Actually, she is supposed to embody the departure on Arcisstraße.
But Lydia Grün, the new president of the Munich University of Music and Theater, is now more concerned with the issue of demolition.
As is well known, the building is extremely dilapidated.
The institute is now facing the first partial closure.
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Lydia Grün has been in office since this fall and surprisingly replaced Bernd Redmann, who was not re-elected.
© Adrienne Meister
The ailing Theater Augsburg had to close from one day to the next in 2016. Can this happen to you too?
In the week starting November 28, we actually have to partially close our main building on Arcisstraße.
This building stock and the building technology are from 1937, in this condition a secure operation is increasingly in danger.
In this specific case, it revolves around the elimination of water damage.
That is why we can no longer provide certain escape routes.
This means that we will close the Great Concert Hall and the Senate Hall for at least a week.
That sounds like little.
However, the music academy is the largest concert promoter in the city, and our students are trained on the stage for the stage.
Having to accept this turning point, especially in the winter semester and when we are at full capacity, is highly problematic for us.
And it's a symptom: something like this can happen anywhere else in this building at any time.
Do you feel stalled by the political decision-makers because there have long been plans for general renovation and alternative quarters?
It's not just that there have been plans for a long time.
The fully prepared application for the general refurbishment of Arcisstraße 12, the development of the Arcisstraße campus including an alternative quarter, has been available for several years.
We can play at Champions League level.
But for that we need the framework conditions.
That means the basics: halls that can be played on, a stable power supply, functioning building technology from ventilation to sanitary facilities.
We're not talking about high tech.
What's the problem? There is a plan to move to buildings on Giesinger Frankenthaler Straße.
This area has been managed by us for several years and is firmly planned as an alternative quarters from our side.
After the talks with the Ministry of Art, I am very optimistic that our printing situation will be understood and shared there.
But we need the go-ahead now.
How are you with that? As the new president, you would like to work on content, but you are in a dilapidated house.
When I applied, I knew that the challenges here are complex.
The major construction project with the general renovation of Arcisstrasse 12 is just one topic.
I wish for a strong partnership with politics - and I am confident that this will work.
Because I believe that, as a strong university, we can make a great deal available to cultural life in Bavaria, in Germany, in Europe and beyond.
If you stand at the gate below and see who goes in and out here every hour: that's a young generation.
These are the people who will shape our cultural and thus social life in the coming decades.
Who teach our children, give concerts, create new art, in the most diverse places throughout Bavaria and around the world.
that drives me
Are you surprised that this is even an issue in the rich Free State of Bavaria and that everything takes so long?
What I appreciate about the mentality in Bavaria is the openness, the strong pragmatism and the real will to solve problems.
That's why I'm optimistic that we'll find a good solution here too.
What is important is that we are not talking – and this affects the entire cultural scene – from a situation of complete deficit.
We can offer our society a lot and contribute a lot.
We will communicate this more aggressively in the future.
The renovation of the Gasteig is delayed, the concert hall may never be built: Is it realistic that you will get the planned rooms there in the foreseeable future?
Yes.
That must also be our way.
For us as a university, it is also important not only to be present in the university, but especially for the performing arts.
Music, for example, happens in interaction with other people.
So it doesn't help us at all if we lock ourselves in a room and practice there.
We need to take our work out into urban society.
Especially the planned concert hall with its communication concept is an important podium in cooperation with our local partners.
Is the concert hall still coming?
You have to ask the policy makers that.
We cultural workers need such podiums.
Everyone is talking about the fact that cultural life is changing as a result of the Corona period. But nobody knows in which direction. How do you have to deal with this as a university?
Our task is to try out where it can go.
We must not abandon ourselves to the situation, but must act on our own.
On the one hand, we are facing short-term challenges due to Corona.
But these have reinforced longer trends.
The fact that our audience is changing and getting smaller has been an issue for 20 years.
How, for example, artistic productions are developed, how sectors can work together, we can shape all of that ourselves.
What went wrong?
A big issue.
In general, it is about positioning in the respective urban society or in the community in rural areas.
As a theatre, but also, for example, as a church musician or head of a music school.
Dealing with the social environment in which art happens must be done with even greater urgency than before.
Who lives in my city?
Who do I want to make art for?
How do I network?
Who do I want to invite and with what topics?
I perceive a will, but this must not be done as an additional measure to normal operations.
Her choice surprised many. It was expected that your predecessor, Bernd Redmann, would remain. When you take office, you associate the university with its #Metoo system stepping out of the shadows of the past. Does that weigh you down when you're supposed to embody such a break?
no
Of course, the complexities have not remained hidden from me.
I am very grateful to Professor Redmann for handing it over.
We have a good and professional relationship with each other.
I can build on what he started at this house.
I'm just noticing a lot of momentum.
I meet people extremely openly.
I happily walk into this house every morning – because I see how people want to shape things together.
For me, that is my daily fuel, even in the current challenging situation.
The interview was conducted by Markus Thiel.