Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug / Daniel Wetzel)

Ursula Gärtner, Transylvanian Saxon from Romania, in collaboration with a computer linguist, engages in a dialogue with AI-generated versions of herself from different decades. “Futur4” reconstructs memories, challenges assumptions, and offers audiences a dynamic exploration of human biography in its compelling vision of the future.

As a child in the 1970s, Ursula Gärtner was “ransomed” from Romania to western Germany with her family, as one of thousands of Transylvanian Saxons. With no option to return. In Romania, they were the foreign Germans; in Germany, they were somehow German Romanians.

Torn between her multiple identities, she now reflects on which of her hopes for the future have been realised and considers the kind of world she wants for her son, who is about to become a parent himself.

In collaboration with a computer linguist, she engages in a dialogue with AI-generated versions of herself from different decades. Now, 50 years into the future, her younger self converses with her real-life counterpart about migration, freedom, and belonging. “Futur4” reconstructs memories, challenges assumptions, and offers audiences a dynamic exploration of human biography in its compelling vision of the future.