The People's Council
Antje Schupp and #EmptyChairs Campaign / December 2026
Basel, Hamburg, Palermo, Berlin, Johannesburg
©#EmptyChairs Campaign
The Peoples’ Council is a performance, a campaign and a protest. It is the artistic creation of the ambition of the #EmptyChairs Campaign, which is to create a counter model to the existing, UN Human Rights system: The People’s Council. This council becomes reality on stage, in public space and most importantly: together with the audiences and people partaking in it.
The People's Council focuses on questions of political participation and aims to radically transform the existing state-centric, highly polarized, almost to the point of a deadlocked UN system. Come join our artistic-activistic experiment! We'll be taking the streets and the stages. The People's Council is a satellite project, also testing new ways of co-creating internationally, with allies and councils planned so far in Basel, Zurich, Palermo, Berlin and Johannesburg.
Concept, direction, core team performing: Antje Schupp
Activist, core team performing: Carrie Shelver (#EmptyChairs Campaign)
Activist, core team performing: Pooja Badarinath (#EmptyChairs Campaign)
Co-creation, mobilizing: #EmptyChairs Campaign
Scenography: Christoph Rufer
Dramaturgy: Eva-Maria Bertschy
Technical Director, Light Design: Thomi Kohler
Production Management, Diffusion: DasTheaterKolleg, Antje Schupp
Production born2perform and #EmptyChairs Campaign
In co-production with Kaserne Basel
with the generous support of Fachausschuss Darstellende Künste Tanz & Theater BL/BS
Collaborations / Partners
Kampnagel Hamburg
Studio Rizoma Palermo
Theaterspektakel Zurich
Ballhaus Ost Berlin
Windybrow Arts Center / Market Theater Johannesburg
