Access Points, 2017

„Today we suffer from sea blindness“, the chief of the British navy says, and he is right: it is the same London, New York, Hong Kong, Hamburg: the ports have mutated to security zones devoid of people. For centuries, life in Hamburg was shaped by seafaring. Today, seafarers no longer visit the city, and Hamburg citizens no longer go to sea.

Only multinational corporations are welcome in the port today. Spaces to live and act on the water have become increasingly limited. The port has become a tourist backdrop, maritime adventure has mutated to an all-inclusive cruise while fine dust levels skyrocket.

At the same time, artists and activists across the world have rediscovered the right to the sea: building floats from trash, protecting lagoons from cruise ships by putting their bodies in the water, connecting through precarious sea trade, researching links between migration and modern logistics and uniting to rescue refugees in distress. On all the seven seas, and in Hamburg.

Welcome to a right-to-the-city movement that can swim!

For Theatre of the World festival, secret agency and ITI have joined forces to explore access points from liquid to solid and rediscover the right to the sea - with performances, symposia and workshops.