Being published in spring 2020 (originally planned for start of the festival Theater der Welt), the ITI-Yearbook 2019 appears in an unforseen context. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, there were a series of cancellations of festivals and the sudden shift of theater to digital space. This large number of new digital offerings is increasingly drawing attention to the quality of various forms of translation and transmission. 

In addition, it is precisely now that the hinges between cultures, the inter- and transcultural mediation processes and their actors* need to be reflected upon, as the year 2019 was also marked by calls for isolation, border closures, nationalist aspirations and racist resentments that did not stop at the theatres. There has been criticism of multilingual productions, international ensembles and experimental work, while at the same time international cooperation has become a central, indispensable component of contemporary theatre work.

In order to be able to move freely in a globally networked space, apart from the willingness to engage in it, we need one thing above all: translation. The contributions in this year's yearbook illuminate the various facets of translation in the performing arts and show what they can achieve – if you let them.

Understanding can reduce anxiety. Good translations help us to avoid cultural pitfalls, create something new and expand not only our knowledge but also the performing arts. This year's yearbook is a plea for the many possibilities of a competent and mindful shaping of our movement in a free, open space of cultural exchange across language and national borders.

Published by: Yvonne Griesel and the ITI office

With contributions from: Voxi Bärenklau, Guy Dermosessian, Stefan Fischer-Fels, Yvonne Griesel, Christine Henniger, Matthias Lilienthal, Kate McNaughton, Toshiki Okada, Wiebke Puls, Leyla Claire Rabih, Verena Regensburger, Larisa Schippel, Dagmar Walser, Kassandra Wedel, Maxim Wittenbecher, Makiko Yamaguchi, Maja Zade.

You can access the German and English digital edition here:

https://issuu.com/itigermany/docs/iti_jahrbuch_2019_de_issuu

https://issuu.com/itigermany/docs/iti_jahrbuch_2019_en_issuu

Zusammen_Wirken / Co_Laboration

Right at the beginning of the ITI Yearbook 2018, Günter Heeg states (referencing Alexander Kluge): "Cooperation [...] is born of necessity and takes place under conditions that are not freely chosen. It functions on the basis of a "basic trust" in human cooperation "which overrides the intentions and directives of the 'quarrelsome brain'".

The quarrelsome brain is by no means underrepresented in the current realities of cooperation. Be it that international encounters develop primarily into "cost and risk assessment" with regard to visa and travel possibilities, as Jens Van Lathem of Cultuurloket describes, or be it that quite different things can be projected onto collaboration / cooperation / co-production and therefore a clarification of terms, as Annika Hampel does, is absolutely necessary.

And do we have to ask ourselves in the future (once again) the question, what kind of worldviews one invites with an artist*? Comes sentiment before cooperation, as Stefanie Carp fears?
The theatre director and lecturer Zoë Svendsen expands the perspective on the most significant existential threat of our time and urges an end to cultural silence on climate change. Common themes, forms and working methods of science and art - more comprehensive cooperation - Svendsen calls for the necessary fundamental structural change.

Further contributions are by Anmol Vellani, Chang Nai Wen, Martine Dennewald, Kerstin Ortmeier, Marta Keil, Krystel Khoury, Iulia Popovici and Stefan Schmidtke.

Read the yearbook online here, if required also in full screen mode (button on the bottom right).

If you would like to receive a printed copy, please write to d.lautenschlaeger(at)iti-germany.de