Erbstücke
There are many heirlooms to be found in the baroque residential city of Dresden. Historical buildings, monuments, art treasures, but also memories and anniversaries mark various forms of a not always liberating heritage between clotted history, ballast and pride. The Garden City of Hellerau and the Festspielhaus are themselves in many ways such architectural and cultural-historical heirlooms. With the festival “Erbstücke” (Heirlooms), which has been taking place since 2019, HELLERAU presents international dance pieces and performance projects that deal with traditions, heritage and history and transform them into the present day. The 2023 festival edition ventures between our immediate regional environment in Saxony and various regions in Asia. Wen Hui, the pioneer of independent Chinese dance theater, traces her own history and that of her female family members in her solo piece “I am 60” using images and film footage. Eko Supriyanto, one of the most incisive choreographers of his generation in Southeast Asia, explores the dance heritage on the divided island of Timor. The Dresden artists Adele*Mike Frydetzki and Michael McCrae, on the other hand, deal with biographical questions, on the one hand with ambivalent Lusatian traditions and on the other hand with their own grandfathers and their fragile tradition of their role in the Second World War. In the case of the Leipzig artists in the piece “Ivory”, the preoccupation with family history gives rise to a dense exploration of the colonial past and the way we deal with it today. Pichet Klunchun, on the other hand, a renowned Thai dancer and choreographer, deals both impressively and critically with his own, long-established art form of temple dance.
“Erbstücke” is funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This measure is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon state parliament.