August 15–September 1, 2024
Among many other well-known international artists, Walid Raad, Shu Lea Cheang, Zora Snake and The Nest Collective will be part of the 45th edition of Zürcher Theater Spektakel. Ranking among the most important European interdisciplinary festivals, the festival takes places at the shores of Lake Zurich, but also at venues all over Zurich. This year, around 270 exhibitions, performances, concerts, lectures and transdisciplinary projects—half of which are open to the public free of charge—open up very different perspectives on the global, but also a personal and subjective present.
At Kunsthaus Zurich, Walid Raad presents “The Zurich Chapter” of his project Cotton Under My Feet examining the constellation of what was formerly private art and public interest and how museums connect the two (from August 16). The project Cotton Under My Feet started in Madrid and is based on the example of the formerly private Thyssen Collection which moved from Switzerland to its own national museum at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. For Zürcher Theater Spektakel and Kunsthaus Zürich Walid Raad has developped “The Zurich Chapter” with an exhibition and a walkthrough performance which can be seen from Thursday to Sunday during the festival (August 15–September 1). In “Two Drops Per Heartbeat” Raad traces the winding paths of art through different eras and worlds leading through the exhibition.
Thursday, August 18–Sunday, September 1 at Kunsthalle Zürich
At the Shedhalle and the festival center, the Landiwiese park, Taiwanese multimedia artist Shu Lea Cheang and Dondon Hounwn, artist and practising shaman, will create an artificial universe based on an old legend of the indigenous Truku tribe. In three different formats—a performance, a textile installation and a multimedia exhibition—the two collaborators explore a group of fluid spirits called “Hagay” to show the connections between queer lifestyles, shamanism and contemporary technology. A visually powerful renunciation of a binary world view and a vision of a non-binary, indigenous techno future (from August 23).
Friday, August 23–Sunday, September 1 at Shedhalle Zürich
Also at the Landiwiese park, The Nest Collective from Nairobi show their installation Return to Sender, originally commissioned for Documenta 15: For the duration of the festival (August 15–September 1), a house made from bales of clothes—worn in Europe and then given to charity for reuse in the Global South—is freely accessible showing a video on the topic inside. This walk-in installation vividly reveals that the circulation behind this is not only ecologically but also socially much more complicated than a journey to the clothing collection container.
Thursday, August 18–Sunday, September 1 at Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Landiwiese
At Museum Rietberg, the Cameroonian dancer and choreographer Zora Snake will present his “L’Opéra du Villageois” as part of the exhibition Dialogue with Benin. Art, Colonialism and Restitution. The exhibition presents Benin’s artistic legacy from a historical and comparative cultural perspective. The Museum Rietberg is part of the Benin Initiative Switzerland, which is supported by eight Swiss museums. Snake’s Performance is both a burial and liberation ritual. It denounces the European museums that harbour looted art in their collections and conjures up the spirit of the stolen objects. But their spirits are not dead: “They took the work, but not the spirit.”
Sunday, August 25 and Sunday, September 1 at Museum Rietberg
On the Seebühne, a stage on the shores of Lake Zurich, Malcolm Ferdinand holds a lecture as part of the series “Talking on water” (August 24). The environmental engineer and political scientist from Martinique combines ecological and decolonial thinking with the aim to end the destruction of nature and human oppression. On the same stage, American sociologist Richard Sennett will speak about his latest book “The Performer: Art, Life, Politics”, focussing on performance in the public and political sphere. (August 21).
Wednesday, August 21 and Saturday, August 24 at Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Seebühne
