Dear visitors,

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Art begins where people encounter one another. Where curiosity is stronger than certainty, where different perspectives meet, and where something new emerges from working together. This very idea forms the heart of the Frei Art Festival 2026.

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Under this year's guiding theme "Meet. Create. Perform.", Freiburg becomes, for one week, a vibrant place of international exchange. Artists from different countries and cultures come together to research, create, and test new ways of collaborating. Out of these encounters arise premieres, performances, and projects that reach far beyond the festival itself.

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A special focus this year lies on our Future Labs. They understand art not as a finished product, but as an open, participatory process. Different art forms, perspectives, and experiences come together, inviting people to think along, help shape, and jointly develop new forms of expression.

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With the international co-production "City of the Future," artists from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the USA meet one another. Together, they develop new choreographic signatures and test collaborative forms of production based on mutual learning, cultural exchange, and shared creativity. Here, the focus is not only on the premiere itself, but on the entire path leading there — the shared research, shaping, and growth. At the same time, we continue our cross-border collaboration with our French partners, and are delighted to welcome them once again as a fixed part of the Frei Art Festival.

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Equally important is the dialogue with the regional dance scene. On the Open Stage, local artists and companies present the works created during their summer residencies. Their productions meet our international guests as equals, becoming part of a lively artistic exchange that shapes the festival in a special way.

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Yet the Frei Art Festival does not live from its stage productions alone. It lives from the people who fill it with life. In workshops, masterclasses, artist talks, at the Outlier's Dance Contest, the Kids Battle, in performances in public space, in the colorful family program, and in many other formats, dance becomes a shared language — across generations, experiences, and cultural boundaries.

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I hope that this festival inspires, surprises, and connects. That new encounters arise, unfamiliar perspectives become visible, and new ideas grow out of shared moments.

Meet. Create. Perform. — three words that describe our festival and are, at the same time, an invitation: meet people, discover new perspectives, and become part of a festival that does not merely present art, but lets it emerge together.

I look forward to welcoming you to the Frei Art Festival 2026.

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Chantal Kohlmeyer
Artistic Director