Kunstfest Weimar 2026 Opens: First Edition Under Katharina Germo and Juliane Hahn

Weimar, August 22, 2026 – The Kunstfest Weimar 2026 opened on Friday, August 21, with the open-air performance “RoZéO” by the French company Gratte Ciel in Ilmpark. The program features around 100 events in Weimar and the surrounding region through September 6. International artists from the fields of theater, dance, performance, music, film, literature, and the visual arts are participating. For Katharina Germo and Juliane Hahn, this is their first edition as artistic directors of the festival.

For about 40 minutes, the artists from Gratte Ciel moved through Ilmpark on flexible poles at heights of up to six meters, making the landscape itself part of the performance. “RoZéO” can be seen again at Ilmpark on Saturday, August 22, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Following the performance—held in the foyer of the German National Theater in Weimar due to weather conditions—the Kunstfest was officially opened in the presence of the artistic directors, Thuringia’s State Secretary for Education Dr. Bernd Uwe Althaus, Weimar Mayor Ralf Kirsten, and author and musician Olivia Wenzel.

New Leadership, New Venues

For their first edition of the festival, Katharina Germo and Juliane Hahn are focusing on international contemporary art and works that explore social and political themes from diverse perspectives. The festival frequently ventures beyond traditional stage spaces: in addition to Ilmpark, venues include the Schwanseebad, August-Frölich-Platz, and the Apolda festival grounds. The festival center is located at the Lichthaus Weimar—serving as a hub for program information and a place for encounters during the festival.

“With the Kunstfest program, we celebrate the vibrant, unifying power of artistic creation and prioritize encounters and shared experiences. Contemporary art should provoke, raise questions, and bring different experiences to light. We want to create spaces where curiosity, exchange, and dialogue are possible—and where artists, audiences, and the wider community can engage with one another,” say Katharina Germo and Juliane Hahn, artistic directors of the Kunstfest Weimar.

Thuringia’s State Secretary for Education, Dr. Bernd Uwe Althaus, explains:
“The Kunstfest Weimar demonstrates just how open, diverse, and contemporary Thuringia’s cultural landscape is. It creates spaces where people can question the familiar, take other perspectives seriously, and remain in dialogue with one another. As State Secretary for Education, this connection is particularly important to me: Education begins with curiosity, and art makes an important contribution to examining one’s own perspective and forming a well-founded judgment. My thanks go to Katharina Germo and Juliane Hahn, as well as to everyone who makes this festival possible through their expertise, perseverance, and great dedication.”

Opening Night with Dance, Performance, and a Motorized Orchestra

Following the opening speeches, “Maldonne,” choreographed by Leïla Ka, was performed on Friday evening to a sold-out audience at the Großes Haus of the German National Theater. The production explores femininity, societal expectations, and the relationship between individual freedom and social roles.

In Apolda, the European premiere of “Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO” was presented that same evening. For this project, Japanese artist Masamitsu Araki developed an extraordinary open-air concert-performance for a motorized orchestra: A specially composed suite blends the artist’s memories of growing up in rural Japan with impressions from the local car-tuning scene. The high-end sound systems of the tuned vehicles become a ghostly ensemble that transforms the performance venue into a completely new experience through sound and movement. On Saturday, August 22, “Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO” will take place for a second time at 8:30 p.m. on the Festwiese in Apolda. The free shuttle bus departs at 7:45 p.m. from the Atrium/Friedensstraße stop in Weimar.

This weekend: international acts and unusual venues

On Sunday, August 23, Tanja Krone & Team will perform “Songs of (In)Security” at 5:00 p.m. on August-Frölich-Platz. For this piece, Krone interviewed people from various fields about their perceptions of security and insecurity. These conversations gave rise to a humorous concert performance that combines personal experiences with questions of security, threat, and social coexistence. Admission is free.

Sound art performance featuring a motorized sound ensemble in Apolda, Thuringia

During the opening weekend of Kunstfest Weimar, a multi-purpose green space on the edges of Apolda will serve as the setting for an extraordinary sound experience: In »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO,« Japanese artist Masamitsu Araki presents an open-air concert performance in which vehicles equipped with high-end sound systems form a musical ensemble. The European premiere will take place on August 21, 2026, with a second performance on August 22.

»Tamuro« roughly means »hanging out together.« The sound composition is based on memories of nighttime parking lots in a regional Japanese city – places on the outskirts of town where landscape, industry, tradition, and youth culture intersect. These lots are meeting places where informal social and cultural spaces emerge among vehicles. Araki finds a unique spatial-sonic potential in an atmosphere straddling the line between everyday life, dreams, and states of emergency; rural idylls, twilight, and mixed emotions. In this setting, specially modified cars perform a nocturnal concert while ghostlike cruising through the dark.

Commissioned by Kunstfest Weimar (Weimar Art Festival) and in partnership with Kyoto Experiment, Masamitsu Araki is bringing his »Soundtrack for Midnight« to Thuringia. Through his international collaboration with sound enthusiasts from the regional car scene, Araki has created a new version of the work, which he stages as an unconventional sound art event for a summer night in the rural Weimar region. Vehicles equipped with custom-built sound systems form a unique mobile orchestra that transforms the performance venue through sound and movement, creating a new experience that evokes memories of growing up in rural areas.

ARAKI MASAMITSU (b. 1981, Yamagata) is an artist, musician, and sound designer, based in Kyoto. His artistic practice lies at the intersection of sound art, performance, and space. Music is at the center of his work, though he takes the fringes of the discipline as his starting point and often engages with creative listening in a humorous way. He constructs unique soundscapes, incorporating sound, video, voice, site-specific elements, and environments, and chooses various forms of presentation, including plays, installations, performances, guided tours, and more. His projects explore how sounds, technical devices, and social situations can become musical experiences.

European Premiere as part of Kunstfest Weimar 2026:

Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO
Masamitsu Araki

August 21 and 22, 8:30 PM
Festwiese Apolda

(Shuttle bus from Weimar to the venue and back)

Video installation: The prologue (film) to »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO,« produced in northern Japan, will show at the festival center from August 21 to 23.

Additional artistic offerings during the opening weekend of Kunstfest Weimar include

Gratte Ciel: »RoZéo« (open-air performance)

Leïla Ka: »Maldonne« (dance)

Anke Heelemann: »FOTOkiosk« (installation)

Galerie Eigenheim: »Humor as a Weapon« (exhibition)

among others.

For more information on »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO,« visit https://www.kunstfest-weimar.de/en/calendar/soundtrack-for-midnight-tamuro.

For more information on the program, visit www.kunstfest-weimar.de.

Kunstfest Weimar erstmals unter der Leitung von Katharina Germo und Juliane Hahn – Festivalprogramm für 2026 veröffentlicht

→ Programmveröffentlichung Kunstfest Weimar 2026 (PDF)

Das Kunstfest 2026 findet erstmals unter der Leitung von Katharina Germo und Juliane Hahn statt. Vom 21. August bis zum 6. September präsentiert es ein internationales Programm der Gegenwartskünste aus Theater, Tanz, Performance, Musik, Film, Literatur und Bildender Kunst. Das Festival bespielt dabei neben etablierten Kulturorten auch öffentliche Räume in Weimar und der Region. Im Lichthaus entsteht erstmals seit mehreren Jahren wieder ein Festivalzentrum als zentraler Ort.

„Mit dem Programm des Kunstfestes feiern wir die lebendige, verbindende Kraft künstlerischen Schaffens und setzen auf Begegnungen und gemeinsam geteiltes Erleben“, sagen Katharina Germo und Juliane Hahn.

Den Auftakt bildet die Festivaleröffnung am 21. August mit der Open-Air-Performance „RoZéO“ der französischen Kompanie Gratte Ciel im Ilmpark, bei der die Artist*innen auf sechs Meter hohen biegsamen Stangen über der Landschaft schweben.
Ebenfalls Teil der Eröffnung ist das außergewöhnliche Konzertprojekt „Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO“ von Masamitsu Araki. Inspiriert von Erinnerungen des Künstlers ans Aufwachsen im ländlichen Raum Japans sowie von der Begegnung mit der Thüringer Autotuning-Szene entsteht eine Suite für ein Ensemble von Fahrzeugen mit getunten Soundanlagen – zu sehen und zu hören an zwei Spätsommernächten auf der Festwiese Apolda. 

Zu den weiteren Höhepunkten zählen besondere Orchesterformate sowie die Tanzgastspiele „Izithukuthuku“ aus Johannesburg und „Maldonne“ vom französischen Shootingstar Leïla Ka. Außerdem Teil des Programms: Drei aktuelle Theaterarbeiten aus Chișinău, Thessaloniki und Berlin. Anhand sehr unterschiedlicher künstlerischer Strategien fragen Nicoleta Esinencu, Prodromos Tsinikoris und das libanesische Künstler*innenduo Lina Majdalanie und Rabih Mroué danach, wie sich Macht in das kollektive Gedächtnis einschreibt und wessen Stimmen dabei verloren gehen.

Die Uraufführung einer szenischen Lesung von Franziska Winkler erzählt die Geschichte einer taub-hörenden Familie und von der Unterdrückung der Deutschen Gebärdensprache im Schulsystem der DDR. Gemeinsam mit „Pas Moi“ von Diana Anselmo entsteht ein Schwerpunktwochenende mit und von Tauben Künstler*innen. Beide Veranstaltungen werden in Deutscher Gebärdensprache und deutscher Lautsprache realisiert.

Über das gesamte Festival hinweg erstreckt sich zudem ein generationenübergreifendes Panorama ostdeutscher Stimmen und Erzählungen: die Lesung des Debütromans vom Podcaster Don Pablo Mulemba, Tanja Krone und „Die erste Sicherheitskonferenz des ehemaligen Ostens“, die Pionierin des künstlerischen Aktivismus der DDR Gabriele Stötzer, eine Filmretrospektive zu Thomas Heise sowie das Leipziger Duo Studio Urbanistan, das im Weimarer Schwanseebad deutsch-deutsche Geschichten vom Schwimmenlernen auffächert.

Mit dem Festivalzentrum im Lichthaus entsteht ein zentraler Treffpunkt für Publikum, Künstler*innen und Stadtgesellschaft. Konzerte, Lesungen, Filmabende, Workshops, eine Videoausstellung mit Geschichten ehemaliger Vertragsarbeitender, Angebote für Familien sowie ein Thementag zu lebendiger Erinnerungsarbeit bilden das Programm. Während des Kunstfests bietet das Festivalzentrum Gelegenheit zum Austausch und zum Verweilen in entspannter Atmosphäre.

Das vollständige Programm des Kunstfest Weimar 2026 ist ab sofort veröffentlicht. Der Vorverkauf hat begonnen.