At the Möllerei, IN TRANSFER - A New Condition will open its doors in collaboration with Ars Electronica. And at the recently reopened National Museum of Resistance and Human Rights (MNRDH) in Esch-Alzette, the exhibition ECCE HOMO by Bruce Clarke in collaboration with Tebby Ramasike will also be launched. You can experience the stories and fates of well-known Luxembourg personalities, mine workers and immigrants through musicals, a movie, poems, exhibitions and even a puppet theatre play in a former mine. Of course, there will also be numerous workshops for children, adolescents and adults in autumn on topics such as photography, dance, digital arts, singing, culinary arts, sustainability or even ironworking.

“We are happy about the high satisfaction ratings of our visitors. It seems that the creative artists and the southern region with its many languages, cultures and touristic offers have convinced a lot of people. The course for the coming years is about to be set. Since the end of February, 13 municipalities had the opportunity to present their cultural offer and their identity. In September, we would be delighted if the inhabitants of the Greater Region and far beyond would continue to stay curious and discover the south of Luxembourg and the neighbouring French municipalities. There should be something exciting for everyone.” Says Nancy Braun, Director General of Esch2022.

Dancing at bus stops and abandoned industrial sites

The Nuit de la Culture Violeta Frank - VF Art Projects, Sean McKeown and Horacio French present a major open-air art performance under the name 'REESCH', which is intended as an invitation to a fascinating journey through the history and culture of Esch. With performances on 2 and 3 September 2022, we expect thousands of people to attend the kick-off of the fifth Nuit de la Culture. Under the guidance of the Cirque du Soleils’ artistic director, Sean McKeown, visitors to the industrial site Metzeschmelz (Esch-Schifflange) will embark on an imaginary and immersive journey hosted by 20 internationally renowned artists, 17 local dancers and 60 volunteers.

The last edition of the Nuit de la Culture stretches over 10 days with a multi-faceted programme. With this grand finale of the Nuit de la Culture 2022, Esch-Alzette celebrates the metamorphosis of the city through the story of Barbara. In collaboration with the La Machine company, the giant puppets of the protagonists Barbara, Giacomo and Felix will be wandering through town, narrating the metamorphosis of the region. The La Machine company is an internationally renowned ensemble that has been travelling for many years to present monumental yet touching performances. (Esch-Alzette, 2-10.09, nuitdelaculture.lu)

In the project PONT INVISIBLEby Altercadance, the choreographer and dancer Modestine Ekete confronts the audience with the grievances of modern times. He takes us into the world of the woman-mother-worker-immigrant, accompanied by poetry. She tells us about her career, her feeling of integration in Europe and especially in Luxembourg. The central themes of Altercadance workshops are dance, theatre, song, music, fairy tales and reading, all based on African gestures and forms of expression. (Differdange, Lassauvage, Luxembourg, 03.09 -12.11, altercadance.com)

The Visit by the Luxembourg Collective of Dance (Lucoda) is a project featuring choreographers Ileanna Orofino and Gianfranco Celestino who will confront the visitors of the Maison Rosati in Esch-Alzette and the Belval Plaza shopping centre with a dancer dressed in the aluminium garments of a steelworker. The central idea is to question the notion of success among people, between the glorious industrial past and modern consumerism. In Luxembourg, public transport is free. In the framework of the European Mobility Week, we will be bringing dance into the mix. The Lucoda collective welcomes bus drivers and passengers at TICE bus stops and on a dance bus as part of the project “In Transit Dance Time”(DifferdanceDays). (Esch-Alzette, Differdange, 03- 16.09, Lucoda.org)

What are the sounds of the Esch2022 region in September?

In the framework of the project Den Neie Mineur, the municipality of Kayl/Tétange organises a musical with more than 140 actors on stage. The open-air performances will take place in the courtyard of the Schungfabrik cultural centre in Tétange. The music was written and arranged by Pol Belardi and Sandro Bucciarelli. The text was written by Roger Seimetz, who will also be the narrator of the event. Jean Bermes, Thea Engel, Caroline Klein and Loïc Schlentz will be the main actors, along with numerous other actors and musicians. (Kayl/Tétange, 16-18.09, Den Neie Mineur)

At the Bridderhaus, you can experience life in the days of the Luxembourg composer Helen Buchholz from Esch-Alzette. The Helen Buchholtz Salon puts the focus on this enigmatic personality, her music, her family and her activities, her environment, her time, her hometown Esch-Alzette and the European context of the time. Born in Esch-Alzette, Helen Buchholtz (1877 - 1953) composed some 138 musical works and occupies a special place in the musical history of Luxembourg and Esch. As co-owner of the Brasserie Buchholtz, she was associated with the musical and literary scene of her time.

The supporting programme includes various events, such as concerts, readings, lectures, film screenings, educational workshops, master classes, an exhibition and guided tours in an unexpected setting. (Esch-Alzette, 22.09-22.12, lesalondehelenbuchholtz.lu)

The project 33,7 sketches a musical cartography of the diversity of Esch-Alzette, in 2022 minutes (33,7 hours). The project led by United Instruments of Lucilin revolves around the idea of a gigantic musical cartography representing the multicultural population mix that characterises the south of Luxembourg and its neighbouring French region. On view at the Kulturfabrik. (Esch-Alzette, 17.09, 33,7) The Nightsongs project, led by the non-profit association Independent Little Lies, uses nocturnal soundscapes of the iron industry to create a series of electronic compositions dedicated to the theme of night and the region’s steel history. A concert at the Kulturfabrik will be an opportunity to discover live extracts, remixes and reinterpretations of the project's compositions. (Concert Kufa 24/09 ; Audiowalk ans sound installations, 01/04/22- 31/01/23, ryvage.com)

In the framework of the Our Ciné-Concert Our Archive. Your Story project, the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA) is highlighting Luxembourg’s audiovisual heritage through a film concert at emblematic locations in six municipalities in the south of Luxembourg. The film concert was created from the CNA’s photo and film collections and provides an insight into the richness and diversity of the audiovisual archive. The images will be accompanied musically by the Pit Dahm Quartet, which has composed a sound creation especially for the occasion. (Dudelange, 03.09, cna.public.lu)

Performing Arts in Autumn

Performing arts projects include EKINOX, E roude Fuedem duerch de roude Buedem, Les Marionnettes Sauvages and La “Roda”.

The international puppet theatre festival in the framework of the Les Marionnettes Sauvages project featuring ensembles from all over Europe will be a unique experience for children and adults alike. Puppet theatre is an interesting way to get to know other countries and their culture and to overcome language barriers. Lasauvage, a picturesque village in the south of Luxembourg, offers the perfect setting with its puppet theatre Poppespënnchen, its parks, its church and its mines. There will even be performances in the former mines in Lasauvage to tell the story of a family. The themes of the festival are: From Orpheus to “La Sauvage”: European legends from the past to the present and: La Sauvage (the wild woman), European legends of nature. (Lasauvage, Differdange, 16-18.09, marionnettes-sauvages.lu)

The La Roda project organises capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance courses (Maculélé, Jongo, Puxada de Rede, Samba de Roda) in the municipalities of Esch-Alzette and Differdange, where absolutely everyone can participate. Those who take part will also present the dance moves they have learned on a huge stage. La Roda encourages and inspires many young people in Luxembourg and it promotes inclusion in an exemplary way. (Esch-Alzette, Differdange, 24.09, capoeirateam.lu)

The EKINOX project. Following the exploration of all facets of sleep in the framework of a sleep fair in March, EKINOX invites you to a unique event in Aumetz (FR) and Thionville. It will be a production that combines a banquet, a procession and a ball to celebrate locally collected dreams and lullabies. (Aumetz, 21- 24.09, nest-theatre.fr)

With its project E roude Fuedem duerch de roude Buedem - Ouni Kapp, the collective MASKéNADA presents intimate portraits of local personalities through performative readings by young authors. The facets of identity, sexuality and gender are presented and questioned with groundbreaking texts. (10-11.09, Mondercange, maskenada.lu)

Cinema and theatre

The film L’arrivée de la Jeunesse, Fabio Bottani's first feature film, combines documentary and fiction and tells the story of an Italian migrant family that emigrated to Luxembourg. In eight episodes, the story of different generations of an Italian family is presented from the early 1900s to the present day. The documentary is set in the town of Esch-Alzette and various locations in the Minett region. (Esch -Alzette, Schifflange, Differdange, Villerupt, Luxembourg, 08 & 28/09, passaparola.info)

Das Projekt Terre Ferme - Lommelshaff ist ein Theaterstück, das die Geschichte eines Bauernhofs im Herzen von Differdingen erzählt. The audience follows a family drama and literally takes a seat at the family table as members of an extended family. It is a festive performance that deals (in several languages) with a subject that is rarely dealt with in theatre: the position of agriculture and farmers in our society from the post-war period to the present day. (Differdange, 27.09 - 04.10, Terre Ferme)

New exhibition - A journey from the past to the future

Two new exhibitions are opening in Esch-Alzette in early September. The new exhibition In Transfer: A New Condition at the Möllerei (Esch-Belval) in collaboration with Ars Electronica, curated by Martin Honzik, co-curated and produced by Laura Welzenbach, presents world-renowned artists who operate at the intersection of technology, art and society and always find themselves exactly where change is happening. In the exhibition, the visitor meets a generation of artists who, as citizens of this world, aim to contribute to a different way of looking at the world around us in order for us to be able to make far-sighted decisions. (Esch-Alzette, 03.09- 27.11, IN TRANSFER – A NEW CONDITION)

The exhibition ECCE HOMO, by Bruce Clarke featuring Tebby Ramasike at the newly renovated National Museum of Resistance and Human Rights (MNRDH), links the city of Kaunas in Lithuania with Esch-Alzette. The exhibition, which belongs to a critical figuration movement, focuses on the human body as a universal metaphor for the resistance of our being against all the aggressions in history. Clarke’s sculptural work reflects his political engagement and his quest for human rights, and deals with our contemporary history as well as with writing and communicating this history in a way that stimulates reflection on today’s world and the representations we create of it. (Esch-Alzette, 03.09-30.12, mnr.lu)

The Konschthal Esch-Alzette also invites you to a major retrospective exhibition of the films of contemporary artist Deimantas Narkevičius - also in connection with Kaunas. Born in Lithuania, Narkevičius’ work offers a unique perspective on the post-Soviet period in his home country, between a documentary and an autobiographical point of view. After participating in the 1998 European Biennial of Contemporary Art MANIFESTA 2, Narkevičius returns to Luxembourg this time to retrace a cinematic work in Esch-Alzette that evolves in the current geopolitical contexts. (Esch-Alzette, 24.09 - 29.01, konschthal.lu)

Sustainability, workshops and culinary journeys

From 22 August to 21 September, the Municipality of the Month is Mondercange. Here, a purpose-built cultural headquarters, the Pop-Up Village “Beim Nëssert” in Bergem, is focusing on sustainability and encounters. The pop-up village will feature a creative market, academic events, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, outdoor activities. (Mondercange, 19.03-24.09, mondercange2022.lu)

As part of the MINETTREMIXproject, there will be workshops for young people in Dudelange led by the photo artist Neckel Scholtus. During other workshops, the adolescents will learn to weld and create small masterpieces, while learning some interesting historical facts about the ADU No.6 locomotive, which used to be in service at the Dudelange steelworks. (Dudelange, 09.09 -15.10, cnci.lu)

In addition to HARIKO’s usual programme (art workshops for adolescents), the REMIX GENERATIONSproject includes various residency events. There will be workshops, exhibitions, concerts, live creations, performances in their new space, Batiment 4, in September. (Esch-Alzette, 27.09- 29.10, http://www.hariko.lu)

At the Au Goût du Terroirmarket in Käerjeng, visitors are invited to discover local food and savoir-faire. A weekend full of explorations and unforgettable taste experiences where local and regional producers present their products in collaboration with the Naturpark Our. (Käerjeng, 30.09 – 02.10, gout.lu)

In Differdange, the project le mixeur invites together with local associations to co-build a temporary restaurant at the Lommelshaff. A place where to exchange individual and collective cooking stories and rediscover local specialities. (Differdange, 12-14.09, bonneterie.webnode.fr)

Through a series of participatory workshops, the youth programme at the SKIPaims to introduce children, young people and school classes to topics such as digitalisation, digital arts and sustainability.