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Artists

Judith Huber (Emmenbrücke) – Fizzical II (05)
stromereien thinks out of the box! stromereien expands the term performance. stromereien attracts audiences from all walks of life. stromereien is incredibly important for the scene, for the audience, for the artists – there simply is no other festival that can compare.

Andreas Liebmann, GASTSTUBE°perf°rmance (Berlin) – Nester (05)
Stromereien is for its playfulness and yet formal openness pretty much unique in Zurich. Apart from that, i know of no other festival in Zurich that offers a platform for this kind of performance art. Theatre or dance have no place here, rather a uniquely different mix of genres that is further accentuated by the surrounding architecture.

Marina Belobrovaja (Zurich) – Party Manual (05)
It is the capability to offer such a programme and at the same time to remain (in the best sense) familiar. I have rarely felt so well looked after by a festival. stromereien is working close to the border of pioneering – for one, it is a PERFORMANCE festival, for a second, it is making an significant contribution towards the emancipation of the performance medium from academic categories like theatre and dance.

Max Schumacher, Posttheater (Berlin) – lager, lager (Skinsites VI) (05)
Few festivals work so consequently site specifically as stromereien. The way in which the festival employees look after the artists is exemplary. Such an intensive cooperation between curators, organisers, technical staff and the artists is for site specific and event specific art especially important. stromereien has not only recognised this, but has risen to the challenge magnificently.

Hiroko Tanahashi, Posttheater (Berlin) – lager, lager (Skinsites VI) (05)
Much more than any other festival, stromereien has provided space for exchange and meeting with other international as well as local artists who share the common interest of site-specific work. People I have met at the festival stayed in touch with me either as friends or colleagues or both. I am very grateful for the experience and its lasting effects. This way, the festival can be called sustainable - it serves not just the audiences or just the artists, and not just the moment but also the future.

Sophia New, Plan b (Berlin) – Walks on water (07)
One of the things that I appreciated the most about the festival was the opportunity to come together with all the selected artists to present ideas and strategies several months beforehand. Not only was this invaluable for the work that we made but also in getting to know the other artists. We had never experienced something like that.

Laura Kalauz (Zurich) –
Turist 3.1 / Zurich (05) & Excuse me please, could you choreograph me? (07)
We need stromereien as it is the only performance festival and allows development in the cultural life of the city.

Yan Duyvendak (Genf) – You’re dead! (05)
Organisation (efficient!), reception (warm!), technical assistance (excellent). I particularly liked the way in which the festival space was stretched out into the city itself, as well as the mix of different types of performance (dance, visual…) Nothing dogmatic as usual, but inquisitive and open.

Andrew Downs, The Five Andrews (London) –
Hortulum tenebrum (01) & The Garden of Wrong (05)
stromereien is extremely well-organised - and as a result succeeds in creating a supportive, harmonious and creative environment for artists. Everyone working for stromereien is professional, helpful and friendly and very well understands the needs and priorities of artists finding themselves away from home facing many challenges to mount their work successfully in their chosen site. They provide a social framework for international artists to meet.

Wendy Houstoun (London) – Home and how we get there (05)
I felt that the organisational team were the real centre of the festival – the energy that was put into creating the festival was heartfelt and the festival itself had a very unique atmosphere. I don’t think this kind of energy emerges overnight. It is clearly something that grows with each year of experience and commitment. I think it is unusual to have people committed to both the form and the place and when those things unite then something very unusual  is happening. It asks you to notice not only what you are doing, but where you are. It stresses locality. The perfect response to the electronic and the global.
Having worked for some 25 years in experimental theatre practise I know this festival is unusual in its ambition, generosity and belief that movement and performance practise can create a unique experience when not cloistered in the theatre . I think as a form performance needs to know that and for this reason alone,  I think Stromereien holds a vital position within a festival circuit that can often seem very homogenous.

Press

Wash the dust from the soul
Meret Schlegel, Manager of the Tanzhaus Zurich, tells us: Picasso once said, „Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life“. The stromereien Performance Festival Zurich, which presented its second edition this August in the Tanzhaus and in various different locations along the River Limmat, does just that. One could hardly wish for something more beautiful or more worthwhile.
Anja Lachmann, Musik und Theater, Zurich, 10.10.2003
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„stromereien“ without limits
Friends of weird and wonderful sounds, images and performances were certainly given their money’s worth (...) Fantasy was truly set no limits during this festival.
Jean-Claude Goldschmid, Affoltemer, Zurich, 21.08.2003
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Art-time and real-time
The strength of the festival lies in the freedom that the spectator is given – how much they engage with or become active in a project is left entirely up to the audience (...) The festival shows that many aims of earlier performance art; be it the conquest of communal spaces, the engagement of the audience or the refusal of illusion or representation, have become familiar and are now an integral part of many dance and theatre projects. It also shows, however, that performance, as an art form, is not passé, but rather that it serves as a specific medium for the examination of particular topics.
Felizitas Ammann, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, 05.08.2003
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Sweet baby, sallow corpse
“A waste of time” moan a few spectators, “fantastic” reply others (…) The atmosphere that this piece evokes, performed in the open-air swimming pool Unterer Letten, is wonderful. An enthusiastic whisper swept through the crowds as the dancers finally jumped into the water, with the vitality of leaping dolphins, in order to scare away the images of their deaths.
Agathe Blaser, TagesAnzeiger, Zurich, 04.08.2003
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Performance Festival awakens in Zurich
The artists, invited to participate in the stromereien performance festival, closed the evening’s programme with beauty and in doing so united the good one hundred curious spectators who had gathered near the electricity plant by the Unterer Letten. Fogosch’s surrealistic vision of Rimini was permanently engraved in the minds of the audience.
Anna Hohler, Le Temps, Lausanne, 09.08.2001
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stromereien is without doubt one of the most unique festivals, even its formation is a creative process in itself. The artists meet for the first time in spring, in order to discuss ideas, present projects and create a programme. „An inspiring atmosphere in which the focus is laid on collaborative work is therefore already present“. Applications for the festival are flooding in – over 100 at the last count – from all over the world. Watch this space...
Eva Bucher, züritipp, 02.08.2007
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