In the page's words:

"Who am I?" - this question is as old as humanity itself and is asked all over the world, sometimes as a philosophical consideration, sometimes very concretely. Despite our complex, constantly changing realities and pluralistic societies, the assumption of a constant self still has a certain credibility and leads to political and social debates. This elusive and often questionable concept of "identity" forms the starting point of the Performing Arts Season 2025/26.

Cultural pluralism is not a new phenomenon; it has existed in peoples, nations and communities for a long time. Even in prehistoric times, people moved from one place to another in search of food, water and protection. Their migration patterns were influenced by climate, availability of resources and interactions with others; later imperialism and economic ambitions were added. The resulting communities, with their behaviors and the languages, gestures and cultural traditions they exchanged and shared, shaped people's identities as well as nations and communities, and often at a high cost. While this multidimensional diversity and plurality has always been part of human history, today's global homogenization poses significant challenges to traditions, local languages and cultural heritage. This in turn means that rigid, stereotypical and essentialist concepts of identity are once again gaining influence in many regions and countries. Against the backdrop of these developments, the Performing Arts Season 2025/26 aims to bring together works that explore binaries as well as individual, unconnected identities and reflect on the interconnectedness of the world and the self in its entirety - what Édouard Glissant calls the "all-world" (Tout-monde).

The third edition of the Performing Arts Season formulates these concepts of identity from the perspective of the performing arts as a transient phenomenon based on understanding and relationships. It presents selected dance, theater and performance works that reject the idea of a society based on majorities and minorities, which often ascribes a certain minority status to non-European artists. The pieces by Eun-Me Ahn, Gisèle Vienne and Étienne Bideau-Rey, William Kentridge, Akram Khan Company, Nina Laisné, François Chaignaud and Nadia Larcher, Thorsten Lensing and Ligia Lewis explore themes such as the precariousness of identity, displacement, creolization and transnationality, highlighting the power of the performing arts to describe and articulate our shared yet diverse experiences.