THE EXPLORER:S | Dance performance by Pascal Sangl
A follow-up to the exhibition VULNERABLE
As a follow-up to the exhibition VULNERABLE, three astronaut:s land at the Diözesanmuseum Rottenburg and take the audience on a weightless journey through dance, projection and being.
In a world inspired by deep-sea exploration and space tourism, the EXPLORER:S open the audience’s eyes to their very own perception of the everyday and the supernatural.
Dates: Saturday, 17.09.2022, 8 p.m. (followed by artist:s talk) + Sunday, 18.09.2022, 7 p.m.
THE CREW
Dance Martina Gunkel, Luciana Mugei, Jeff Pham
Costume Marie Freihofer, Laura Yoro
Video projection Lieve Vanderschaeve
Concept & Choreography Pascal Sangl
Text Anna Wulffert
Cooperation with the University of Church Music
Meaningful
From 11 April, the glass and iron sculpture “Meaningful” by Susanne Röwer will be on display in the newly designed foyer of the Rottenburg College of Church Music. The art object, created in 2021, was acquired by the Diözesanmuseum for the new field of activity “Contemporary Art and Art Education”. This field is dedicated to artists of the present day, mediating their works and bringing them into dialogue with the Christian iconography of past art epochs. In future, the university will regularly present such modern museum pieces and thus create a meeting place in its rooms for the visual arts as well.
Röwer’s sculpture is being shown for the first time in Rottenburg. The artist, who works with very different genres such as metal, glass, stone or paper and exhibits internationally, combines the materials in an impressive way. The Rottenburg art object, a foreign body in the minimalist foyer, also gives the visitor pause. Almost organically, it seems to float above a flat base, to rise, to creep. Iron coils with pointed thorns form a ring above three groping feelers; inside, a reddish bubble of glass. The thorns cut deeply into the translucent surface, as if it might burst at any moment. At the same time, the bubble adapts to the thorns, partially encloses them, seems to waft and pulsate.
The first association that comes to the viewer’s mind is probably the crown of thorns. Symbol of supreme suffering, of Christ’s mockery, but also a distinction and symbol of his kingship, his omnipotence. In Latin, the crown is called “corona”, a term omnipresent today with a completely different meaning. Corona, too, has become a symbol of suffering for many people, but still allows many people to rise above themselves, distinguishes them. In the sculpture, symbols and perspectives combine; iron and glass, hardness and fragility, both formed in fire, meet in lively interplay. The sculpture is thought-provoking and opens up meaning for the visitor, in Holy Week and beyond.
Please register with the secretary’s office (Tel.: +49 7472 169820) to view the sculpture.

More than timpani and trumpets
Press release
Stuttgart, 27 April 2022
Concerts, cinema, dance, art and literature, exhibitions, cabaret and theatre – more than 200 cultural events invite you to experience and marvel at the Katholikentag in Stuttgart. The organisers presented this wealth today at the Haus der Geschichte in Stuttgart. “With our cultural programme, we want to transport the atmosphere of the Katholikentag into the city for five days,” emphasised Paul Magino, chairman of the Katholikentag’s cultural working group. More than 100 bands, choirs and individual artists have been selected in an application process and will be responsible for a large part of the cultural programme.
And: “We are working together with many cultural institutions in the city of Stuttgart, such as the Linden Museum, the State University of Music and Performing Arts, the House of Music, the State Gallery and the Old Playhouse, and will significantly enrich the Stuttgart cultural scene for this time of the Katholikentag.” Some venues at the Katholikentag are firmly linked to a particular genre: for example, cabaret lovers will flock to the Renitenztheater and the Gustav-Siegle-Haus. Those interested in author readings should note the Wanner Hall in the Linden Museum with readings by Anna-Katharina Hahn, Nora Bossong and Josef Haslinger.
Exhibitions provide their very own insights, such as “Under the Skin – My Tattoo, My Story” in the Akademiegarten (open-air). The most extensive and highly topical project of the Diözesanmuseum is the exhibition “”Vulnerable – Verletzlich” (Vulnerable – Vulnerable) in St. Maria, in which the award-winning works of the art competition of the same name of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart – in selection – are presented. The background: The Corona pandemic and, most recently, the warlike actions in Ukraine made us clearly aware of our vulnerability. Vulnerability is an essential moment of human existence that weakens, but can also strengthen. In setting the task, the diocese had consciously decided to formulate the question of vulnerability openly and to allow itself to be challenged by the answers of young creative people – in other words, to make itself vulnerable and open. Especially against the background that the church is responsible for the worst psychological and physical wounds to children, young people and queer people, as recent studies and revelations have made shockingly clear. Around 600 artists responded to the call for entries. Contemporary art forms such as installations, video and sound works, projections and performances as well as objects of the classical visual arts such as paintings, drawings and sculptures were submitted.
The most extensive segment of the cultural programme at the Katholikentag is music – and this will be heard in very different places in the city. Gospel concerts, pop and rock, new spiritual songs, organ music and contemporary orchestral works will offer listening pleasure. A special work that also invites participation is the #coronation mass. At the centre of the premiere is Mozart’s Coronation Mass KV 317 as a symbol of joie de vivre and confidence. In addition, the specially developed sound installation allows each individual visitor to become part of the whole in advance – with the help of his or her individual voicemessage sung on the short musical phrase “Dona nobis pacem” using a smartphone. Simply sing it, call +49 711 20 70 31 70 and sing it on your voicemail or record it as a voice memo and send it by message to coronation@katholikentag.de. The deadline for sending in voice messages is 10 May.
The extensive film programme of the Katholikentag with its discussions is not only aimed at interested cineastes, but also at pupils and students and addresses current socially relevant questions. For example, in the film with discussion “The Unknown Girl”, which deals with moral integrity and social justice.
Contact:
Stephan von Kolson, phone: +49 175 4343485, email: presse@katholikentag.de
Finissage | »To Know A Form, You Have To Work It«
Artist: Frederick D. Bunsen
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Dirk Baecker, Chair of Cultural Theory and Management, Witten/Herdecke University.
You can watch a recording of the online finissage here directly on our site or on the Youtube channel of the Diocesan Museum Rottenburg.

Song Recital - Livestream
"The Soul's Long Journey"
Life tells the most diverse stories. However, the feeling of happiness, love, pain and suffering is common to all. As a listener, consider the lyrical I in songs by Schubert, Schumann, Mahler and others, and accompany it through different life situations, culminating in the God-given arrival in the “Saviour’s dwelling place”, paradise.
Musical arrangement:
Andreas Großberger, tenor
Jens Wollenschläger, piano
Duration: approx. 45 minutes
Registration is not necessary.
You can find the link to the livestream directly on the Youtube channel of the Diocesan Museum.

Andreas Großberger, Tenor

Prof. Jens Wollenschläger, piano
St. Meinrad and the Meinrad Trail
Meinrad was born shortly before 800 in Sülchgau near Rottenburg. His parents sent him to the then famous monastery school on the island of Reichenau for education, where he later became a priest and monk. Abbot Erlebald sent the exemplary monk as a teacher to a small monastery on Lake Zurich. But Meinrad felt a great longing for a life of solitude. He moved as a hermit to the southern shore of the lake and around 835 finally to the “Dark Forest”, where he lived for 26 years. Meinrad cultivated an intense life of prayer, was hospitable and gave gifts to the poor who visited him. On 21 January 861, two robbers visited the hermit. Meinrad hospitably entertained them both, but he was slain by them out of greed. Meinrad’s body was taken to the Reichenau and buried there. His relics returned to Einsiedeln for the consecration of the second monastery church in 1039.
In May 2019, Bishop Dr Gebhard Fürst opened a new bicycle pilgrimage route in Rottenburg called the “Meinradweg”. It begins at the Sülchenkirche, the baptismal church of St Meinrad, leads via the Archabbey of Beuron to the World Heritage Site of Reichenau Island and from there via the Benedictine Monastery of Fischingen to the largest place of pilgrimage in Switzerland, the Monastery of Einsiedeln. The approximately 275 kilometres of the Meinrad Trail can be mastered in four daily stages. St. Meinrad is considered the “martyr of hospitality”. So the Meinradweg with its monasteries and cycle path churches invites you to experience hospitality. More information is available at meinradweg.com.
At the opening ceremony of the Meinradweg, Bishop Dr Gebhard Fürst also unveiled a statue of the saint at the Sülchenkirche. The statue was sculpted by Ralf Ehmann from Untersberg marble from the Salzburg area. For some years now, there has also been a relic of St Meinrad in the Sülchenkirche, which was given by the Einsiedeln monastery.