Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and Bojan Vuletić present their twelfth summer of the arts

Düsseldorf’s twelfth Asphalt Festival offers a summer of the arts at special locations across the city – from the open-air Seebühne stage floating on Schwanenspiegel lake to the D’haus Central theatre. This multidisciplinary festival includes theatre, contemporary dance, concerts and readings by local and international artists, and addresses burning social and political questions. We met Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and Bojan Vuletić, the two festival directors, at 34OST, one of the Asphalt venues and also the central hub of this year’s festival, located in the former Conrad electronics store on Oststrasse.

What are the ideas and intentions behind the Asphalt Festival?
Christof: We open just as most institutions are shutting down – in the summer holidays. When we started Asphalt from scratch, back in 2012, our aim was to make something happen right in that cultural vacuum. To get out of the theatre and into the city. We both have an arts background. Bojan is a composer and musician, I’m a theatre director and actor. Everything we do is primarily based on what the content should be, we think like artists, not businessmen. We ask ourselves what’s going on in society at the moment and how to tackle that from an artistic perspective in a range of different aesthetics. How can we explore new spaces to think and play on the stages of the city, with the participation of local people? How do we contribute as artists? Our intention is to open new horizons using a multiplicity of artistic formats while linking the urban landscape with the narrative of the performances.

The Asphalt Festival brings art to locations in Düsseldorf that are often unusual. Which role do the city itself and its inhabitants play in this?
Bojan: Asphalt is a multidisciplinary festival held at various places around Düsseldorf. The city is our stage. In addition to premieres of pieces by local artists we feature major national and international guest productions that you would otherwise never see in Düsseldorf. The juxtaposition of different artistic levels, disciplines and languages draws very diverse audiences. We get a different crowd every night. People aren’t coming because they know the productions or the artists, but because they trust us. Often, the festival creates a sort of intoxication, a state in which the audience becomes open to something completely new. Our central idea is to include really everybody. The greater the inclusivity and accessibility, and the more points of connection to society there are, the more profound the impact of art becomes. We open up new spaces in the city and integrate a wide range of people into our productions. Locals from all sorts of groups and backgrounds, different artists from the city, anyone from a historian to a homeless person or a church congregation.

What current social issues is the Asphalt Festival covering this summer?
Christof: Gender images are currently one of the festival’s key themes. We’re always asking ourselves: “Who gets to speak in our society and who doesn’t? Who is being listened to and who isn’t? Whose perspective can Asphalt make more visible? This year, for example, we are showing Aurora Negra, a production by three black female performers who talk about fighting to establish themselves as artists in Europe. For the last two years we had a focus on artists from Ukraine, and we will continue that. We’re interested in cracks and pain points within society. Many of our productions are responses to current political events and social grievances in a wide variety of countries. Consequently there’s often a lot at stake.

What are your criteria for selecting performances?
Christof: Apart from wanting them to have an urban feel and to be participatory, the sensuousness of the works is also important to us. How can you handle painful topics in an entertaining way on stage? How can you reverse something, turn it on its head and play with transformation in order to make the world more comprehensible? How can art create spaces for encounters and interactions and facilitate a dialogue between people? We are interested in movement at different levels, intellectual, emotional and physical.

What do you consider to be the social relevance of art and culture?
Christof: Art must remain free. It comes from a different place than knowledge. It’s an attempt to look at society from other angles, to lift a curtain or to draw a veil over something. As festival organisers, we believe that art can provide space for encounters and interaction. That people who might not have met otherwise can meet at productions and enter into a dialogue through their shared experience of the artistic moment. Culture cements society, it’s a remedy against loneliness.

What highlights can we look forward to on the Asphalt Festival programme?
Christof: My personal highlight is ‘Skatepark’ by the outstanding Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen, who sees skateboarding as dance. It’s an exhilarating stage production that barely requires any words. It will be on the large stage at the Central, near the main train station, from 19 to 21 July 2024, featuring dancers and members of the Düsseldorf skater scene. The work explores the character of skateboarding as a community within an urban space, and the question of what lies at the heart of the group. For me, it’s a love story. The audience falls in love with the feeling of energy bursting out and would ideally become part of it at that moment.

Bojan: I’m really looking forward to the final concert by Brazilian singer-songwriter Bia Ferreira on 21 July at 34OST. She’s an artist with a tremendous voice, who made it to the world stage by touring across Brazil with her guitar. Her music is very edgy and distinctive, in a way that we hardly ever see in this country. She sings against all forms of discrimination and makes great political art. A fantastic live experience and truly a gift.

What places in Düsseldorf inspire you?
Bojan: Here in Düsseldorf we are quite spoilt for museums of contemporary art. From K21 to the Langen Foundation, they’re all great. But for me personally, the most magical space is the KIT art gallery. And I’ve been lucky enough to stage two exhibitions there.

Christof: We are both cyclists. That means a different way of moving through the city, and seeing it with different eyes. I enjoy taking unfamiliar paths and discovering new things. Great spots, like Schwanenspiegel lake. You get stuck, look up, look down. That’s something that really interests me, that takes up a lot of space and never ends, because Düsseldorf continues to evolve. Of course we also visit the institutions, from the Zakk arts centre to the Schauspielhaus and Düsseldorf’s museums. And we really appreciate that Düsseldorf has so many arthouse cinemas.

Information

The twelfth Asphalt Festival took place in July 2024. It featured local, national and international artists at three venues, 34OST, D’haus Central and on the floating stage at Schwanenspiegel lake, offering theatre, parties, readings, dance and concerts.
More information at asphalt-festival.de.

Text: Karolina Landowski
Photos: Kristina Fendesack
Main photo: Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen (left) and Bojan Vuletić.
Programme photos: Asphalt Festival (see picture credits)