NTM-ARENA

Festival centre, 20. Internationale Schillertage Mannheim, 2019
Situation Room

Theatre and sport share common origins. In ancient Greece, amphitheatres and sports stadiums were places where the city's inhabitants gathered, paid tribute to the gods, and celebrated together. For the 20th International Schiller Days at the National Theatre Mannheim, held under the theme »Fever«, Situation Room designed a walk-in installation that drew on the architecture of a multifunctional sports arena and interacted with the spatial layout of the theatre's forecourt. Beyond the festival's theme, the installation also refers to the history of the theatre's location, which was home to a sports venue until the 1950s. Through fragmentary excerpts from texts by Nino Haratischwili, it explores the contemporary social and political relevance of Friedrich Schiller's Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man. As the architectural heart of the Schiller Days, the NTM-Arena served as a point of connection between the theatre and the city's public sphere.