OWELA – die Zukunft unserer Arbeit

OWELA – the Future of Work
A Festival in Recklinghausen and Windhoek, Namibia

Artistic Direction: Kaleni Kollectiv

Produced by Ruhrfestspiele

>>> The events of OWELA can be found as "OWELA Showcase" here.

Do we want to work? Or do we have to work? Work is both dependence and independence, creativity and stress, innovation and tedium. What does work mean to us, today and in the future? Today, work is our greatest asset. If you are not working, your worth seems diminished. On the other hand, a lot of work is underappreciated or not enough recognised: care work, domestic work, dirty work, precarious work. Society is constructed on the backs of many hidden workers. Will this pattern continue? Who will work in the future, and who will earn?

Ecological and social exploitation as well as the knowledge of the finite nature of employment structures make the search for alternative working and living models an urgent, global issue. Kaleni Kollectiv opens the discourse on the future of work and creates a space for independent perspectives between Germany and Namibia. Perspectives that are not shaped by previous western – materialistic- capitalistic – economics. With the knowledge of the complex and violent colonial historical background, eight artists go in search of a collective utopia.

Kaleni Kollectiv consists of eight autonomous artists that work in the fields of performance, dance and installation. For both Recklinghausen and Windhoek, each artist will confront the future of work and create artistic pieces that will follow the traces of violence and exploitation connected to the field of work. And they will also draft images and ideas for the future.