About the production

Start

2:30 p.m.

End

6 p.m.

What are free action and free thought – and how can they be achieved? The seventh edition of Lausitz Labor explores this question, which is as existential as it is socially relevant, through philosophy, art, and literature.

As a place for debates and discussions about contemporary issues, the Lausitz Labor invites its audience to engage in collective and playful exchange, as well as shared reflection, in the beautiful Altes Stadthaus in Cottbus.

Drawing on selected artworks presented at the festival – such as Shakespeare’s »Hamlet«, György Ligetis »Poème Symphonique« or Bachs »h-Moll-Messe« – we aim to explore central questions of human life: What does it mean to act freely? Where are its limits – and when is it justified to cross them? What roles do love, loyalty, or revenge play in this context?

The Lausitz Labor focuses in particular on one aspect of free action: forgiveness. The philosopher Hannah Arendt describes forgiveness as an essential condition of free action. Gestures and attitudes of forgiveness make it possible to leave behind constraints, injuries, and disappointments – and thus enable free action. Especially in and after times of conflict, processes of profound reorientation are crucial. How can we shape the future without remaining bound to the past? Not through forgetting, not through stagnation, but through collective action and the courage for new beginnings.

At Lausitz Labor, we invite participants to jointly explore the political and aesthetic conditions of freedom, imagination and responsibility and their connection. At Lausitz Labor everyone is welcome to practise creative thinking. How, for example, can we discern from artistic processes what is also relevant to democracy? And how can we respond aesthetically to politically critical situations? At Lausitz Labor and throughout the festival, the aim is to act »geschöpferisch«. This is this year’s inspiration for the Lausitz Festival – creating something new and acting creatively!

Join us and reflect with us about festival inspiration word »geschöpferisch« and the festival experiences, share thoughts and perspectives, and be inspired by the ideas of our guests from philosophy, sociology, literature, and art and cultural studies!

Curatorial Team:
Christoph Menke, Christiane Voss
Lars Dreiucker, Fulvia Modica