Lindenfels Westflügel is an international production center for modern puppet and object theatre. In addition to the two theater duos who work here regularly, Wilde & Vogel and Lehmann and Wenzel, Westflügel maintains a permanent working relationship with many artists and is closely linked to the national and international theater scene.
Westflügel’s historically protected art nouveau building has held theater performances since 2003, as well as ball nights, modern dance performances, concerts, exhibition and more, the focus being on object theater and puppetry. Westflügel takes part in (co)producing and supporting new productions as well as showing international performances.
The building is owned by the association Lindenfels Westflügel e. V., founded in 2005. The association is also responsible for carefully rehabilitating and preserving this historic landmark. Its location at Hähnelstraße 27 lies at the intersection of Leipzig-Plagwitz and Leipzig-Lindenau, one of the most lively centers of the growing city. In 2012 the (culture) bar froelich & herrlich opened on the ground floor, named after the owners of the stovepipe factory located here from 1939-1975. The bar is open on Fridays as well as during the events at Westflügel. In addition to a team of volunteers, it is the members of the Lindenfels Westflügel e.V. who enable the artistic work.
Since 2011 Lindenfels Westflügel has been institutionally supported by the city of Leipzig. In 2015 the Theaterpreis des Bundes was awarded to Westflügel Leipzig, an award for the quality of its artistic program and its function as a think tank for contemporary puppet theater in Germany.
Artistic work
Westflügel Leipzig is a production and performance space for international puppet theatre, an art form which revolves around animation of inanimate material. This encompases a variety of connections to other forms of art: music, dance, fine arts and audiovisual media as well as language, literature and drama. A common focus lies on the communication between stage and audience which is based on open forms of playing, a sense of being accomplices and the major role of a shared imagination. The house combines theater practice with public dialogue on artistic, theoretical and cultural policy issues.
Here there is no ensemble in the sense of permanent artists working exclusively for the house. Rather, many artists from different countries are connected to Westflügel. Wilde & Vogel and Lehmann und Wenzel are closely linked to the site. In addition, Westfluegel acts as a nexus for a far-reaching group of actors, puppeteers, visual artists, musicians and directors who collaborate on various projects. This includes The Ensemble Materialtheater, Miriam Goldschmidt, Agnes Limbos, Christoph Bochdansky, as well as young up-and-coming players such as Polina Borisova, Annelies van Hullebusch, Elise Vigneron, Jan Jedenak, Winnie Luzie Burz and many more.
Between 2006 and 2017, twenty two productions were produced at the Lindenfels Westflügel, many of which have since been awarded various prizes and performed internationally. Below is a selection of the most successful productions:
- 2006: „SPLEEN. Charles Baudelaire: Gedichte in Prosa"
Wilde & Vogel | Director: Hendrik Mannes - 2010: „Krabat"
Wilde & Vogel, Grupa Coincidentia [Białystok, PL], Florian Feisel | Director: Christiane Zanger - 2011: „Songs for Alice"
Wilde & Vogel | Director: Hendrik Mannes - 2012: „Der Freischütz"
Lehmann & Wenzel | Director: Michael Vogel - 2014: "Faza REM Phase"
Wilde & Vogel, Grupa Coincidentia [Białystok, PL] - 2015: "Ressacs"
Companie Gare Centrale [Brüssel, B] | Director: Françoise Bloch - 2015: „Sibirien"
Wilde & Vogel | Director: Christiane Zanger - 2017: "Frankenstein oder Der moderne Prometheus"
Wilde & Vogel und Johannes Frisch | Director: Hendrik Mannes, Co-Director: Antonia Christl
Lindenfels Westflügel’s program is curated to support international exchange, promotion of young researchers and a joint exploration and development of the genre. The organization of the house is based on non-hierarchical working structures and an interlacing of organizational and artistic work. Creativity and further artistic development is researched and supported on different levels through workshops, meetings (such as "biotopia"), sessions (one night theater performances developed over the course of a few days), installations and exhibitions.
The visual appearance of Westflügel, comprised of program books, postcards, posters and more, is designed by the graphic artist Robert Voss from Halle (Saale).
History
In 1876, the ballroom Gesellschaftshalle zu Lindenau (now Schaubühne Lindenfels) was built next to a flourishing restaurant (now Pekinghaus). A "concert garden" bordered the dance hall since 1892. Eight years later, when the former villages of Plagwitz and Lindenau had developed into booming districts of Leipzig, a "small hall" was planned to expand the Gesellschaftshalle zu Lindenau. The small hall is now Westflügel. This hall, together with the reconstruction of the existing company building, was the first major project of the Leipzig architect Emil Franz Hänsel (Kaufhaus Brühl, Zentralmessepalast, Specks Hof). The opening took place on September 23rd, 1900.
After several changes of ownership and a division of the complex in 1939, the Small Hall was sold to the neighboring factory Bernhard Frölich. He took various fixtures in the splendid art nouveau building and used the ballroom as a warehouse building, and starting in 1943 as a production facility for stovepipes. The factory, which had been classified as an important landmark during the war, survived the Second World War, but ceased its production in 1975 and has since been empty.
In 2003, an initiative was launched around Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel, in cooperation with Schaubühne Lindenfels, to rebuild the buildings that had been left empty for more than 20 years. By removing all retrofitted fixtures, the building was returned almost to its original state. Westflügel now has two rooms with an area of 190 m² each. The lower hall is 4.60 meters high, the upper, which used to serve as a dance hall, 8.20 meters. The historic entrance has been restored, the Jugendstil vestibule leading into the foyer and art nouveau staircase with a vaulted ceiling. A two-winged iron gate, which comes from a former brewery, closes the vestibule towards the street.
Starting in 2003, Westfluegel’s first Ballhaus-Nights (October 2003, May and October 2004) and Ballhaus-Prolouges (April, May, September 2005) took place. In 2005, the property was acquired by the newly founded non-profit association Lindenfels Westflügel eV.
In 2006 and 2007 Westfluegel held its first two summers of programming, including international puppet theatre, dance theater, exhibitions and concerts. Since then, the program has attracted many internationally successful artists and ensembles. The first ever installed heating system in today's Westflügel was put into operation with the Ofenweihe on 18 Oct 2014. The entire system, including two wood-burning stoves and a network of pipes, were made possible by donations from the company Firetube, as well as other sponsors and a successful crowdfunding campaign.
In 2013 Lindenfels Westflügel celebrated its 10th anniversary.