In response to the politically motivated dismissal of Matej Drlička as Director General of the Slovak National Theatre in mid-August 2024, the Vienna Festival launched the RESISTANCE NOW! TOUR throughout Europe, America and Asia. So far, 16 stops in different cities from Stockholm to Belgrade, from Antwerp to Prague, from New York to Mosul to Taipei, have sparked artistic actions, political interventions, and debates.
The campaign connects 200 leading cultural organisations in 50 countries and has reached 100.000.000 people. RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER is collaborating with the EU on a new legal framework aimed at the protection of culture and freedom of expression: the European Culture Freedom Act.
Creatives around the world are invited to join the global and diverse campaign! At www.resistance-now-together.eu, our partner, the European Theatre Convention, brings together artistic positions, debates and events – all united in the common goal of advocating for a new European law to safeguard culture.
Who's afraid of art?
Solidarity with Bitef director Nikita Milivojević: Stop the political influence The Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna show solidarity with Nikita Milivojević. The contract of the artistic director of the most important Serbian theatre festival BITEF (Belgrade International Theatre Festival) was surprisingly not extended for political reasons and the festival currently has no artistic director. British journalist Natasha Tripney talks to Nikita Milivojevićabout the disastrous consequences of this politically motivated decision.
Nikita Milivojević: "This is a kind of censorship; actually, it’s the most dangerous kind. You're not free to talk. You're not free to think. It’s not a democratic country."
Upcoming dates
8.5. First public reading Burgtheater
Vienna | Austria
Reading of the complete text Burgtheater with the ensemble of Burgtheater.
2.9. Reading of Elfriede Jelinek's THE SECOND COMING with Nicole Ansari-Cox
New York | USA
As part of the DOWN TO EARTH FESTIVAL, Segal Theatre Center at Graduate Center CUNY The RESISTANCE NOW! tour stop in New York will deal with the question of how Donald Trump's term in office will affect the cultural sector. Milo Rau - moderated by Frank Hentschker - will join American artists in a discussion and link developments in Central and Western Europe with those in America. The reading of Elfriede Jelinek’s play THE SECOND COMING will add an important dimension to the RESISTANCE NOW tour stop as an artistic intervention.
13.11. RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER ROMANIA
Bucharest | Romania
At the Conference of the International Association of Theatre Critics – Romanian Section, Milo Rau, artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen), from which the movement started in August 2024, brings the movement to Romania. Together with local guests, he will discuss current artistic and activist strategies of resistance, hosted by Oana Stoica, theatre critic from Bucharest. Only 0.07% of Romania’s national budget is allocated to culture, placing significant financial strain on both state theaters and the independent scene. Additionally, many state theatre managers have been serving as interim for extended periods, with their positions not being put up for competition. This creates another form of pressure, as they have limited decision-making power and are susceptible to influence from the authorities. RESISTANCE NOW TOGETHER ROMANIAwill draw attention to this various threats to artistic freedom and search for the potential in international collaborative solidarity.
In a special debate series at Volksbühne, Milo Rau, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Ece Temelkuran, Anne Roth, Hito Steyerl and Sönke Iwersen, among others, will discuss “Techno-Fascism: From Elon Musk to AfD.”
With a fire ritual, the shaman Nika Korenjak cleanses the Vienna Funkhaus of old and new fascism to make way for a republic of love.
8.2. Demonstration ‘Democracy needs you’
Munich | Germany
At the ‘Democracy needs you’ demonstration in Munich, Robert Misik shared the central positions of RESISTANCE NOW! with 320,000 people in his speech ‘We will not be cosy!’. ‘You are standing here today because you want to prevent the kind of conditions that prevail in my country,’ he began his rousing speech and ended: ’We fight frenzy with reason, egoism with the spirit of justice and solidarity, or, as our Slovakian friend Matej Drlicka said: We beat the fascists with the power of love!’
The RESISTANCE NOW! Tour will make a stop in Strasbourg at the Théâtre du Maillon on 30 November. Here, the open letter RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE will be presented by the initiators in the presence of former French Culture Minister Catherine Trautmann. Matej Drlička, former director of the Slovak National Theater, Emmanuel Droit, university professor, Joris Mathieu, director, director of the Théâtre Nouvelle Génération, CDN, Lyon and Heidi Wiley, director of the European Theater Convention discussed the role of art in shaping democratic future perspectives in Europe.
Sign the petition RESISTANCE NOW: FREE CULTURE here!
The next stop on the RESISTANCE NOW! tour, the Central European Forum 2024 in Bratislava, will explore the power of misinformation – from early radio and television to social media today. Discussions will examine the links between deception, fear, and the breakdown of trust, with featured speakers including french journalist Natalie Nougayrède, british historian an author Timothy Garton Ash and Milo Rau, Artistic Director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna.
On 8 November 2024, the Jewish Museum Hohenems was awarded the Rheintaler Kulturpreis Goldiga Törgga for its important work on controversial social issues. Milo Rau, artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, gave the laudatory speech and took this as an opportunity to bring the RESISTANCE NOW! Tour to Vorarlberg and to honor the museum’s commitment to intercultural dialog and coming to terms with history. The award ceremony took place at the Kinotheater Madlen in Heerbrugg
Milo Rau debates the interferences between art and activism with various guests: on the basis of the film/project White Cube by Renzo Martens and Rau's Jesus film project The New Gospel.
The Prague Crossroads Festival is hosting another RESISTANCE NOW! tour stop. Dóra Büki from the Hungarian Proton Theatre, which is facing unprecedented pressure from the Fidesz government, Miriam Kičiňová, artistic director of the Drama Theater of the Slovak National Theater, Jiří Havelka, the incoming artistic director of the Dejvické Theatre and Milo Rau, artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, will discuss their visions of a joint solidarity response to the danger posed by the new nationalism with Nina Jacques, dramaturg of the Prague Crossroads Festival.
For his opening speech, Milo Rau poses under the title Embassy of the Future the central question of his work in times of a global shift to the right and neoliberal budget cuts: Why theatre? Why do we need this place – today more than ever?
Moderated by Milo Rau, artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna, Dóra Büki from the Hungarian Proton Theatre, the dismissed director of the Slovak National Theatre Matej Drlička and the Croatian philosopher and activist Srećko Horvat will discuss how we can stand up together for democracy, diversity and the freedom of art.
How to act as a public theatre when governments follow non-democratic agendas? This edition of the European Theatre Talks titled ‘European Theatre Talks: Free Culture – Resisting Political Interference’ will focus on the increasing restrictions of freedom of expression in a European context, with interventions from artists, cultural figures and decision makers that work closely on themes of artistic freedom and democracy.
As a member of the Council of the Free Republic of Vienna Fariba Mosleh, Curator and Cultural Manager, will represent the Vienna Festival | Wiener Festwochen as a speaker.
The RESISTANCE NOW! Tour lands at the Taiwanese National Theatre: the island Taiwan (Formosa) was colonised by the defeated army of dictator Chiang Kai-shek after the Chinese civil war in 1949, and the indigenous peoples were driven into the mountains. Milo Rau discusses art, resistance, education and the long road to democracy and equality with the indigenous activist, filmmaker and founder of the first indigenous kindergarden in Taiwan, Mayaw Biho.
On Monday night (21 October), Milo Rau joined the protests organized by Mayaw Biho in Taiwan against the construction of a luxury resort. He camped together with 100 activists in the bay under the Amis People's Sacred Mountain in front of the house of the indigenous Shu Lin family. The police and city officials were chased away by the activists in the morning hours and the bulldozer that was supposed to destroy the house disappeared (official press statement).
“Can Beauty Save the World?” asks Milo Rau in his opening speech at the 58th BITEF Theater Festival in Belgrade. The festival's main program will also include Carolina Bianchis The Bride and Goodnight Cinderella and Antigone in the Amazon, a co-production of the Vienna Festival.
‘What can and does a theatre play leave behind — what impact can it have in the real world?’ Starting from the artistic projects New Gospel and Orestes in Mosul Milo Rau and Yvan Sagnet, activist from Cameroon and Jesus actors in New Gospel, discuss with Segal Center Executive Director Frank Hentschker.
Together with Luanda Casella, Milo Rau will give the opening speech at the World Congress of the International Theatre Institute ITI entitled How to resist.
Who’s afraid of art? More and more far right politicians in Europe are trying to silence artists and institutions. The most recent example being Slovakia, where the directors of the Slovak National Theatre and the Slovak National Gallery suddenly were dismissed by the minister of culture. The director of SND, Matej Drlička, will talk about this flagrant attack on the freedom of artistic expression and the broader political culture in which this happened. Milo Rau will report on strategies on how institutions can show solidarity in a case like this.
In the conversation Art and Resistance, Milo Rau, Mattias Andersson and others discuss how artists and activists should fight against the total capitalization of the theater on the one hand and the reduction of funds on the other. All against the background of an increasing nationalism where theater managers are dismissed on political grounds, as recently happened in, for example, Slovakia.
Because the answer to nationalism has to be diverse and global
Resistance now, everywhere and together!
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