News

The Arten Festival is an invitation to animal lovers and art enthusiasts, young and old, from the city and the countryside. Come for a day or two – and open yourself up to unique encounters and experiences. In the company of more than just humans.

What does a world look like in which humans and other animals meet as equals? Sanctuaries such as Hof Narr are laboratories for such peaceful coexistence – communities at the heart of which lie care and coexistence.

Artists ask themselves similar questions. They explore new forms of coexistence, imagining a future that is just for all living beings. The human-animal relationship is reimagined in the process – though mostly within the black boxes of theatres or the white cubes of exhibition spaces, where animal bodies are not permitted.

So what happens when horses, chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats and sheep watch, listen or perform themselves?

The goats listen to a reading about a not-too-distant utopia, whilst we listen to springtails, mites and earthworms in the soil. Horses move with other dancing bodies. With the pigs, we reflect on how often large female bodies are spoken of disparagingly – and whose bodies are even allowed to take up space. And with the chickens, the whole family discovers through play why the chicken is considered ‘stupid’ and the fox ‘clever’.

Venue
Hof Narr
Güetlistrasse 45
8132 Egg

Programme and Tickets
artenfestival.ch