The pad

The pad or performance art depot is the center of performance art in Rhineland-Palatinate. Besides the works of Schmitt&Schulz the pad program also includes several guest performances and is the host of two international festivals per year.  The spiral staircases are taking you downstairs where you will find former wholesale business rooms that are now containing a huge hall, a 100qm stage and a foyer. Different seating areas invite you to linger and discuss before finally entering the stage. The pad equipment, the light and sound system and the backstage area are specially made for the pad. As artistic directors and curators of the pad, Nic Schmitt and Peter Schulz represent a clear aesthetic line that deals with the style and approach of their own work covers: pad: guarantees cheerful, frightening, astonishing, inspiring, but in any case pleasant evenings.

Schmitt&Schulz talking about their work at the pad:

The pad (performance art depot) was founded in November 2017 and is operated as a play and production location for contemporary forms of presentation. Since then we produced numerous performances, installations, choreographed performances, extraordinary performances and many other.

The pad is located in the basement of a former wholesale warehouse residential building in the Mainz Neustadt district and has a small ground floor entrance on Leibnizstraße (46). Located directly next to the Vietnamese restaurant Hanoi, the entrance of the pad looks as if it was a small café. The large hall with 100sqm stage and cozy foyer with armchairs and sofas can only be seen by descending the spiral staircase in the entrance foyer.

Beginning with the several borrowed furniture and technique equipment and an improvised office the pad is very well equipped. Next to the fully equipped offices the pad also includes a large stage with a dance floor and black curtains with a complete set of technical equipment, a grandstand and showers for artists. .

The cozy foyer was step by step equipped with furniture.

Many visitors find the retro look and the home like atmosphere very comfortable. Our goal in separating and setting up the foyer area was to create a meeting place for the audience and artists. For us, performers and directors should be accessible to the audience.

That’s why we invite the audience to take part in a Q&A session with the artists.

As far as the program is concerned, we have a clear curatorial line that also complies with the style and approach of our own productions.

We only invite artists whose work we have seen. Even if it is only a sequence form a video. As a quality feature we do not count on references because for us only the quality of the artistic works count.  In addition to an aesthetic expression and the presence and authenticity of the performers, this also includes a certain entertainment value. Only when the performance finds a way to attract the attention of the viewer, it can also convey content.

We are always happy when we succeed in gaining viewers for whom performance has always been a rather daunting, elitist and intellectually defamed art form. Suddenly those new audience members are pleasantly surprised that they had an exciting, stimulating pleasant evening in the pad. „