THE ART OF STAYING MANY | Berlin

Video still on the animated event trailer. The Chameleon Theater and Sophiensaele buildings stand side by side. A golden flag flies on the roof and golden hearts fly through the scene. In dark letters "Berlin 21.+22.06." and the logos of Chamäleon Theater and Sophiensaele. © Roman Hagenbrock

21. and 22. June 2024 | Sophiensæle, Chamäleon Theater

The Berlin forum focussed on historical and contemporary resistance practices and international artistic input as well as the question of what alliances and coalitions are needed for an anti-fascist struggle in a democratic society. In the Sophiensæle, the activist research revue "Bitter Fields" from Saxony-Anhalt and the banquet performance "The Last Supper" by the Brazilian collective MEXA about the duty to tell the stories of those who are no longer with us complemented the Berlin discussion program.

Program

Friday, 21.06.2024

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

THE ART OF STAYING MANY – Alliances and solidarity against anti-Semitism!

with Shlomi Moto Wagner (performance artist, opera singer), Heinrich Horwitz (director, choreographer, actor), Jonathan Shapiro (Drummer),Prof. Marion Hirte (dramaturge, UDK Berlin), Carolin Millner (theater director, Eleganz aus Reflex), Noam Brusilovsky (theater and radio play maker), Jonathan Shapiro (drummer) ,Shelly Kupferberg (journalist, author) in conversation with Dr. Felix Klein (Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism)

In light of global geopolitical crises and conflicts as well as the rise of antisemitism everywhere, including and not least in Germany, journalist and author Shelly Kupferberg will moderate a space with various positions and (artistic) visions for alliances and solidarity against antisemitism. What impetus can be taken from these positions and applied to the political discourse? Kupferberg will then discuss this with the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, Dr. Felix Klein.

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater
  • Translation: German Sign Language
11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Working phase I: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: The concept of antisemitism and current debates

Working session with Professor Uffa Jensen, Center for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin

In recent years, the art scene has been repeatedly rocked by antisemitism scandals. Invitations, disinvitations, boycotts, cancel culture. This session will provide an overview of the concept of antisemitism in various contexts and also place it in a historical context.

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. Joint lunch break at the Chamäleon


Alliances: THE ART OF STAYING MANY

Discussion and networking with the Berlin-based initiative Die Vielen (part 1)

In recent years, many civil society associations have joined forces with actors from arts and culture to stand up for the rights and freedoms of our democracy, enshrined in the Basic Law, through actions, approaches and exchanges and to campaign against hatred, hate speech, discrimination and right-wing extremism. The Berlin-based Die Vielen will present their work and recent actions in two working sessions. Questions about how, where, when, with whom and in what way are very welcome. Other action alliances and initiatives will be guests in this working session (including BFDK/Programm: Demokratie fördern). The aim is to transfer knowledge and share experiences as well as practical and proven examples of how each individual can actively get involved.

  • Venue: Canteen (Sophiensæle)
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. Joint lunch break in the Chamäleon


Knowledge: "Hitler salutes and theater pistols"

Lecture by Oliver Zahn on the thresholds at which art stops.

Using practical examples from over 10 years of artistic research, Oliver Zahn looks at the dividing lines between what is permitted as art and what is instead prohibited by law - from the Hitler salute to recent terrorist attacks in Germany.
  • Venue: Hochzeitssaal (Sophiensæle)
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. Joint lunch break in the Chamäleon
2:30 p.m. – 3:45p.m.

Keynotes

by Sookee, (musician, anti-fascist, mother), Şeyda Kurt (journalist, author, speaker) and Luce deLire (philosopher, author, media theorist)

“Voluntariness - an ingenious concept”

Impulse from Sookee (musician, anti-fascist, mother)

The world is complex and not fair. Marginalized people in particular are subject to enormous external regulations that structurally drill into their lives. What possibilities do we have to shape society progressively in the intersection of critical self-determination and lived solidarity in such a way that we are neither threatened by bitter activist burnout nor does feel-good activism water down radical concerns?

“Hate”

Impulse by Şeyda Kurt (journalist, author, speaker)

Alongside her current book “Hass”, journalist and author Şeyda Kurt talks about a “politics of feelings” and thus opens up a space for thought in which surprising insights into personal and political emotional states emerge and “strategic emotions” become (tangible) as potentials for empowerment and resistance in the political space/struggle.

“Shadow democracies: The subcutaneous in law-making”

Impulse by Luce deLire (philosopher, author, media theorist)

We have observed a double movement in recent years: Legislation is retreating behind the courts and individual responsibility. At the same time, it is creating sub-legislative, subcutaneous norms that may not be justiciable, but are nevertheless effective. The result is a depoliticization of politics in the light of a shadow democracy.

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater (Saal)
  • Translation: German Sign Language
3:45 p.m.

Coffee break (Sophiensæle)

4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Work phase II: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: "Denazify yourselves!"

Workshop with Luce deLire

Using original texts, this workshop is dedicated to strategies with which the courts of the young Federal Republic of Germany left Nazi crimes unpunished. It will also look at the role of German jurisprudence in the financial stabilization of West Germany in the 1950s and 60s. Finally, using the example of rights for trans people in the Self-Determination Act, the continuities of these practices in the present will be discussed.

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater (Saal)


Alliances: THE ART OF STAYING MANY

Discussion and networking with the Berlin initiative Die Vielen (part 2)

Moderation: Eva Hartmann.

In two working sessions, Berlin's Die Vielen will present their work and recent actions – the second part in the afternoon will focus on upcoming actions and projects, their planning, organization and participation. Questions about how, where, when, with whom and in what way are very welcome.

  • Venue: Canteen (Sophiensæle)


Practice: "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

About an open and aggressive culture of remembrance

A workshop by i can be your translator (Linda Fisahn, Christoph Rodatz)

​ ​If you don't know, you can't remember. In 2015, the group i can be your translator decided to focus on the so-called euthanasia murders of people with disabilities under National Socialism. Some members had already heard about this topic. Some had been affected themselves. And some had not been told about the topic in order to "protect" them. During their two-year research for the play "Das Konzept bin ich," the group discovered how large the gaps still are when coming to terms with and remembering the murders and what continuities can still be traced today. As part of the workshop, i can be your translator will report on their often challenging artistic work processes and try out some of their approaches.

  • Venue: Hochzeitssaal (Sophiensæle)
5:30 p.m.

Option for dinner at the Sophiensæle

7:00 p.m.

„Bitter Fields“

Performance by les dramaturx

Bitter Fields is an activist research revue consisting of ¾ white spots, ⅝ dramatic trains of thought and 100% flashes of insight. The performance collective les dramaturx ask themselves whether there is a connection between the rise of the political right and climate change, and they come to the bitter realization that they themselves are much more entangled than they would like.

  • Venue: Hochzeitssaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Further information and tickets: www.sophiensaele.de
8:30 p.m.

„The Last Supper“

Performance by MEXA

Based on the Last Supper, the Brazilian collective MEXA invites you to a banquet performance about farewells. Between dishes and stories, the performers' lives intertwine with religious motifs. A celebratory and thought-provoking evening about the duty to tell the stories of those who cannot tell them – and an explosive moment of union that renews the vow of solidarity.

  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: Brazilian Portuguese
  • Translation: German and English surtitles
  • Further information and tickets: www.sophiensaele.de

Saturday, 22.06.2024

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Artistic keynote with Q&A

Moderation: Ana Teixeira Pinto

“BETWEEN (If the majority feels comfortable, can you speak of dictatorship?)”

Monologue by András Dömötör, performed by Aram Tafreshian

Exactly ten years after the premiere of the monologue “Notizen zu Hurenkinder Schusterjungen” (text: Sasha Marianna Salzmann) at the Maxim Gorki Theater, Hungarian director András Dömötor and actor Aram Tafreshian are facing even more radical questions with the same text. Was their character naive when, three years after Viktor Orbán's election as prime minister, she said that dictatorships were impossible in the EU? Or is it conceivable that the first impressions of a growing populist regime from 2014 are similar to the political changes that are only just taking place in Germany? With our naivety, aren't we too late again to stop right-wing extremism in Europe?

  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)


„Battered but not yet completely silenced”

Keynote by Zeyno Pekünlü

Over the past 10 years the political scene in Turkey has been extremely volatile and unstable. In the absence of state support for the arts, almost all major art institutions are founded and run by wealthy business dynasties, enabling the establishment of contemporary art production that is seemingly independent of the ideological and material domination of the state. The relationship between the state, the institutions and the creative artists is uniquely tense due to this structure. The lecture will focus on areas of friction and conflict between these different actors over the last decade and describe the complex alliances and various strategies for resistance.

  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: English
11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Work phase I: Workshops & discourse formats

Knowledge: “FREESZFE movement”

Staged reading by Zsófia Tóth and Bernát Gloviczki

Discussion with Mihály Csernai and András Dömötör Text: András Dömötör, Dóra Molnár

Two drama students present fragments from their diaries visualized with videos and photos, chronicles of the occupation of the Budapest Theater Academy in 2020. The Hungarian government threatened to withdraw the academy’s autonomy. Followed by a discussion with the leader and main organizer of the occupation, Mihály Csernai.
A cooperation with the Katona Theater Budapest

  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: English
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. joint lunch break at the Chamäleon


Alliances: „Battered but not yet completely silenced”

Working session by Zeyno Pekünlü

The working session aims to discuss and collaboratively develop the multi-layered structures of local and global events and political struggles in order to make visible the invisible connections between unconnected collectives and organizations and to create a shared environment in which they can evolve. The session is a proposal to discuss the cycle of alliances and moments of solidarity within their specific history(ies), not in order to remember them in a melancholy way, but to rethink their emancipatory potentials.

  • Venue: Canteen (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: English
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. joint lunch break in the Chameleon


Knowledge: „Principles and practice” (Part 1)

with Vicki Dela Amedume (UPSWING)

In spring 2021, a toolkit was developed in the UK to identify the basic expectations of companies, venues and artists when it comes to touring production. Three years on, the question is what production and touring look and feel like for global, majority-owned companies. How can anti-racism principles be applied in a real-world context where resources are often limited, and how do principles survive this process?

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater(Saal)
  • Language: English
  • 1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m. joint lunch break in the Chamäleon Theater
2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.

Political Power as Commons – The Rediscovery of Polish "Solidarity" (Solidarność)

Keynote speech by Jan Sowa

The emergence of "Solidarity" (Solidarność) in Poland in the early 1980s – a massive trade union with 10 million members – shook the foundations of the Soviet bloc. However, "Solidarity" wanted more than a simple transformation of the post-Bolshevik regimes into parliamentary democracies. It strove for something that still appears today as a radical political program: the idea of "commoning" – the people’s fight to place the basic resources and mechanisms of social life under their direct democratic control – and the creation of a genuine "commonwealth."

The lecture will address the rediscovery of "Solidarity"’s radical legacy and reformulate it in the contemporary conceptual terms of the "commons."
  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: English
3:45 p.m.

Coffee break (Sophiensæle)

4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Work phase II: Workshops & discourse formats

Practice: „AJAIB - A Working Session about Camouflage and Self-censorship”

Working Session with Göksu Kunak

Ajaib is a working session that deals with the concepts of camouflage and self-censorship. The concept of taqiyya in Islam is at the center of a deeper exploration of camouflage: a kind of hyper-camouflage in the sense of merging with a figure and camouflage as protection.

  • Venue: Hochzeitssaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: English


Practice: "Colonastics" - training lecture

Training lecture with Joana Tischkau (Performance), Elisabeth Hampe (Performance), Frieder Blume (Sound)

Colonastics was developed in 2020 by Joana Tischkau and Elisabeth Hampe as a performative fitness workout that deals with the social construction of whiteness. It appeared as a video format and as a multi-day installative performance project. As a blueprint of white male embodiment, it sheds light on the colonial and neo-colonial practices of the fitness industry, which produces and shapes our bodies and thus also our ideologies. In this workout lecture, Joana Tischkau shares her research process and gives participants a best-off into the various workout techniques.

  • Comfortable clothing is recommended.
  • Venue: Canteen (Sophiensæle)


Knowledge: „Principles and practice” (Part 2)

Working Session with Vicki Dela Amedume (UPSWING)

Continuation of the morning's work phase

  • Venue: Chamäleon Theater (Saal)
  • Language: English
5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.

Option for dinner at the Sophiensæle

7:00 p.m.

„Bitter Fields“

Performance by les dramaturx

Bitter Fields is an activist research revue consisting of ¾ white spots, ⅝ dramatic trains of thought and 100% flashes of insight. The performance collective les dramaturx ask themselves whether there is a connection between the rise of the political right and climate change, and they come to the bitter realization that they themselves are much more entangled than they would like.

8:30 p.m.

„The Last Supper“

Performance by MEXA

Based on the Last Supper, the Brazilian collective MEXA invites you to a banquet performance about farewells. Between dishes and stories, the performers' lives intertwine with religious motifs. A celebratory and thought-provoking evening about the duty to tell the stories of those who cannot tell them – and an explosive moment of union that renews the vow of solidarity.

  • Venue: Festsaal (Sophiensæle)
  • Language: Brazilian Portuguese
  • Translation: German and English surtitles
  • Further information and tickets: www.sophiensaele.de

Registration and accessibility

The day ticket is valid for the Sophiensæle and Chamäleon Berlin. Allocation to the individual workshops takes place on site. The day ticket entitles you to reduced admission to the guest performances "The Last Supper" (Sophiensæle) and "Bitter Fields" (Sophiensæle). When registering for the daytime program, a discount code will be generated for tickets to the evening performances.

Free day tickets:

https://sophiensaelediskurs.reserv....

Tickets evening program:

• „Bitter Fields“ (Sophiensæle): https://sophiensaele.reserv...

• „The Last Supper“ (Sophiensæle) und „Bitter Fields“ (Sophiensæle): https://sophiensaele.reserv...

Accessibility

Please note the accessibility information for the Sophiensӕle and Chamäleon Theater.

The keynote speeches on 21.06.2024 will be held with simultaneous translation into German Sign Language. If possible, workshops with German Sign Language interpretation can also be offered. Please send inquiries to barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com.