Part of Next Stage Project, Backstage Club invites producers and professionals from across the performing arts to exchange practices and reflect on shared challenges. This edition takes place on 28–29 August 2026 in Berlin, hosted by Tanz im August.
Building on previous editions focused on plurality and care, this year turns to the role and agency of artistic production structures in contested times.
Civic spaces under increasing pressure and polarisation in public debate bring us to actively negotiate the terms of living and working together. We look at how artistic production can support frameworks for accountable, situated practices.
Programme
Friday 28. Aug
10:00 – 12:00, HAU 3 – Studio 0
Inclusive and Fair Access to Funding
– experts’ input and shared conversation
We address structural inequalities in access to international funding, with attention to perspectives beyond Europe. For this, we understand funding frameworks as sites for enabling equitable participation, long-term collaboration, and shared responsibility in the distribution and use of resources.
Inputs from
- Isa Köhler, programme coordinator Next Steps, Bureau Ritter Berlin
- Ricardo Carmona, artistic director Tanz im August Festival
14:00 – 17:00, HAU 3 – Studio 0
Resisting Within
– embodied exploration and group discussion
Structural and systemic disparities are reinforced from within, often below visibility. Exploring imagination as a political act, we question ethics and efficacy through embodied explorations of movement and interaction, addressing blind spots, agency, vulnerability, and transformation.
Facilitated by
- Grace Euna Kim, transdisciplinary choreographer and critical researcher
Saturday 29. Aug
11:00 – 13:00, HAU 3 – Studio 0
Interventions in Contested Digital Spaces
– experts’ input and shared conversation
The digital public sphere is a contested and politically shaped environment. We explore artistic and advocacy-based approaches addressing online radicalisation and digital rights; intersections of creative practice and civic action within polarised and manipulated digital contexts.
Inputs from
- Luzia Oppermann, artist onlietheater.life
- Speaker to be announced
14:00 – 16:00, HAU 3 – Studio 0
Worlding in Times of Urgency
– experts’ input and shared conversation
How artistic practice under conditions of political instability and shrinking civic space shifts from representation towards support, continuity, and intervention. Together we can shape our infrastructures for living and working in solidarity.
Inputs from
- Viktor Ruban, director Ruban Production ITP Kiev
- N.N., Martin Roth-Initiative
The event is free of charge and we ask you to register. You can choose to join for one, more or all the sessions.
For registration, use the online form:
During this event, we will use the English spoken language.
For any questions drop us an email at post@komplizinnen.space
Backstage Club is an initiative of Next Stage Project, organised by Workshop Foundation [HU], Nedelcu & Hauser [DE], TooFarEast [GR], and Johnson & Bergsmark [SE]. The Next Stage Project offers an incubation program empowering a new generation of managers to consolidate sustainable career paths for emerging and mid-career artists.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
