„Schöne Welt, wo bist du?“ (Beautiful world, where are you?) is a verse by Friedrich Schiller and at the same time the festival motto of the 22nd International Schiller Days of the Nationaltheater Mannheim (NTM). Transferred to our present, it asks where in the thicket of successive and overlapping crises the paradise and beauty can still be found.

Based on the motto and the circumstances of the theatre's new venue in the Altes Kino Franklin (Old Cinema) on the former US Army barracks, Sven Bergelt and Kai-Hendrik Windeler have designed a site-specific festival centre; the NTM-ISLAND.

The Benjamin Franklin Village was an independent place in Mannheim; an island within the city. Currently, the conversion site is being redeveloped into a new and modern district, with a promise of a better future. So a new island within the city.

As with the design of the new venue of the Altes Kino Franklin, the transformation of the conversion areas plays a central role. Shapes from the cartographic outlines of Mannheim's former barracks sites as well as specific colour assignments of the NTM's temporary venue result in a camouflage pattern that can be understood as a reminiscence as well as an appropriation of military use and history.

The quotes on the flags are similar. They come from the magazine "Messenger", which was published especially for the soldiers stationed in the garrison city. They tell of the relationship between the US soldiers and the inhabitants of Mannheim. With the crossing out, traces of the military past remain visible and nevertheless refer to the overwriting and transformation of the area.