Freeters’ design of the Festival Centre Kreuzkirche

The Bonn artist collective freeters will transform the Kreuzkirche with its poetic, surprising design ideas – into a place where festival life can take place.

Some Bonners will remember: In December 2021 at the height of the lockdowns, the collective freeters opened the »unbeadable space« in the heart of Bonn’s old town – a room that hundreds of Bonn volunteers and the artists of freeters had completely lined with ironing beads. The idea of freeters: to create art together; to make art out of every imaginable material; to bring art into life. The group is based in Bonn and consists of artists, craftsmen and creative people from various fields. They design spaces: offices, waiting rooms, exhibition spaces, fairgrounds. Their trademark is amazing combinations of objects, materials and images that make you think and that transform a space emotionally-sensually: A chair made of aluminum rods and an antique oak backrest; a table incorporating retro scrap metal; a seating group embedded in a nest of roof battens. »Artistic intelligence«: that’s what freeters calls art’s contribution to our everyday living situations.

What ideas the collective will develop for the Kreuzkirche remains exciting for everyone. One thing is clear: the space in the church will be versatile and flexible: For small and large concerts, for social gatherings, for discussion groups and a ticket office. For this reason, the pews in the central nave will be removed. Freeters will build a mobile stage landscape, with adjustable seats and backdrops. The wooden gallery will be wrapped in cotton fleece, reminiscent of a theatre. In the back of the church, lounges will be created with the creative and crazy seating landscapes of the artists. The festival theme of nature and sustainability can be experienced with the senses in this space: sustainable materials, reusable objects from the large freeters collection and green raised beds will be used. In this way, freeters wants to create a resonance space in which music and encounters can unfold freely – in which festival life can find its own rhythm.

This is what freeters says:

»A festival about life with music that thematises, describes and accompanies life is framed by a space in the Kreuzkirche, which is built by the art collective freeters. 
Because music is space and space is music.

Freeters creates spaces that can be entered as complete works of art. Space sounds, resonates, envelops, confronts, rhythmises, emotionalises. It functions as an inspiring partner, sometimes shaking things up through irritation, sometimes making us think through poetry. Made of predominantly recycled materials, the Kreuzkirche room becomes a signal for sustainability. And last but not least, the objects in it are often mobile and multifunctional; they show through themselves the need for change.«