Helgard Kim Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel met in the 1990s while studying at the Institute of Applied Theatre Sciences in Giessen—a kind of higher institute of avant-garde German theatre. They founded Rimini Protokoll in 2000. Whether they be performances, radio plays, films, installations or immersive events, their creations challenge the social or political realities of our time. They use the tools of the stage in unexpected ways to reverse perspectives, present multiple points of view, and make the audience look at reality in new ways. Examples of their work are Remote X, an ambulatory series investigating the notion of public space, Situation Rooms, an interactive experience on the arms industry, and Lagos Business Angels, a portrait of Nigerian businessmen. Performed in over 25 cities across the world, the series 100 % City presents the portrait of a major city by allowing its inhabitants to express themselves and by visually representing its statistical data.
Rimini Protokoll
Major figures in documentary and participative theatre, the Berlin collective Rimini Protokoll initiated the “Realistic Tendency” movement, which has had an important influence on the alternative stage. Trained by Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel, the collective experiments with a “theatre of truth” without actors, performed exclusively by non-actors from the general public, which they call “experts” or “specialists”.