not ready/nicht bereit - Impulse Festival 2026

The Embassy & Guests

not ready/nicht bereit

Lectures and Talks

Europe is rearming: conscription, increased defence spending and military mobility. Civil society is paying the price through cuts to education, social services and culture. In the face of war and geopolitical uncertainty, the transnational network of critical cultural practitioners, The Embassy, asks: What are those who do not wish to be fit for war doing? What can we learn from current protests? And how can we show solidarity with those who have no choice?

Introduce conscription, increase the defence budget, boost the arms industry, promote military mobility. Societies in Europe want to become combat-ready again. The price for this scheme, which the EU calls “Readiness 2030”, is being paid for by civil societies: cuts are being made to education, social services and culture, younger generations are being asked to “put their future at the service” of the state, and the media is once more making war jargon socially acceptable. In view of the threat posed by Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the uncertain responsibilities of the alliance between the US and European countries, coupled with increasing authoritarian tendencies in some European governments has led to readjustments in the government spending of European countries. No one is actually talking about climate protection anymore. Ever-escalating war economies and colonial power games are costing global civil societies lives, land and culture.

But what are all those who do not want to be “ready” doing? And what are those who cannot even allow themselves to ask these questions doing? After its inception in the summer of 2025, The Embassy, a transnational network of critical artists from Europe++, will reconvene at Impulse 2026 to learn from those who do want to do things differently: be it schoolchildren on the streets protesting against conscription in Germany; students protesting against corruption, state arbitrariness and dysfunctionality in Serbia; or the many people here and there who sing against fascist politics in protest choirs– persistently, in unity, at volume.

The two days of The Embassy are thematically linked, but can also be attended separately.
Festival-goers are welcome at any time.

Programme

Fr 05/06 not ready/nicht bereit

Open plenary session for listening, reflecting, discussing, exchanging ideas and connecting.

11:00 AM–1:00 PM BERICHTE 1 – "AUFRUHR"
Opening remarks by Déborah Brosteaux (Brussels), the North Rhine-Westphalia school strike, and Boyka Boneva and Nikos Papakostas (Athens)

3:00-5:00 PM BERICHTE 2 – "AFFIRMATION"
Opening remarks by Marijana Cvetković (Belgrade) and Judith Balso (Paris)

Following the inputs and the exchange “not ready/nicht bereit” by the international artists’ network The Embassy & Guests, the topic of “Militarization, Security, and Culture” will be continued in a discussion at FFT.

7:00–8:30 PM "…will there also be singing?
Securitization, Austerity, and Culture” at FFT Düsseldorf

With contributions by Prof. Dr. Teresa Koloma Beck, a sociologist whose research focuses on “conflicts, crises, and social transformation,” “violence, (in)security, and globalization,” with particular emphasis on everyday dynamics and the post-/decolonial dimensions of the present.

Sa 06/06 Assembly

10:00-11:00 AM Chor*eographic warm-up

11:00 AM–1:00 PM ASSEMBLY
Public general assembly for the collective negotiation of the questions that have arisen and other matters. Gathered around a large work table, we speak across countries, languages and generations about the pressing issues — and together, we make ourselves “not ready.”

In the afternoon: collective visit to the festival programme and unstructured time.

Dates

5 June, 11:00–20:30

6 June, 11:00–13:00

Tickets

Free admission

Venue

THE STUDIO, Düsseldorf

Language

German and English

Accessibility

Credits

Contributions: Judith Balso (Paris), Marijana Cvetković (Belgrade), Déborah Brosteaux (Brussels), Boyka Boneva (Athens), as well as testimonials from the school strike movement in North Rhine-Westphalia and the student movement in Serbia

Concept & Organisation: Emre Abut (Duisburg), Johanna-Yasirra Kluhs (Duisburg), Locu Locuratolo (Essen), Julia Nitschke (Bochum), Antoine Palévody (Paris), Rika Sakalak (Bochum), Laura Strack (Rome)

With contributions by: Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski (Skopje), Rotterdam Presenta (Jan Rohwedder / Stine Hertel, Düsseldorf)

Further international ambassadors: Özge Açıkkol, Istanbul / Berlin; Georg Döcker, Vienna; ŠKART Collective (prota), Belgrade; Milo Jurani (tactical body), Brno; Julie Peyrat, Liège; Caroline Kapp (tactical body), Berlin; Martin Vongrej, Bratislava

Biografien

The Embassy is a transnational network of critical artists who engage in cross-linguistic and cross-national dialogue on socio-political developments in Europe++ and aim to preserve and strengthen the critical and affirmative potential of art and culture. The first gathering of The Embassy at the Impulse Festival 2025 was dedicated to the impact of reactionary and anti-democratic tendencies on the fields of art, education and social affairs. Between its major meetings, The Embassy operates in a decentralised and self-organised manner through local meetings, residencies, workshops and correspondence.

On the initiative of the Théâtre de la Commune in the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers, the philosopher Judith Balso, together with others, founded the École des Actes in 2016. As an “experimental and militant micro-institution”, the École brings together workers, intellectuals, artists and students from the banlieue and around the world in an empowering process of shared learning. Its members describe this process as “daily work on a subjectivity of peace”. Judith’s writing revolves around the political power of poetry. She is currently working on a book about the workers’ and undocumented migrants’ movements of the last fifty years in France.

Boyka Boneva and Nikos Papakostas are founding members of the non-profit organisation InterAlia. Since 2013, InterAlia has been initiating and promoting civic engagement and cross-cultural coexistence in the Exarchia district of Athens, which is currently facing the drastic consequences of gentrification and mass tourism. Coupled with the political shift to the right, corrupt social structures and authoritarian security measures, these developments are leading to an increased military presence and police arbitrariness in the neighbourhood, which is making life difficult for people in Exarchia across generations.

Marijana Cvetković is a cultural producer, curator, educator, researcher and activist. She is one of the initiators of various collaborative platforms, including the transnational network for contemporary dance, Nomad Dance Academy, which deliberately draws on the post-Yugoslav space as a political, geographical and aesthetic reference point. As co-founder of the self-managed Cultural Centre Magacin in Belgrade, she is a committed expert in independent and transregional cultural work with a political agenda. In her recently published articles on the student movement in Serbia, she explores how collective action and intelligence can be effective against structural violence, social erosion and authoritarian power.

Déborah Brosteaux holds a PhD in philosophy, is a member of the Centre de Recherche sur l’Expérience de Guerre at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an associate researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin. She teaches at various universities in Belgium and France. In her book "Les désirs guerriers de la modernité" (“The Warlike Affects of Modernity”), she examines the cultural history of the 20th century and seeks out the affects that continue to shape our (Western European) relationship with war to this day. “We are not at war, yet we are not at peace either” – a paradoxical situation in which intensity holds a certain allure, yet actual violence never really comes close.

Schulstreik NRW is a student movement organised on a decentralised basis across many cities. Through strikes, demonstrations and rallies, the young people are protesting against compulsory military service and rearmament, particularly against the Military Service Act passed by the Bundestag at the end of 2025. This law provides for the reintroduction of compulsory medical examinations for young men aged 18, as well as the completion of a questionnaire. “We want a state that creates a special fund for education, not for weapons,” demands the movement, which adopts many of the protest and organisational forms of Fridays for Future.