Just a few days remain until the European Capital of Culture Esch2022 will be officially opened during the ceremony in the front of the town hall. In the background, hundreds of artists have already been working for many months to produce a colourful artistic program.

Until now, there is nothing but trees and birds in the Ellergronn, families go for a walk, the small restaurant at the end of the road serves lunch. Soon, the forest in the nature reserve at the outskirts of Esch will be a scene for an artistic project. The artist collective Maskenada will fill the trees, the earth and above all the strollers’ ears with stories. Their project “E roude fuedem duerch de roude Buedem” (A red thread through the red Earth) reshapes local legends, putting women in focus. Tammy Reichling, artistic director for the project, explains: “Mostly, these legends are told in a very short way and we want to give them a new narrative. Women are not very present in these legends, they are invisible, often they are witches, chatelaines, ghosts, ladies in white, the narrative is quite negative, and we want to give them a new narrative, new biographies and new identities.” Six legends about six towns in the south – Maskénada transforms them into performative storytelling, partly through an audio play, partly with live actors and visual installations. “We send people on a journey where they can explore these legends, in audio and performance arts”, Tammy Reichling says.

For the Ellergronn legend, author Annick Sinner gave an identity to the main character: “The story in Ellergronn is based on the legend of the Ellergronn castle, of the savage knight. There is actually no woman in the legend, we invented her. And she of course will be the most important person of the parcours.”

The six parts of the project take place in Esch, Dudelange, Differdange, Sanem, Bettembourg and Mondercange. The first one, in the Ellergronn, is going to welcome visitors from April on.

Illustration: Maskénada