Pottfiction

The official brief was to link the region’s seven youth theaters and inspire the younger generation (ages 13–21) to take an active role in shaping their future. How will they navigate, and what can they rely on in a time of radical structural change, as a once-thriving industry disappears and a metropolis shrinks?

Our mission was to create a small-scale experimental space where big questions could be explored and concrete answers uncovered. We wanted to set up a workspace that didn’t feel like work – that felt, instead, like a couple of days of living outside the box. Our motto: You want to change the world? Then do it!

And so the Pottfiction summer camp series was born, with us as artistic directors. We bundled the participating theaters’ seasons and invited internationally known artists. We created our own artistic formats and worked with campers to develop a dramaturgy for the project. Then we headed out into the city. Since then, a new organization, Urbane Künste Ruhr, has taken over the job of running Pottfiction. Our temporary event has been successfully transformed into an ongoing networking project for the whole state of North Rhine–Westphalia.