Freigeist Festival: Feel the creative pulse of Maastricht

The Freigeist Festival, which kicks off Maastricht’s annual Kunsttour (Art Tour), is a one day event, on May 21st 2010, featuring various art performances and exhibitions at the AINSI building on Lange Kanaaldijk.

Freigeist is a German term without direct translation used to describe a person who thinks autonomously and creatively and whose opinions are formed on the basis of reason, free from conventions or expectations.

Vincent Wille-Baumkauf, 24, is a German student at University College Maastricht and one the four organisers of the festival. In an interview with Crossroads writer Sina Spohr, he explains the origin of the event and shares his thoughts about Maastricht’s cultural offer.

Vincent Wille-Baumkauf, Freigeist co-organiser

What is the festival all about?
Vincent: It’s about blurring boundaries between art forms. The audience can also become producer and influence the content of the festival, for example by participating in our DJ competition or by engaging in different art projects.

A core idea behind the festival is to create a platform for young, uprising artists; to give them a chance to pitch their ideas, show their talent and express themselves.

One of the theatre performances will encourage members of the audience to climb on stage. We’re also planning to hold a dance performance purposefully amongst the public instead of on stage in order to break down the traditional division between stage and public.

Who chose the name: Freigeist?
Vincent: One of my co-organisers is setting up a small company producing and selling sunglasses, called Freigeist-sunglasses. It’s a project for his Entrepreneurship master. None of us really picked the name, it just came naturally.

What’s on the programme?
Vincent: There will be a wide range of shows taking place partially parallel to each other in different parts of the AINSI building, like paintings and sculptures, a photo exhibition with projections as well as dance and theatre performances. There will also be music, funk music but also two piano players (mellow and jazz). And in the evening a big party with DJ-duo Robosonic from Berlin!

Where do the artists come from?
Vincent: Some are local artists, such as students from the Theatre Academy (Toneelacademie), and also people from the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

It’s part of our concept not to recruit only big artists. We are aiming at a mixture between established and upcoming artists, who often haven’t had a chance yet to perform in front of larger audiences. For instance the performers of the Theatre Academy were recommended by one of their professors. They had to hand in a big part of their work in May, and their professor picked out a few pieces that fitted our concept.

Who is organizing the festival?
Vincent: We are four students: Carl Bruns and Ana Chiciu study Media Culture, Wilken Bruns Entrepreneurship, and I take Business at University College Maastricht. We all wanted to do something practical for our theses. The media-culture students are focusing on the content of the festival while I am concentrating on economical aspects, like planning and budgeting.

Three of us were already involved in event management as a hobby and had organized parties like the Berlin-Beatz and Maastricht-Massive.

There is a lot of talent in this city but not too many opportunities to demonstrate it and grow as an artist. DJ’s can build experience at parties, but artists in fine arts, dance or acting don’t get too many chances to perform. The idea to bring this type of performers together in a festival started last fall when we actually started meeting people and getting the idea in motion.

How are you associated with the Kunsttour (an annual 3 day long celebration of the arts in Maastricht)?

Vincent: That links back to the concept of Blurring Boundaries. There’s quite a separation amongst University students, who are split up into Dutch, German, and international students on the one hand, and the local Maastricht community on the other. We tried to create an event which targets and connects to everyone, so also the locals. Moreover, I personally enjoyed last year’s Kunsttour very much. Unfortunately the event is not that popular among University students yet.

If we can promote the Kunsttour to students they have a better chance to get in touch with local artists and art-events. For us as students it’s a chance to show Maastrichters that students aren’t just loud and disturbing people. That there are a lot of creative minds and talent around. A festival is a good opportunity to intermingle students and locals.

Do the artists work pro-bono?
Vincent: That depends. As we wanted to intermingle new with established artists we had to offer some financial compensation to the bigger ones. We’re privately funded. That’s why we have to charge an admission fee. Now we have to wait and see how the festival turns out. If we just about cover our costs, we can’t afford to pay every artist, if we make profit we will. But we also provide a platform and an opportunity to perform, so for most of the new artists that’s already something.

Is there a performance you’re especially looking forward to?
Vincent: Yes. The DJ-duo Robosonic. I’ve seen them a couple of times live. I’m excited to see how they work with the Maastricht crowd.

How do you experience the cultural scene in Maastricht?
Vincent: I think there’s a disconnection amongst the students into Dutch, German, and Erasmus students.

Regarding parties I see a trend from house parties towards more organized events. Culturally seen…from time to time there are these great events, like the Kunsttour, but besides that there aren’t a lot of places featuring something out of the ordinary. A problem is also that some of the advertisement for cultural events just doesn’t reach the students. That just adds to the separation between students and locals.

And I miss the embracing of new-culture and trends. There’s a lot of live Jazz, but it’s all pretty much the same, rather mainstream. The same goes for parties, they all go in the same direction, and are almost interchangeable. The diversity of content is missing.

If there were some projects where the University and the city council would collaborate to unite students and locals, on whatever basis, it could be a good trigger to enrich the culture.

By Sina Spohr

The Freigeist Festival takes place on May 21st 2010 at the AINSI building, Lange Kanaldijk 112-113, in Maastricht. Starting time is noon and closing time of the party at 2am the following morning.

Admission fee: You can either get an exhibition-only pass (3.50 Euros) or an all-access pass (12 Euros) at Jules & You or via the website. A limited amount of tickets will be sold at the door.