SPREEWALD, GERMANY.- Can feelings of freedom bring us closer to the idea of freedom? Inside and outside boundaries restrict us, both consciously and unconsciously, as individuals, as citizens, and as artists. Are we able to influence these boundaries, or have we learned to value them because they serve to protect us? How free do we really want to be?

Twelve visual and numerous performance artists will examine the ambivalence of longing for what has become one of our fundamental democratic values: freedom. In new works of art and productions created specifically for Rohkunstbau and the lakeside castle of Groß Leuthen, the artists Vasco Araújo (PT), Sylvie Barré (FR), The Blue Noses (RU), Monica Bonvicini (IT), AK Dolven (NL), Hannah Dougherty (US), Mona Hatoum (GB), Langlands & Bell (GB), Melanie Manchot (DE), Gregor Schneider (DE), and Michael Wesely (DE) will explore the many facets of freedom: the desire to free oneself from physical boundaries, the appeal of anarchy, the temptation to change one’s identity, and the difficulties involved in navigating between artistic freedom and societal constraints.

During the festival, choreographers, musicians, theatre directors, and performance artists will, together with partner institutions such as HAU, Dock11, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Sophiensaele and Fabrik Potsdam, find new answers and ask new questions in their site-specific open air productions.

The title of Rohkunstbau XIII, Three Colours – BLUE, refers to the project’s conceptual model and reflects the poetic character of the project. It follows the trilogy Three Colours: BLUE WHITE RED by the Polish-French filmmaker Krzyzstof Kieslowski and marks the beginning of Rohkunstbau’s own trilogy along similar lines. Just as Kieslowski problematises the intense desire for freedom, equality, and fraternity through the portrayal of individual destinies, so too will the Rohkunstbau projects from 2006-2008 thematise these values for individuals and their social interactions by means of art.

Patron of Three Colours – BLUE WHITE RED from 2006 to 2008: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Artistic director: Arvid Boellert. Exhibition curator: Mark Gisbourne. Festival curator: Max Schumacher.