State-Theatre #1

The National Theatre of Nigeria in Lagos was built for the second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1976. It is the only state-subsidized theatre in Nigeria. While its smaller halls are occasionally used for theatre performances, banquets and weddings, the 5000-seat main hall has been deserted since the early 1990s. A reopening was scheduled for 2010 but postponed indefinitely after a series of changes in direction.

state-theatre is a modular art project by Constanze Fischbeck and Daniel Kötter that explores urban conditions for performance. Fischbeck and Kötter have researched theatre buildings in Lagos, Teheran, Berlin, Detroit, Beirut and Mönchengladbach, focusing on their historic context and functional change.
The six experimental documentaries are screened in Arsenal cinema Berlin the 16th and 17th of November!