!RRATIONALE

!RRATIONALE is a collective attempt to temporarily suspend logic and examine the present under the conditions of contradictory realities.

Starting from a UFO landing site in the middle of the campus, a loose network of artworks and actions unfolds, posing the questions: In which realities do we operate, what narratives underlie them—and how can these be read, interpreted, and modified?

For one week, regular operations at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will be suspended; everyday life will be interrupted and transformed into a kind of unfamiliar state: a stage for absurd competitions, questionable objects, athletic performances, performative dinners, and séances with historical figures. An oversized fish winds its way through the building, an elevator becomes an exhibition space, an allotment garden a stage, and the discipline of international potato salad research establishes itself through a competitive tasting.

At the center of it all is the role of art: not as an illustration of reality, but as a means of shifting perceptions, revealing multiple realities, and questioning common narratives. 

!RRATIONALE is not a festival in the traditional sense.
It is an experimental setup in which different realities become visible simultaneously.

And the question is not which of them is true—but how much longer we can afford to pretend that there is only one.

The !RRATIONALE will take place from June 8 – 12, 2026, on the campus of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. It is organized by the Institut für Regionale Realitätsexperimente IRRE@bauhaus  and the University Gallery nova space in collaboration with students and staff from the Faculty of Art and Design.