2023-11-29 08:49:23
Cottbus/Potsdam – In the opinion of author and filmmaker Grit Lemke, the cross-border Lausitz festival, which has been taking place since 2020, has failed to achieve its goal of depicting the region and structural change. After withdrawing from the artistic festival advisory board, Lemke now reiterates her criticism. “I am no longer on the advisory board because it does not offer democratic participation on an equal level,” she tells the German Press Agency. The program was presented to the members, the advisory board was allowed to make suggestions but not to help shape it. But that was her intention because she found the idea of the festival important for her region, emphasizes Lemke.
Regional actors lack participation in the program
With her criticism, the author (“Children of Hoy”) joins an open letter from numerous Lusatian cultural workers from the autumn, who accuse the festival management of hardly including the regional cultural scene. They are calling for a “real Lausitz Festival” and a greater right to have a say in program development. “The advisory board must become a place of open discussion and living democracy,” it says. The regional artists fear that the lack of anchoring of the Lausitz Festival could lead to negative political consequences. MDR Kultur and the “Sächsische Zeitung”, among others, reported.
The Lausitz Festival takes place annually as a cross-border art festival in Saxony and Brandenburg. It is intended to accompany the structural change in Lusatia. The fifth edition is scheduled to take place at the end of August 2024. The festival will also be discussed in the Committee for Science, Research and Culture in the state parliament on December 6th.
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Lausitz Festival GmbH, founded in April, points to the “very specific mandate” that is linked to the funding. The federal government provides around four million euros annually with the aim of developing the festival into a leading cultural brand. According to the chairwoman of the supervisory board, Brigitte Faber-Schmidt, the aim is to generate supra-regional attention for Lusatia through extraordinary art events with international appeal. The program is always created in exchange with people from the region, says the department head in the Brandenburg Ministry of Science.
Lausitz Festival does not represent the region and its people
“The festival neither depicts Lusatia nor its people. “You can’t see yourself in it,” criticizes Lemke. For example, bilingualism – Sorbian – falls behind. The artist from Hoyerswerda goes one step further with her criticism. The festival operates with a “colonial attitude” and the artistic direction is “completely western and male”. She allows herself the “native perspective,” says the anthropologist with a doctorate. The festival also lacks diverse ideas.
The choice of director is not transparent for actors
In their open letter, the regional artists also criticize a lack of transparency in the appointment of the festival’s director. Given the high amount of funding for which this person is responsible, this is a process that needs to be explained. Lemke criticizes that the funding is tax money that she also pays for. “I want to know what happens to my money.”
In response to a request from the Left Party in the state parliament, the Brandenburg Ministry of Culture said that the idea for the Lausitz Festival and its federal funding were largely conceived and prepared by the director Daniel Kühnel. His suggestions and plans have been regularly reviewed by an interim artistic advisory board since 2020. A five-year contract was signed with Kühnel in April in recognition of his development work.
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