In the summer of 2024, ‘Forums for Art, Freedom and Democracy’ will tour Germany for three months under the title*THE ART OF REMAINING MANY*, making stops in Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Berlin, Potsdam, Erfurt, Weimar and Dresden. In these eight cities, a packed programme of performing arts, discussions and workshops will flourish in market squares and theatre forecourts, on festival stages and in lecture theatres: here, a Taiwanese dance piece will be performed; there, two philosophers will discuss a humanist world; and next door, in the transcultural beauty salon, people will practise encountering one another through beauty.

At the heart of it all are the actors Tina Pfurr and Hauke Heumann. They speak with politicians and international directors, artists and social workers: How do we learn to argue properly again? What drives the people who are defending democracy here in the summer heat? What’s the point of all this when, next week, a summer festival organised by a confirmed far-right group is being held in the very same neighbourhood square? And what role do the arts play in this – now and in the future?

THE ART OF REMAINING MANY is a film by Felix Meyer-Christian commissioned by the Performing Arts Fund, which brings together the diversity of voices in the arts and summarises their struggle against exclusion and polarisation through a discursive and poetic approach. Featuring: Şeyda Kurt, Sivan Ben Yishai, Sookee, Omri Boehm, Joana Tischkau, Rabih Mroué, Lina Majadalanie, Annett Gröschner, Luce deLire, Joe Chialo, Carsten Brosda, Awet Tesfaiesus and numerous other voices.

The film is part of the themed day »GEMEINSAM – GEGENWART – GEDENKEN« (TOGETHER – PRESENT – REMEMBRANCE) -> Overview of the theme day at the festival centre