2022: Events Not to Be Missed | Culture and Lifestyle in Germany and Europe

In the new year 2022, there are many hopes in the field of culture: the exhibition of contemporary art Documenta in Kassel, the play “The Passion of the Christ” in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau and Oktoberfest in Munich should finally take place. Plus a lot of events in the cultural capitals of Europe 2022: Lithuanian Kaunas, Serbian Novi Sad and Eshe in Luxembourg.

“The Passion of Christ” in the Bavarian village of Oberammergau

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world famous play “The Passion of the Christ” was postponed: first from 2020 to 2021, and then for another year. Now production director Christian Stückl is anxiously looking forward to May 14, the day of the premiere: “Nobody knows what will happen. We will start rehearsals and hopefully.” For Stückl, it is obvious that Jesus in the new production should become even more vivid and expressive, and the roles of women should be given more weight than before. “We are delighted that everything is finally starting again,” says actress Eva-Maria Reiser, who plays Maria.

“The Passion of Christ”. Rehearsal 2020. Frederic Mayet as Jesus

The history of the production dates back to the 17th century: in 1633, the inhabitants of Oberammergau vowed to perform “The Passion” every 10 years, if no one else dies of the plague. According to legend, this is what happened. The whole Bavarian village participates in the work on the play – as they say, without sleep or rest. The performance is, among other things, an important source of income for the local population. Millions of euros are spent every time to create a performance. The fees for actors and actresses alone are $ 20 million for a five-month season.

The current rule that only 25 percent of the seats can be filled in theaters threatens to be a big problem. And although 75 percent of the tickets have already been sold, most of them will most likely have to be returned.

Winter events – 2022

We also write about the rest of the upcoming events of the new year with the note “if the coronavirus does not interfere.” So, on January 12, in Marburg, Germany, the jury will announce the winner of the “Antiword of the Year” competition. This will be followed by the Adolph Grimme-Preis Television Prize on 20 January. The Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival is scheduled from 16 to 23 January in Saarbrücken. Well, on January 31, the main music award of the world Grammy Awards will die off.

The 90th anniversary of Germany’s most famous contemporary artist, Gerhard Richter, will be celebrated on 10 February. From 10 to 20 February – the famous International Berlin Film Festival Berlinale.

What awaits us in the spring of 2022

The German Cultural Spring will kick off in Leipzig, where a book fair is scheduled from 17 to 20 March. The Annual Press Ball is due to take place in Berlin on April 29th. Venice will open the famous Biennale of Contemporary Art on 23 April. One day, May 14, we will have the Eurovision final in Turin, Italy, and the premiere of a new production of The Passion of Christ in Oberammergau, Bavaria. Well, from May 17 to May 28, a film festival is to be held in French Cannes.

Members of the ABBA group

The Voyage show of the legendary Swedes from the ABBA group kicks off in London on May 28: for 428 euros, viewers will see their avatars at a specially built stadium.

Cultural Summer 2022

June 2022 will be marked by contemporary art exhibitions. The Art Basel fair will take place in Basel, Switzerland from June 16 to June 19, and the famous Documenta, an exhibition of contemporary art in Kassel, Germany, will open on June 18. From 25 July in the Bavarian Bayreuth – “Ring of the Nibelungen” as part of the traditional Wagner music festival. The Venice Film Festival will take place from 31 August to 10 September.

And already on September 17, the Oktoberfest will begin in Munich.

Fall 2022 events

Slovenia will be the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, scheduled from 19 to 23 October. The German National Faust Theater Award and the international Emmy award will be presented in November. The European Film Awards will take place in December. And at the end of the year, the German Language Society will again select the “Word of the Year”.

See also:

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Pantheon of freedom
The “Pantheon of Books” in the center of Kassel, on the square where in 1933 the Nazis staged a demonstrative book burning, is a copy of the Athenian temple on an original scale. For its construction, Martha Minukhin took 50 thousand books that were ever banned in different parts of the world. The installation makes the strongest impression in the light of the evening lights.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
The whole world
The Argentine artist had already carried out a similar action in her homeland in 1983, using for her 25 thousand books that were banned during the military dictatorship in Argentina. This time, the temple was built, as they say, by the whole world: containers for collecting censored books were in several cities around the world. After the end of the 14th in a row “Documents” books will be distributed free of charge to everyone.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Under the media gloss
documenta takes place every five years. Never before has such importance been attached to socio-political themes at the exhibition. The problem of blurred boundaries between right-wing extremism and fascism is reflected in the project “Real Nazis” by the American artist Peter Uklansky. This is a kind of portrait gallery of the Nazis, consisting of their photographs, as well as heroes of propaganda posters and films of the “Third Reich”.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Slave mill
What is the price of well-being? Not far from the central square, next to the baroque greenhouse in the Karlsaue park, there is not at all an idyllic object – “The Mill of Blood” by Antonio Vega Makotela. The installation by the Mexican artist is a reconstruction of a kind of machine that was turned by slaves in Bolivia, processing silver for minting coins.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Hello to the great packer Christo
Another piece of work that is hard to miss. The towers of the old guard gates in Brothers Grimm Square are clad in huge covers made from old jute sacks, in which cocoa, coffee, rice and coal were transported to the USA and Europe from Africa. This is how the artist from Ghana Ibrahim Mahama depicted the circulation of goods in a globalized world. The leaky material symbolizes the hard work of the workers and their low pay.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Harsh refuge
Forced flight is a sore subject for the Kurdish artist Khiva K., who himself was forced to leave Iraq 16 years ago and now lives in Berlin. His installation, located near the Pantheon of Books, is made of 20 huge concrete pipes that mimic those used by refugees in Greek Patras.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Minimum comfort
Architecture and design students from Kassel have added a touch of coziness to the interior of this makeshift sanctuary. The concrete pipes housed a bedroom, a kitchen, a shower room, a library … With the rising prices of student housing, a minimum of personal space is a problem that is familiar to them.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Concert for the wreckage
The wreckage of a boat from Lesvos, turned into a harp, a flute from a piece of a water pipe, a drum from a part of a bed found in a refugee hostel. Mexican artist Guillermo Galindo creates unusual musical instruments and writes music for them. Each such instrument has its own voice and its own story that it can tell. Some objects were exhibited at the “Documenta” in 2017.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
Shadow of Death
Maret Anne Sara draws attention to the situation of ethnic minorities. The deer, whose skulls the Norwegian artist had built into a huge curtain, belonged to her family. They were killed following a law passed by the Norwegian government in 2007 to reduce the reindeer population due to a lack of land. The Sami, an indigenous people, took it as a disaster.

documenta: the most frightening art projects
The nature of violence
The performance “El Objectivo” (“Purpose”) by the artist from Guatemala Rehina José Galindo presents with a choice. The viewer sees the artist frozen in one position only through the telescopic sight of an air rifle, the dummies of which are embedded in small slots in the walls. What makes you pull the trigger? Decides the moment.
Author: Tatiana Weinman (Kassel)