Zeitraumexit

zeitraumexit came into being in 2000, as a result of the merger between Zeitraum für Büro und Kunst and EX!T Ausgangspunkt Theater. “The quartet represents extraordinary, international art projects in the region which unite visual and performing arts ever since.”

The founding members are the artists Gabriele Osswald (performance, visual arts), Wolfgang Sautermeister (performance, visual arts), Elke Schmid (director) and Tilo Schwarz (drawing, set & lighting design), as well as the members of the executive board Manfred Ziegler, Peter Empl and Gerhard Schöneberger. Apart from engaging with zeitraumexit, the artistic directors Osswald, Sautermeister, Schmid and Schwarz also work as solo artists. They are being invited to venues as far across the globe as Seoul. Elke Schmid left zeitraumexit in 2009 to further pursue her work in Berlin.

From May 2000 to May 2007, the facilities of zeitraumexit were located in Mannheim's district Neckarstadt-Ost. In 2007, zeitraumexit moved into the historical Kaufmannmühle, a former corn mill under monument protection, which is located in the Jungbusch district. In the new facilities, two ateliers, a theatre space (for 60 spectators), one exhibition hall, a bar and office spaces were installed. The yard is used as an open-air stage. The association is mainly financed with private means, such as the Hector foundation and the National Performance Network. Apart from this, they are “constantly dependent on 30 to 60 volunteers’ support.” Coverage on zeitraumexit takes place via the regional news (e.g. Mannheimer Morgen, Rheinpfalz), radio broadcasting (SWR, DLF) and TV (3sat); in trans-regional newspapers and journals (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Theater der Zeit, tanz aktuell, Kunstforum international) online (ZDFtheaterkanal) and on television (ntv). In 2008, the artistic direction of zeitraumexit received the Baerwind prize from the Rudi-Baerwind foundation, as the collective “confirms quite exactly to Baerwind’s imagination of a symphony with its border-transgressing energy.” Zeitraumexit is “a meeting point for artists and people interested in art beyond established cultural institutions. The festival “Wunder der Prärie” (Wonder of the Prairie), which is organized by zeitraumexit every other year, acquired a set slot in the region's event schedule and receives attention that surpasses the regional scale.”

zeitraumexit realizes about 14 events each year on about 100 days with ca. 10,330 visitors (2011 numbers). Therefore, zeitraumexit frequently cooperates with fellow regional and international cultural institutions such as the Alte Feuerwache, Cinema Quadrat and TiG7 (Mannheim), Kunstcentrum Campo (Ghent, Belgium), brut Wien (Vienna, Austria), Kampnagel (Hamburg) and Rotterdamse Schouwburg (Rotterdamm, Niederlande). Annual events, to name a few, are the presentation of the award winners of the European Media Art Festival; 97m überm Meer, “[a] noteworthy [open] stage of the Region” for performing artists; Wilsonstraße, with Applied Theatre Studies students from Giessen (ATW – Angewandte Theaterwissenschaften); and frisch eingetroffen. The latter is a festival which provides young artists of the divisions of dance, performance and theatre from Europe over several days. As part of the 15.Internationale Schillertage, the cultural office of Mannheim (Kulturamt Mannheim) organized the independent theatre days Schwindelfrei as the city's contribution to the Schillerjahr 2009. zeitraumexit participated with its own production Harry L.- Eine Auflösung, directed by René Arnold, who realized a “successful form of discourse theatre.” “As [further] development of the initial festival,” Schwindelfrei 2010 obtained a “holistic concept which was curated in terms of its content”. zeitraumexit participated in the invitation to tender with 1st Person Plural by director Nicola Unger, a coproduction with the Schouwburg Rotterdam, and was selected for funding by the cultural office of Mannheim (Kulturamt Mannheim).

• zeitraumexit (in German ony)
• Wunder der Praerie
• outside the box
• B-Seite^{[permanent dead link]}