A six-month program of Australian performance, literature, visual arts and film at cultural venues in Berlin, expected to involve more than 80 artists, was launched yesterday at the city’s Hebbel Theater. Organised by German theatre administrator Maria Magdalena Schwaegermann and supported by a host of organisations – including Australia Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Film Commission – the ‘artsaustralia berlin 02’ program will feature work such as Nigel Jamieson’s The Theft of Sita, William Yang’s Blood Links, Rosalind Crisp's raft, readings by Peter Carey and David Malouf, performances by the Sandy Evans Jazz Trio, and a festival of recent Australian film. Following similar successful initiatives in New York (‘Next Wave Down Under’) and Madrid (‘Australia at ARCO’), the Berlin project hopes to build on the fact that Germany is already the world's second largest market for Australian Indigenous art. According to a statement from the Australia Council, Schwaegermann, who is Deputy Director of the Hebbel and Artistic Director of the Zurich Festival, was ‘”knocked” out by the diversity and vibrancy of the arts [here]… and by the engagement with other cultures through artistic initiatives and cross-cultural collaborations.’ Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, commented that the program was a ‘direct outcome of Australia’s long-term arts export strategy,’ and is expected to create both German and wider European market opportunities.