Erlangen is facing major changes. This has often been the case in the city's history. Now it is the relocation of Siemens and the university as well as the planned city-country railroad that will contribute significantly to the transformation of the cityscape. "But what should Erlangen look like in the future? What would you change? What do you like as it is and what would you build on?" are questions that are now being addressed in a workshop for the 24th international figuren.theater.festival (May 23 to June 1).
From 8 to 12 February, there will be an opportunity to discover the history of the city with Benoît Faivre and Tommy Laszlo from the French theater group "La Bande Passante" and to realize your own visions of an Erlangen of the future. For this purpose, a "Ville de Papier Erlangen" (Paper City Erlangen) will be designed - a paper model of the city that will be presented in a film and a performance during the festival. For the preparations, "La Bande Passante" will be in Erlangen in February and will search the city archives for materials such as postcards, photographs etc. which they will use for the paper city.
There will be four workshops (about three hours each) on February 8, 10, 11 and 12 for anyone aged 14 and over who is interested, where they can exchange ideas with the artists and contribute ideas. For more information and to register, please email the Deutsch-Französisches Institut Erlangen e. V. (team@dfi-erlangen.de). Anyone who happens to have old photo albums or documents from Erlangen that could be of interest for the project is welcome to bring them along.
The French theater group La Bande Passante deals with the exploration of objects as witnesses of human history. They often work with paper worlds. Since 2014, they have been designing city models out of paper, including Brussels and Erlangen's twin city Rennes, in which the individual history and architecture as well as the inhabitants of the cities are taken up.
The project is a collaboration between the Deutsch-Französisches Institut Erlangen e. V., the municipal cultural office and the city archives. A mix of English and German will be spoken at the workshops. Knowledge of French is of course an advantage, but not a prerequisite. Further information is also available on the Internet at https://figurentheaterfestival.de/.
