»Sasha Marianna Salzmann tears down the boundaries between the self and the world«
FAZ
What is the role of art in times of war? Does it have one? Is there even an appropriate way to deal with the rumbling of wars that are getting closer and closer? At the opening of the asphalt Festival 2026, Sasha Salzmann reflects on how the horrors of our time are reflected in art, how they are then recorded and what art can do to counter the darkness that is descending on our present. Sasha Marianna Salzmann is a prose and theatre writer, essayist, dramaturge and curator. She was co-editor of the culture and society magazine »freitext« and in-house author at the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin, where Sasha Salzmann also directed the theatre stage »Studio Я«. Together with Max Czollek, she was responsible for the Disintegration Congress and the Radical Jewish Culture Days, and also curated the festivals »Utopia Eastern Europe« and »What Would James Baldwin Do?«. Salzmann’s novels and theatre plays have been translated into over 20 languages and have received numerous awards, including the Prize of the Houses of Literature, the Hermann Hesse Prize, the Berlin Art Prize and the Kleist Prize.
Scheduled Program for the Festival Opening:
6:00 p.m. Welcome remarks by the festival directors, Christof Seeger-Zurmühlen and Bojan Vuletić
6:10 p.m. Welcome remarks by Miriam Koch, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Integration of the City of Düsseldorf
6:15 p.m. Welcome address by State Secretary Gonca Türkeli-Dehnert, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
6:20 p.m. Festival address by author and curator Sasha Marianna Salzmann
6:45 p.m. Official opening of the 14th asphalt Festival by the festival directors
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What the press say about Sasha Marianna Salzmann:
»Here is someone who has something to say.«
DIE WELT
»Salzmann’s writing combines identity, migration and contemporary politics with formal experimentation and great narrative intensity.«
Tagesspiegel
»Perhaps the German-language playwright of the moment.«
(Die Deutsche Bühne)
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Funded by the Kunststiftung NRW as part of »shy and wild is love«
