Latest news
No further funding from TANZPAKT from 2026 onward

Dear FREIRAUM-friends,
on Friday we have been informed that the TANZPAKT jury, in its current third round, has decided against continuing the funding for the FREIRAUM in 2026.
The project, which was initiated by Ben & us as a team in 2019, was made possible due to TANZPAKT-funding since then, with FREIRAUM being the only project in NRW which received TANZPAKT-funding in the first as well as the second round of the programme. When the funding of the second round ended some months ago in accordance with the schedule, the City of Düsseldorf stepped in to secure keeping the FREIRAUM open for the community of about 300 artists, researchers, colleagues and students p.a., until the end of 2025, to allow us to apply for the TANZPAKT funding again.
The news of not being able to continue our work with in and for the FREIRAUM and all of you has struck us like lightning. We are heartbroken for our beloved FREIRAUM-space and stunned that this structure, which we’ve built together with all of you with so much energy & care and fantastic networking partners in NRW and beyond will not receive support on a federal level anymore. We know that many of you have been following the current developments closely and have been anxiously awaiting news from TANZPAKT together with us and we thank you all so much for your support. <3
We would like to congratulate the 10 projects that will receive funding in the future and the colleagues involved in them, who will strengthen dance with their commitment and energy in various concepts and environments.
The constant struggle to keep this space that we devised to be entirely shaped to the needs of the local/regional artistic community open, took quite a lot of time and energy out of every member of the team, who, at the same time, works within the BJR company for our own artistic endeavours. Facing these new developments, we as a team will have to take some time to re-think and evaluate how and if at all our conceptual work for the free scene can continue. For the time being, at least until the end of the year, the project FREIRAUM will go on as usual in its day to day business and your working space and time here is safe.
However, all projects and events which are conceptualized with by the BJR company such as the After Works Sessions etc. are not effected by this and will continue happily and as planned, with extra love& thought,
by yours truly –
The Ben J. Riepe team

The FREIRAUM Project

FREIRAUM, the collaborative space for concept and work, has been made possible through support lent by the TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund. Since its opening in January 2020, it has also been perceived as an “artist run space”, as operated by the Ben J. Riepe team. Situated at Engelbertstraße 13 in Düsseldorf Flingern, its doors are open to artists and cooperation partners from administration, project management, dramaturgy, or technical departments as well as for scientists and advanced students with intersections towards the arts, for free-of-charge work stays. Featuring a multi-workplace coworking space as well as two studios, with 110 and 41 sqm respectively, artists from the independent local scene will find opportunities for a collaborative work approach during the research and concept phases as well as for the start into joint rehearsals here. Smaller presentations and internal showings may also be conceived and realised on-site.

A Space of Possibilities

We strive to offer a safe coworking space for the arts, independently of any specific production, which acts as a catalyst for free encounters between the artistic genres, affiliated sciences, and the different work sectors through its flat hierarchic structure. In line with artist empowerment, FREIRAUM shall be a space for possibilities to pursue virulent questions in art and society together: How can we conquer boundaries and conceive of new, interdisciplinary concepts, how can we come into shared power and voice? How can we think and bring about the impact of art into society? Yet our collaborators are not only active parts of FREIRAUM solely to intensely work on and discuss those questions: The offers provided at FREIRAUM should rather reflect the knowledge, the ideas, and the visions of all actors. Everyone is invited to share their “superpowers”, so that the manifold capacities of everyone involved may result in mutual stimulation while bringing about expanding knowledge within the independent scene.

Cocreation and Community

The FREIRAUM is a learning, hybrid institution that will continually evolve according to the needs of its users. This institutional flexibility creates a space of arrival, of (renewed) trust and (new) creation, especially in times of crisis. The FREIRAUM offers a non-commercial alternative for conceptional work, experimental rehearsals, open-process research, and an open discourse for numerous artists, graduates, and further experts.

This creates a space for thought and action which simultaneously fosters self-conception of the artist as a cooperative, empathic, and co-creative creature that constantly renews connections with others. If physical encounters prove impossible, FREIRAUM also offers digital formats as paths of encounter and networking. Connections, solidarity, and mutual care are especially important during critical times. We would like to provide the space for this. We look forward to further shape and develop the FREIRAUM into a laboratory for a new future communion, together with you!

Team

Ben J. Riepe
Artistic direction

Janine Blöß
Dramaturgy and conception
janine@benjriepe.com

Izaskun Abrego, Darwin Díaz, Jessica Prestipino
Project management FREIRAUM
freiraum@benjriepe.com
+49 (0)211 158 155 83

Izaskun Abrego
Administration and coordination
izaskun@benjriepe.com
+49 (0)211 980 77 141

Jolande Hörrmann
Project management Digitale Agora

Jessica Prestipino
Project management Ben J. Riepe

Nassrah Alexia-Denif
Management Ben J. Riepe
Presse- & Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

FREIRAUM is funded by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund with support of the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Cultural Office of the State Capital Düsseldorf and Kunststiftung NRW.