NO IT IS !

Understanding and knowledge have played a central role in Western philosophy ever since the Enlightenment. The certainties they bring also have the drawback of emboldening some to assert their claim to power, which in turn can ultimately lead to despotism. The South African artist William Kentridge highlights the darker side of the Enlightenment by considering colonial history and Apartheid. Kentridge thematically and formally explores the idea of uncertainty and tentativeness as a counter-model to the certainties put forth by the Enlightenment. Focusing on the place where spatial and temporal art intersect, he examines the value of genre hybrids, or as he calls it, the “Virtues of Bastardy”. The Foreign Affairs festival spotlighted William Kentridge in 2016 and has brought both the artistic and performative aspects of his work together for the first time.
The festival was cooperating with the Martin-Gropius-Bau in staging exhibitions and performances for the Kentridge project NO IT IS! In addition to a world premiere, the festival presented five stage productions this summer in Berlin, all of which were developed in recent years. These featured a wide array of media and comprised various hybrid forms, such as the multimedia puppet theatre play “Ubu and the Truth Commission”, a chamber opera, a cine-concert and performance lectures.

Artistic director: Matthias von Hartz
Artists: William Kentridge (ZA), Handspring Puppet Company (ZA), Dada Masilo (ZA), Ann Masina (ZA), Philip Miller (ZA), Joanna Dudley (UK/AUS), Markus Hinterhäuser (A), Matthias Goerne