Dear All,

time is rushing towards our conference and thus you will receive more emails from us in the coming days about the conference and further details.

The conference itself – as we have announced earlier already – will be held at UoC’s main campus around the Albertus-Magnus-Platz. At the same time, in the outskirts of the city, in a quarter evocatively called Wahn [madness], is the location of the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung. This collection is one of Europe’s largest archives of all sorts of objects related to the history of theatre and performance. As my colleague Gerald Köhler will point below, the collection will show an exhibition, especially curated for the IFTR 2025, allowing a glimpse on its holdings. 

FOW: ECCOMI! Here I am! Thus called out the Arlecchino of the Italian Commedia dell'arte before he caused chaos, stirred everything up, and deceived the masters. He, who has appeared throughout human history under various names or characterizations, who, in these forms, has fluctuated in malice, who had many close relatives—demons, devils, fools, or other tricksters—is a central figure in the accompanying exhibition of IFTR2025 Hall of Fools / Hall of Fame. Thematically closely tied to the IFTR conference, treasures, objects, and installations will be showcased for nearly a week in the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung (TWS – Theatre Collection Cologne) of the University of Cologne at Schloss Wahn. These works will bring to life and illustrate the three sub-themes of the conference motto Performing Carnival – Ekstasis, Subversion, and Metamorphosis.
Off to the castle! You can visit the exhibition Hall of Fools / Hall of Fame at the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung (TWS), located near Cologne and easily accessible by S-Bahn. The exhibition is highly recommended as an event for attendees.
Housed in an 18th-century historic castle, one of the largest and most significant archives of theatrical history in the world resides here. This collection exists since 1919, though it is not a museum. In this regard, a temporary exhibition in the collection’s rooms is a very special event.
The guiding metaphor of the exhibition is the Ship of Fools, on which adventurous journeys can be explored. It is now navigated by a compass created through a seminar at the Institute for Media Culture and Theatre of the University of Cologne. This ensures that visitors do not end up in the mythical land of Narragonia, but surely on an island of understanding.
One of the most famous pieces in the Theatre Collection is shown in the Hall of Fame. While one might associate Wassily Kandinsky’s scenography from the Bauhaus era, The Great Gate of Kiev from his series Pictures at an Exhibition, with the mere presentation of paintings, the exhibition showcases much more: objects, installations, arranged clusters of images, masks, sculptures, puppets, collection bundles, and more.
The Ship of Fools exhibition sets sail on June 9th 2025. (Gerald Köhler)

Alaaf – meaning as much as au fou de partout, to fools everywhere, we greet you!

Peter W. Marx
on behalf of the Cologne Team