CCB Magazine

Nachgefragt with Martin Zähringer: "It's important to have the time in mind"

Photo: Jan Michalko

With the Climate Fiction Festival, they launched the first international literature festival focusing on the climate crisis at the end of 2020. Of necessity, the CCNetwork berlin team had to move it to the Internet. Nevertheless, it was a success, and the second festival is already planned. Initiator Martin Zähringer was last year with its partner with us in the consultation. We want to know from him: What did the consultation bring? How do you finance a festival?

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Hi Martin, please introduce yourself: Who are you and what do you do?

Martin Zähringer: My name is Martin Zähringer, I am a freelance literary critic and curator. In recent years, I have written mainly for the NZZ, but also for ARD broadcasters and Deutschlandfunk. For the last eight years or so, I was active as a radio feature writer together with my partner. And then about two years ago we founded the Climate Cultures Network Berlin (CCnetwork berlin) with the purpose of carrying out projects - from large festivals to small curatorials - that deal with the climate crisis and culture.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Then you launched the first international Climate Fiction Festival in early December 2020. How did the pandemic affect the organization of the festival? And did that have an impact on the funding you applied for?

Martin Zähringer: Exactly, as you just said, the Climate Fiction Festival was the first international literature festival focusing on the climate crisis, and of course - together with the sponsorship of the Literaturhaus Berlin - it was initially planned as a face-to-face event. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works and we decided to do it online. This included streaming on the one hand, and pre-productions partly with the help of the Goethe-Institut abroad, in Copenhagen and in London. This had no effect on the funding amounts overall, we were able to justify conclusively why we had to move the event online of necessity, travel and accommodation costs simply shifted to the technical costs.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: In the run-up to the festival, you visited Kulturförderpunkt several times and asked Andrzej for advice. What questions did you have? And how could he help you? 

Martin Zähringer: Basically, we came with the usual beginner's questions, since we had no project experience at all. First of all, it was a question of how we should set ourselves up in order to obtain funding - whether as a corporate body or as a private individual. Then, how do you justify a project, what should the application prose look like and, very importantly, what is a project concretization in the application. Things like that. Questions about the organization.

It is important to clearly address expectations and to use a kind of quality management in order to meet all these expectations and not be disappointed. And: to have the time in mind

Martin Zähringer talking. Photo: Jan Michalko

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: What funding did you end up siphoning off?

Martin Zähringer: First of all, we were paid a so-called shortfall cover of 85,000 euros – altogether we got about 110,000 euros paid. And then we found additional funding, for example from the Danish Art Fund and other cultural institutions. Here, too, the procedure was very sophisticated and we put a lot of effort into the applications. We also asked the embassies of the foreign actors participating in the festival for funds, but unfortunately that came to nothing. Andrzej and his colleague Sabrina helped us with everything and we also got advice from Lettretage, all in all, I must say, we got very good advice. 

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: And what is planned for the future? 

Martin Zähringer: We are already planning the next festival in November; the funding rose to about 115,000 euros compared to the first festival and is also ready. However, the Planet Writes Back Festival will broaden its focus to include film and photography in addition to literature - all related to the climate crisis. The broad idea is to discover climate cultures, let them speak about themselves in their own way and make them accessible to a wide audience.

Kreativ Kultur Berlin: Looking back, what hurdles did you have to overcome in the planning process and what advice can you give to people planning something similar to you?

Martin Zähringer: Communication is the be-all and end-all, especially between the organizers, in this case between us, and the sponsor, in our case the Literaturhaus. In other words, it has to be clearly discussed and agreed who does what where and who has what responsibilities. That was a bit difficult at the Climate Fiction Festival after deciding on a hybrid version. Then, of course, there is the quality of the content, demands are different, that must be clearly addressed. That would be an important tip from me, to clearly address expectations and to use a kind of quality management in order to meet all these expectations and not be disappointed. It is also important to keep an eye on time and, last but not least, I also recommend reading books about project management.

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