FRANKFURT.- The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is moving temporarily to Frankfurt’s Bockenheim district and will be celebrating the opening of its new location with a big parade through the city. On Sunday, September 7, 2025, the Schirn invites audiences to a participatory dance performance, “In C – Community,” featuring around 100 involved performers together with the renowned international dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests and the techno marching band MEUTE. The procession with professional dancers and amateur groups will start at the Schirn’s Römer venue and will lead to its interim location, the former Dondorf printing factory, which has been converted for use by the Schirn. The reason for the move is the energy-efficiency renovation of the parent house at the Römer. The opening of the new venue will be celebrated with a performance of “In C – Community” throughout the entire building, also featuring food and drinks by Café B by Badias and a live set by DJ ABIBA.

SCHEDULE OF THE PARADE AND OPENING

3 P.M. Start of the parade at the Schirn at the Römer

4 P.M. Arrival at the new venue in Bockenheim 4:30 P.M. Official opening with speeches

5:30 P.M. Dance performance “In C – Community” 6:30 P.M. DJ set by ABIBA

“Sasha Waltz & Guests: In C – Community” is supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and the SCHIRN FRIENDS, with additional support by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft and the FAZIT-STIFTUNG.

Sebastian Baden, Director of The Schirn: “The engaging and procedural project ‘In C – Community’ focuses on community and participation, and it is with this aim in mind that we plan to open and develop the Schirn’s new temporary location. We invite our public, art lovers, and our former and future neighbors to celebrate the Schirn’s move with us by participating in a parade through Frankfurt’s city center and then to open the doors of the new Schirn in Bockenheim. It is here that the Schirn will be residing for the next few years. We are developing an innovative program of top quality exhibitions, educational programs, and events, thereby creating a place for meeting people and for art and creativity addressed to a broad public and people of all ages.”

Martina Weinhart, Curator of the project: “With In C, the company Sasha Waltz & Guests has created an innovative and experimental cosmos which brings together artists from various genres, as well as people and communities, in changing formations and variations. The work is based on a modular system with variable choreographies, which explore, in an artistic manner, the freedom of the individual and his or her position in the community. In the process, a dynamic and captivating symbiosis between dance, music, and space is formed, in which everyone contributes to the creation of a shared Gesamtkunstwerk: the participating dancers, the musicians, the spectators, and all those accompanying the Schirn’s parade.”

SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS. IN C – COMMUNITY

The structured improvisation In C was developed in 2021 by the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. Since then, it has been realized in a variety of contexts. The choreography contains fifty-three variable movement figures in an innovative open structure and was intentionally not devised as a finished stage piece. In C is open to adaptions in all dance styles, to influences from various cultural circles, to professionals and amateurs, and to young and old. Active participants and spectators alike become part of a unique performance, which not only demonstrates the democratic principles of participation and equality, but also puts them into practice.

The performance “In C – Community” has been developed in the form of a parade specially for the festive opening of the Schirn in Frankfurt’s Bockenheim district. The procession will be accompanied by artistic interplay with the band MEUTE, consisting of eleven brass and woodwind instruments and percussion. The legendary marching band has developed an interpretation of the musical basis for the choreography, Terry Riley’s pioneering work of the same name, the minimal music composition In C, and will also play other pieces from their own repertoire.

A total of six dance groups from Frankfurt and surrounding areas will be participating. Over the past months, the amateur dancers of all ages have been taught the choreographic units of In C by local professional dancers and members of the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests. The Frankfurt public, fans of the Schirn, and lovers of art and dance are invited to join the procession from the Römer to Bockenheim. Along the route, the professional dancers will be encouraging members of the public to learn simple movement sequences from the choreography and to join in the dancing.

Sasha Waltz & Guests was established 1993 in Berlin by the choreographer, dancer, and director Sasha Waltz and the dramaturge and cultural entrepreneur Jochen Sandig. To date, numerous artists and ensembles from the fields of architecture, fine art, choreography, film, design, literature, fashion, and music from more than sixty countries have participated in over 100 productions. Since its founding, Sasha Waltz & Guests has already presented performances in upwards of 300 international locations and festivals. In 2013, the company was named “Cultural Ambassador of the European Union.” In 2014, the Fonds Darstellende Künste awarded Sasha Waltz & Guests the george tabori ehrenpreis. In 2024, Sasha Waltz received the Helmut-Schmidt- Zukunftspreis for her commitment to empathy and humanity in her art. Since the spring of 2021, an independent system with a growing international community has been developed with the work In C. As a participative project with adaptations of the movements for amateur dancers, children, and young people, it was realized for the first time in 2022 under the name “In C – The Marl Score” in Marl (NRW) and in 2025 as “Let Amsterdam Dance” in Amsterdam.

MEUTE is an eleven-member techno marching band from Hamburg, which presents new interpretations of techno and house with brass and woodwind instruments and percussion. With the powerful combination of hypnotically insistent techno beats and expressive wind music, the band has created a unique musical genre. It separates electronic music from the DJ desk and generates the energetic impulse directly in the crowd – whether in the streets, in techno clubs, or on big international stages, from the Konzerthaus in Vienna to the Coachella music and arts festival. After the formation of the band in 2015, MEUTE attracted the attention of an international public through their version of You & Me by Disclosure (Flume Remix) from 2018. Today the band tours worldwide and is one of the ensembles with the most active presence at festivals in Europe. They supplied several songs for the soundtrack of the fourth season of the television series Babylon Berlin. This year they are celebrating their tenth anniversary with the new album Jubel.

THE OPENING OF THE SCHIRN IN BOCKENHEIM

At the festive opening ceremony of the Schirn in Bockenheim, the speakers (starting at 4:30 p.m.) will be Mayor Mike Josef, Councillor for Cultural Affairs Ina Hartwig, Director of the Schirn Sebastian Baden, and Martina Weinhart, curator of the project “Sasha Waltz & Guests: In C – Community.” There will be a dance performance on the premises, as well as food and drinks by Café B by Badias and a live set by DJ ABIBA.