In addition to work facilities, Spacelab offers a regular programme of workshops and lectures for members of IG Tanz Essen and interested artists from the region - the Spacelab encounters (2021), The flow work (2022), space|lab is running (2022/23) and space|lab connects (2024). We also organise festivals and other events and help coordinate the activities of IG Tanz Essen.

SPACE | LAB CONNECTS 2025 – RECYCLING

What does it mean to rediscover what has been left behind or to recover something from the past and reintroduce it into the cycle? Four artistic positions will engage with this question. Under the theme of “recycling,” dancer Kati Masami Menze, scenographer Edanur Seçim, musician Maria Trautmann, and visual artist Dženny Samardžić will offer new perspectives on a society of ownership and disposability through their artistic lenses.

• PRESENTATION:
  • June 20, 2025: 16:00 - 19:00 at space | lab
  • June 21, 2025: 14:00 - 18:00 at space | lab
• please register via: info@polymerdmt.com

Here are some information about the projects the artists developed during the last weeks. These projects will be shared in the presentation:

• Maria Trautmann: STRESS

An audio walk through the northern inner city of Essen. It’s loud here. Many people talk about “stress.” But what do they mean – and what does it sound like? STRESS is an audio walk through the north of Essen – made up of noise, snippets of conversation and music. You’ll hear voices from the neighbourhood, personal stories, ambient sounds and musical improvisations by Maria Trautmann. A walk at your own pace. No destination. Just open ears.

• Edanur Seçim: Fragments of Intimacy

Leftover fabrics from local tailors, forgotten shirts from discarded drawers, pieces of old curtains — each carries a story about us and about the neighbourhood, waiting to be shared. You’re invited to a weaving session in motion: a gentle, participatory format where threads and stories meet. As you pass between looms and conversations, you’ll weave not only textiles, but glimpses into each other’s worlds. Join us for a slow, rhythmic encounter with hands, leftover textile, and the gesture of getting to know.

• Kati Masami Menze: Would you like to share a recipe with me?

A culinary encounter practice emerged in Essen's city centre: Cake and tea as an invitation to conversations about taste, belonging, everyday life, and memories. Recipes were exchanged – dishes that remain when places change. Favourite dishes from living rooms and childhoods, from neighbourhood kitchens.

On June 20th and 21st, I invite you to cook together. We'll cook a neighbourhood dish, share stories, ask questions, and listen. Do you prefer cooking alone or together? What ingredient is a must-have in your kitchen? And which recipe would you like to ask someone for again? A growing, collective archive of eating, sharing, and remembering.

• Dženny Samardžić: GEMISCHTE ROUTE

What happens when drawn places lead to real encounters? In the north of Essen, exchanges took place: drawn Polaroid for object, moment for story.

Eleven objects, eleven stations – traces of a game between documentation, collection, and reinterpretation. A zine serves as a compass: showing where the things came from and what they might reveal – inviting you to head out, discover, draw, and capture your own moments.

THE ARTISTS:

• Maria Trautmann, born in 1990, is a freelance musician, performer and director.
  She studied jazz trombone (BA Performing Artist) at the Folkwang University of the Arts with Professor Ansgar Striepens and Artistic Research (MA Theatre) at the Toneelacademie Maastricht. A central focus of her artistic research is free improvisation. She enjoys working collaboratively and is a member of the Junge Bühne Bochum, the ensemble hilde, the large ensemble The Dorf and the band Wir hatten was mit Björn. She has also adapted several novels for the stage in her own versions, including at the Rottstr5 Theater.
• Kati Masami Menze graduated from the Folkwang University of the Arts (BA Dance) in 2021 and has been part of the MA programme ‘Scenic Research’ at the Ruhr University Bochum since 2023. She lived in Tokyo between the ages of eight and eighteen, and growing up in Japan had a profound influence on her. She has lived in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, since 2016. In her artistic work, she creates spaces in which she questions existing social and political structures and opens them up for collective action and healing. She is involved in the local independent dance scene in Essen and is a member of IGTanz Essen. Her work has been shown at Maschinenhaus Essen, tanzhaus NRW, Kunstmuseum Bochum, FFT Düsseldorf, NAILS projectroom and PACT Zollverein, among others.
• Edanur Seçim is a Turkish stage designer, artist and art educator. She designs sensory and participatory experiences, using methods such as walking, storytelling, movement and eating to transform everyday urban spaces into places of creative expression and connection. She holds a master's degree in scenographic design and communication from the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Seçim's work combines performance art, urbanism and scenography and deals with the social dynamics of public spaces and the embodied experience of everyday life of different social groups.
• Dženny Samardžić (she/her) lives and works in North Rhine-Westphalia. She is an interdisciplinary artist and works as a freelance theatre educator (BuT), performer, theatre maker, social worker and illustrator (@minzmische). She studied social work with a focus on theatre as a social art and has been deepening her work in the master's programme ‘Performative Research’ at the Ruhr University Bochum since 2022. In her artistic practice, she explores the intersections of space, identity and community. Her focus is on connecting theatre as a social practice with interdisciplinary, experimental and participatory formats. In 2021, she co-curated and organised the Zeitzeug_Festival in Bochum.

"space | lab connects" is a project within the framework of the program Kreativ.Quartiere Ruhr, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and implemented by ecce – european centre for creative economy GmbH. The project is also supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Essen.

TANZWOCHE ESSEN: Dance Videos, Meet the Artist, Performance

During the Tanzwoche, Essen-based dance artists from IG Tanz present current video works and live performances and invite you to get to know them in the ‘space | lab’.

Opening hours: Monday 7 October, Thursday 10 October and Friday 11 October 2024; 12:00 - 15:00 each day / free admission

Performance:

• Anca Huma - ‘Balcony dance’ (on 10 October)

Film programme:

• Anca Huma - "Balcony dance #1"
• Cheng-Yang Peng: "Thoughts at the Bus Stop"
• Ching-Mei Huang & Karl-F. Degenhardt: "It’s more than Bilingual"
• Fang Yun Lo: "Home away from home"
• Josephine Kalies: "in between us"
• Julia Franken, Cecilia Gäser, Fang Yun Lo: "space | lab und Polymer DMT - eine Begegnung"
• Mariane Verbecq, Arnaud Dubois: "Das Ross"
• Nene Okada, Marco Girardin: "Cho-Cho San 蝶々さん (Trailer)"
• Valentina Restrepo: "BioDanza HILOS"
• Ying Xiao: "isolierte Insel"

Detailed program of the danceweek: www.essen.de/tanzwoche

SPACE | LAB CONNECTS 2024: Future Land - How do we want to live together?

The project "space | lab connects" 2024 connects places in the Essen Nord neighborhood and artists from the Ruhr area through artistic collaborations on the topic of "Future Land - How do we want to live together?".

PROGRAM FOR JUNE 22, 2024:

• space | lab, Kreuzeskirchstraße 25, Meeting Point/ Info Point. Open from 11:30 AM on. Documentary by Andrés Hilarión Madariaga.
• Amaya Sweet Home Restaurant [Kastanienallee 92, 45127 Essen] 12-3 PM - “Icebreaker” by Rebecca De Toro and Gregor Leiprecht.
• Comic Zentrum [Kreuzeskirchstraße 31, 45127 Essen] 12-3 PM - “Night of the Fawns or the Liberation of the Clowns” by Baptiste Bersoux & Narumi Saso.
• Post Office 577 [Erste Weberstraße 12, 45127 Essen] 12-3 PM. Performance at 2 PM - “Bridges of Belonging” by Ching-Mei Huang.
• Divine Bar [Viehofer Straße 39, 45127 Essen] Installation open from 12 PM. Performances at 1 PM and 3 PM - “Sensuality in Heavenly Blue” by Camila Scholtbach Sánchez and Emelyn Yábar Tito.
• lernHAUS, Venue: Weberplatz [45127 Essen]; Slots at 12 PM and 1 PM - “My Future Land Preview" by Polymer DMT/ Fang Yun Lo, Agnes Gunawan, Marie Schulze & Cristina Lelli.

“It’s more than Bilingual”

In space | lab on Saturday 16 December 2023 at 18:30 for a screening with snacks and drinks!

In their dance film "It's more than Bilingual" Nene Okada and Ching-Mei Huang explore their differing artistic processes and singular perspectives influenced by their distinct cultural upbringings.

Individually choreographed but recorded in the same space and on the same piece of music, intertwining and overlapping their movements, the artists bridge the gap between their cultures while the set design quite literally offers a frame in which to reflect on their individual histories and find a common narrative.

A DIGITAL HABITAT FOR (MEMORIES OF) MOVEMENTS PAST - loading
a digital exhibition of movement transformations in the making

Presentation of a work in progress with artist talk at space | lab in Essen on 15 December 2023

From 1 January to 31 December 2020, choreographer and movement researcher Foteini Papadopoulou developed two movements per day. She noted one of them in the movement notation system Kinetographie Laban. She tried to remember the second. At the end of the experiment, photographer Christian Clarke captured and interpreted the memory movements in pictures. The result is the first round of ‘Movement Journals l Moving Journals’ (MJ/MJ) - a moving diary.

"space|lab is running 23 - one theme, two perspectives".

In this series of talks in space|lab and in our immediate neighbourhood, we want to talk to artists and specialists from teaching, research and science about their expertise and socially relevant topics. Which parallels exist in art and science, how and what can we learn from each other?

FRI, 10 FEBRUARY 2023, 19:00 [Start in Kunstraum jETZT, Weberstraße 8, Essen]
Archives - A task for eternity? - with Foteini Papadopoulou, freelance choreographer & Dr. Claudia Kauertz, head of Haus der Essener Geschichte/ Stadtarchiv

WED, 05 APRIL 2023, 19:00
AI - About Cyborgs, Chatbots and Chthuluzän - with Till Bödeker, visual artist & Anne Küper, Researcher in the DFG post-graduate programme “The Documentary. Excess and Withdrawal”, Ruhr-University Bochum

WED, 03 MAY, 2023, 19:00
Sounds of Our City - Noise or Signal? With Anna-Luella Zahner, dramaturge and translator & Frank Niehusmann, composer

Fri, 02 JUNE, 2023, 19:00
Assembly - How do we want to live together?

• We invite you to a dinner where different perspectives on a future life in the city will have space. How do we want to live? How do we imagine the city and urban society in the future?
• Admission free, pre-registration requested: spacelab@polymerdmt.com

space | lab is running 2022

The summer festival of IG Tanz Essen

DAY 1: JULY 29, 2022 - to start.

• 11:00 - 16:00, space | lab [not public] – Internal Sharing of the IG Tanz artists and the space | lab residents with representatives of the art and culture scene NRW. With: Alberto Curci, Marlene Helling, Marie-Lena Kaiser, Josephine Kalies, Gustavo Leite, Fang Yun Lo, Kati Masami Menze, Foteini Papadopoulou, Robert Schulz, Giovanni Zazzera Z Art Dance Company mit Enora Gemin
• 18:00, Gitterraum – Opening space | lab is running, drinks and food
• 19:00 - 21:00, Gitterraum – DJ Set

DAY 2: JULY 30, 2022 - we are running.

A tour through Essen's City Nord, transformed through dance, performance, music, film and exhibitions by dance and performance artists from IG Tanz.

• 14:00 START (in the order of the tour)
  • space | lab: “Octupus.” by Pin-Chen Hsu, “Salz ||: im Blut” by Camila Scholtbach, “STAND BY” by Lara Pilloni/ music by Alvaro Severino (video works)
  • Gitterraum: “now we're talking” by Josephine Kalies in collaboration with Kati Masami Menze, Paloma García de Juan, Elisa Spina and Tristan Berger (performative tryout / photo work)
  • Weberplatz: “Frauen.Frieden.Flügel” by Anca Huma (dance performance)
  • Konsumforum 2nd floor: “Untouch” by Alexandra Krutikova and Jan Chris Pollert (dance performance)
  • Gitterraum: experimental concert by Marco Girardin
  • Kopstadtplatz: “Zwei alte Damen” by Claudia Mauerer and Mariela Rossi (street performance)
  • Kunstraum jETZT: “MOVEMENT JOURNALS/MOVING JOURNALS” by Foteini Papadopoulou and Christian Clarke (photo work)
  • former Restaurant Mayflower: “Asia Restaurant” by Polymer DMT/Fang Yun Lo (video installation)
• 16:45 Picnic at the Weberplatz

DAY 3: JULY 31, 2022 - to finish.

Film screenings and discussions about choreographers' and dancers' engagement with film

• 11:00 - 14:00, space | lab
  • Talk about the video installation "Asia Restaurant" with the artists of Polymer DMT/Fang Yun Lo
  • Film screening "Die Erde ist gewaltig schön, doch sicher ist sie nicht" by SKORONEL RELOADED
  • Film screening "Vale of shadow" by Annalisa Palmieri and Stsiapan Hurski

the flow work - unsere Veranstaltungsreihe 2022

2 APRIL 2022

Documentary theatre research workshop - with Fang Yun Lo

10 JUNE 2022

Improvisation with principles of Feldenkrais method - with Mu-Yi Kuo

16 SEPTEMBER 2022

There is always a way: a workshop on freelancing as an artist - with Robert Schulz

4 NOVEMBER 2022

dance & writing - Workshop with Judith Ayuso

Spacelab encounters - our digital event series 2021

28 OCTOBER 2021
Encounter #6 - Methods of inclusion for dance/performance art, with Elisa Kneisel

4 JULY 2021

Encounter #5 - Mobile audio recording techniques for choreographers, with Marius Kirch, Dipl. Audio Engineer

25 JUNE 2021

Encounter #4 - Transforming reality into art - techniques of research and interviewing, with Khuê Phạm, ZEITmagazin

17 MAY 2021

Encounter #3 - The Art Sector and Sustainability, with Iris Ping-Chi Hung, Taipei

29 APRIL 2021

Encounter #2 - Precarious Art, with Prof. Dr Bojana Kunst, Frankfurt/M., Gießen

22 MARCH 2021

Encounter #1 - Building a regional artists' network, with Cindy Hammer, Magdalena Weniger / TanzNetzDresden e.V.

Spacelab is an initiative of Polymer DMT / Fang Yun Lo, in co-operation with IG Tanz Essen and Sabina Stücker Kulturproduktion, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia - Spitzenförderung Tanz, and the Cultural Office of the City of Essen - institutional funding.

Individual projects in Spacelab are supported by Kreativ.Quartiere Ruhr (funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, conducted by ecce GmbH).

The founding of Spacelab was substantially supported by the programme TANZPAKT RECONNECT, conducted by BUREAU RITTER, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR initiative. Hilfsprogramm Tanz