Florian Malzacher

What do you learn primarly in theater?

As audience: to sit still. As actors: to act.
 
What do you unlearn primarly in theater?

As audience: To act.. As actor: To sit still.
 
Do you believe in the effectiveness of protest?

Protest is a Long-term investment.
 
Is a revolution necessary?

Reform is too slow, revolution too unpredictable. We are doomed.
 
Welcher Illusion gibst du dich gerne hin? What illusion you like to indulge in?

We will survive. 

Biography

Florian Malzacher is an independent performing arts curator, dramaturge and writer. He was artistic director of Impulse Theater Festival in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mulheim/Ruhr (2013-2017), co-curator of the multidisciplinary arts festival steirischer herbst in Graz/Austria (2006-2012) and curatorial advisor of the Ruhrtriennale (2018-20). Currently he is a guest professor at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies at the University of Gießen.
Among his current projects is discoursive program “The Art of Assembly” (since 2021) and “Training for the Future” (together with Jonas Staal, since 2018). For summer semester 2021 is guest professor at the Institute of Applied Theater Studies, University Giessen. He is co-editor of the ongoing book-series “Postdramatisches Theater in Portraits” at Alexander Verlag. 
After graduating at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen he worked till 2005 mainly as a freelance theatre journalist for daily newspapers and has continued since then to contribute regularly to international magazines like Theater Heute (DE), Tanz (DE), Frakcija (HR), Didaskalia (PL) and Camera Austria (AT) etc. 

Florian Malzacher has worked as a freelance dramaturge at theatres like Burgtheater Vienna or Mousonturm Frankfurt with artists like Rimini Protokoll (DE), Lola Arias (ARG), Mariano Pensotti (ARG), Tania Bruguera (CUB) and regularly with Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA). He was a founding member of the independent curators’ collective Unfriendly Takeover (2001 - 2008) in Frankfurt/Main. 
Florian Malzacher (co-)curated next to his festivals e.g. the 4th and 5th International Summer Academy (Mousonturm Frankfurt 2002 and 2004), the “Dictionary of War” (2006/07), the series “Performing Lectures” (Frankfurt, 2004-06), the 170 hours non-stop marathon camp “Truth is concrete” on artistic strategies in politics (Graz, 2012), the congress “Artist Organisations International” (together with Jonas Staal and Joanna Warsza, HAU Berlin, 2015), and “Sense of Possibility” on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the revolution (St. Petersburg, 2017), “Training for the Future” (together with Jonas Staal, since 2018), and “After Supervising the Machinery” on the occasion of the 200th birthday of Friedrich Engels (Engelskirchen, 2020), as well as performative conferences like “Appropriations” (Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, 2014) and “Acting and Preenacting” (HZT Berlin, 2018). 
He taught and/or lectured among others at universities and academies in Amsterdam, Berlin, Chicago, Frankfurt, Vienna, Oslo, Stockholm, Taipei and Zurich and was a member of the advisory board of DasArts - Master of Theatre, Amsterdam (2009-2014). 2021 he is guest professor at the Institute of Applied Theater Studies, University Giessen.
He was series editor of “Performing Urgency” published by Alexander Verlag Berlin & Live Art Development Agency, London (2014-2017) and is a co-editor of the book series “Postdramatisches Theater in Portraits” (Alexander Verlag, since 2019). He was a on the advisory board for theatre of the Goethe-Institut (2015 – 2020) and is a member of the Theaterkommission Zurich (since 2013). 
He is (co-)editor of books like “Not even A Game Anymore. The Theatre of Forced Entertainment” (Alexander Verlag, Berlin, 2004), “Experts of the Everyday. The Theatre of Rimini Protokoll” (Alexander Verlag, 2008) or “Curating Performing Arts” (Frakcija/Zagreb 2010). His latest publications include “Truth is concrete. A Handbook for Artistic Strategies in Real Politics“ (Sternberg Press Berlin, 2014), “Not Just a Mirror. Looking for the Political Theatre of Today“ (Alexander Verlag Berlin/Live Arts Development Agency London, 2015), “The Silent University. Towards a Transversal Pedagogy” (Sternberg Press, 2016), “Empty Stages, Crowded Flats. Performativity as Curatorial Strategy” (Alexander Verlag Berlin/Live Arts Development Agency London, 2017) and “The Life and Work of Nature Theater of Oklahoma” (Alexander Verlag Berlin, 2019). His latest book include “ancompany&Co.: The & of History” (Hg., Alexander Verlag Berlin, 2021) and  “Gesellschaftsspiele. Politisches Theater heute” (Alexander Verlag Berlin, 2020).
Florian Malzacher lives in Berlin.

Photo: (C) Robin Junicke