November 22 - 24, Muffathalle

WAKE UP!
Assembly for a different Europe

Until the outbreak of the financial crisis five years ago, Europe appeared to be stable and imperturbable. Since then, cataclysms have taken place that we can hardly fathom at this time, much less deal with. For the first time in recent history, the future of the continent seems uncertain.

In Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and Cyprus, the countries in the euro rescue fund, the lifestyles of the people are changing drastically in view of the inflicted austerity measures. The unemployment figures are soaring, a "lost generation" of 20 – 30-year-olds is starting to evolve. The health care and social welfare systems in many places are about to collapse.

Up until now, patronage networks and encrusted power structures prevented new political beginnings. The result was a large number of protests, even violent ones. At the same time, activist movements and groups were formed – in the beginning on the local level, then increasingly across borders as well. These movements and groups are not only trying to absorb the cuts in the social welfare networks, they are also trying to design alternative economic, political, and artistic models. Their goal is to develop personal and social perspectives for action, to redesign politics from the bottom up, and in this manner to provide impulses for the future.

Amazingly, so far Germany appears to be untouched by these events. The situation is evidently too novel and confusing even for the experts. Apart from the current success of the protest party AfD in Germany and some of the excitement in the boulevard media, the predominant opinion is "carry on." The German chancellor's "the best alternative" appears to be the general consensus. Germany is a generous but reluctant paymaster, and apart from that a distanced observer of the "rescue routine." And so over the past months the frightening development occurred that Europe is drifting apart, drifting into an apparently "industrious" but "school masterly" North and a "fun-loving" but "lazy" South. Designations such as "PIGS" for Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain raise the question of how will it be possible in Europe for countries to deal with one another with respect in the future.

WAKE UP! – an assembly for a different Europe is extending an invitation to come to Muffatwerk from November 22 – 24 for a diverse program of panels, performances, and lectures designed to inform and inspire, to question and motivate.

Production: SPIELART Festival in collaboration with the Evangelische Stadtakademie München, the Instituto Cervantes Munich, the Cultural Department of the City of Munich, the Goethe-Institut, ACCIÓN CULTURAL ESPAÑOLA, AC/E

Download here the WAKE UP!-Schedule.