The central venue of the 22nd International Schiller Days is NTM-Island, the festival centre located in the former Benjamin Franklin Village (BFV). Until 2011, BFV was one of the largest US Army bases in Germany. Around 10,000 American soldiers lived and worked there, and an extensive urban infrastructure had developed on the site since the post-war period.

The artist collective Situation Room designed a space that references BFV’s former role as a »city within a city« while also addressing the site's ongoing transformation from military base to civilian neighbourhood. A scaffolding structure clad in black mesh evokes the architecture of a military checkpoint or barracks compound, its austere grid softened by a vividly coloured base and canopies of pastel fabric strung overhead. Banners bearing fragments of texts from the Military Newspaper »The Messenger« hang from the structure, inviting visitors to read the site's militarised past against its present life as a place for gathering, conversation, and exchange.

Installationsansichten, Nationaltheater Mannheim