Trends notebook #2

The digital curtain rises

Theatre: the Schauspiel keeps the real and virtual in play

The Schauspiel in Cologne is experimenting with a fully digital theatre programme called #Digital. Begun as a response to lock-down with classic recording formats in order to retain their links with the public, #Digital has evolved into increasingly innovative formats. All birds by Wajdi Mouawad was fi lmed with six cameras and broadcast in “splitscreen”, giving the viewer the choice of what they wanted to watch. The director, Luk Perceval, opened his rehearsal sessions for Oblomov Revisited live on Twitch, a video streaming platform.

The alternative

Hemp in all its forms

The hemp sector has experienced signifi cant growth since producers are now authorised to cultivate and market all parts of the plant: the stem, the seed, but also the flowers and the leaves, provided they do not contain any psychoactive substance (THC). Hemp is the sustainable crop par excellence: it grows in poor soils, requires little water, is disease-resistant and has deep roots that help aerate the soil for subsequent crops. The future is certainly looking good for the crop, whose applications are numerous. In industry, hemp is combined with plastic materials to produce less polluting and lighter blends: it is found in particular in the dashboards of many car models. In terms of construction, hemp concrete is an excellent thermal insulator and is helping create a more natural air conditioning in the buildings of the Paris 2024 Olympic Village.

In the textile industry, hemp is an alternative to cotton, which consumes a lot of water and pesticides. This somewhat rebellious fi bre still needs to be completely tamed, with a lowering of the price of its yarn which is more expensive than that of organic cotton. In France, the Organic Linen and Hemp Association has been working on this since 2013, and the research is looking promising.

In the diary

Contemporary Art in four fairs

From spring, right through to autumn, the biggest international contemporary art fairs are finally making a comeback.

2022 Venice Biennial (23 April-27 November): devoted to contemporary art, will now take place each even year.
Art Basel (16-19 June) remains the leading contemporary art fair in Europe.
The Armory Show (9-11 September) is the most important fair across the Atlantic.
Fiac (21-24 October), the main Parisian art fair.

The number

185 million euros dedicated to the energy transition

This particular figure was revealed in May: in France, citizen funding of renewable energy has never been so high. Thanks to the development of social networks and micro-finance applications, many direct, citizen-based projects have been springing up. Citizens are increasingly considering that the energy transition is not just the business of States or NGOs, and so have been contributing to ever more ecoprojects themselves. 185 million euros were collected in 2021* alone for the fi nancing of more than 360 projects across the areas of biodiversity protection, organic farming and green technology.

* Greenunivers study, media for energy transition professionals, May 2022.