,000 tickets have already been allocated. The productions I Want Absolute Beauty, Pferd frisst Hut and LEGENDE as well as Bérénice and Abendzauber are particularly popular. There are also already many registrations for the workshops in the festival center Wunderland and other projects with free admission, such as the Appetizer Concerts in the Turbinenhalle Bochum, the installations and Celebration Parade as part of the Junge Triennale. The Bring Your Friends campaign is back again this year. Visitors will receive up to three additional tickets with a 50% discount for each full-price ticket for selected performances, including Bérénice, FUTUR PROCHE and Brave New Voices.

Further information on the programme can be found at www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/programme, detailed information on all productions can be found in our press kit and at www.ruhrtriennale.de/en/press. Image material is also available there for download and will be constantly updated during the festival.

With best regards

Your press department of the Ruhrtriennale