FFT Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf
The FFT Düsseldorf (Forum Freies Theater) has been operating since 1999; under Kathrin Tiedemann’s artistic direction since 2004. It is an international production venue for independent performing arts and acts in a network of production venues, theatres and further partners, regionally as well as internationally. As such, it is a part of the Alliance of International Production Houses, supported by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media.
The programme has been characterised both by a continuous collaboration with artist* collectives and the support of up-and-coming artists*, co-operations with universities, schools and the exchange with municipal stakeholders*. Artistic work with youths and an advanced programming for a young audience have been a staple in the FFT Düsseldorf profile since the beginning.
In 2015, the FFT received the Theaterpreis des Bundes award for its programme set amidst the participation of city dwellers and experimental artistic positions within the performing arts. The jury explanation elaborated further: In this, the FFT creates a sphere made up of city, art and theatre, at eye level, aiming to perceive thought figures not only as an artistic process but rather to convey their complexity, transferring them into life’s reality.
The FFT will move into a new venue in the former main postal office at Düsseldorf main station during the summer of 2021. For the FFT, the move into a new building is cause for an interdisciplinary research on the future role of theatre operations within a city society and within a globalised, digitised world. Apart from the extensive opening project Place Internationale, in which urban action and artistic action will be set in relation to each other, the Digital Foyer will play an outstanding role. In this project, the FFT, together with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, assays digital spaces between institution, internet, and a city public.