A project by Rimini Protokoll
Conference of the Absent

The "Conference of the Absent" is a project conceived by the artistic collective Rimini Protokoll. The theatrical performance was born as a conference for which all the invited speakers are suddenly unable to travel.  Due to travel restrictions imposed by Covid-19, or the ecological conscience of individual participants who prefer to avoid further CO2 emissions, or whatever the reason for not attending the conference, the result is that the speakers must be physically replaced by someone else. Hence the idea of using the direct collaboration of the audience in the conference hall. Volunteers in the audience who decide to help the organizers carry out the conference are only given their script shortly before the conference. Because of this improvised participation by the audience, the play always unfolds in a unique and unrepeatable way. At the center of the collective performance are people who become the bearers of ideas and playfully take ownership of both the speakers' biographies and their thoughts. In this way, absence becomes an added value, because it creates space for unexpected ascriptions and perspectives. With the Conference of the Absent Rimini  Protokoll takes on the role of ghostwriter and speechwriter, co-author and director at the same time transforming documentary co-authorship into a “production from a distance” that can take place anywhere in the world, even when international travel is banned for pandemic reasons or avoided for the sake of the environment.
 
After its premiere in June in the city of Dresden, the show was staged first at the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen and then in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut at the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt. It will begin its European tour with the Goethe-Institut in the fall. The show will be presented at the Naves del Español en Matadero in Madrid, at the Théâtre National du Luxembourg and at the Romaeuropa Festival in Rome. After a stint at the German Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale the project will move on to the Kaaitheater in Brussels, the Teatro do Bairro Alto in Lisbon and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
 
In addition to the theatrical performances, the Goethe-Institut and its partners in Madrid, Lisbon, Luxembourg and Rome together with Rimini Protokoll are organizing a series of workshops, during which the technique of performative telepresence developed for this play is passed on to other actors from the theater and civil society.

At the end of the tour, Rimini Protokoll will make a concluding film with contributions from participants across Europe.