The Berlin Autumn Salon is back, and with it, urgent questions that need to be discussed. Since 2013, the Maxim Gorki Theater‘s festival has invited artists, thinkers, and audiences to renegotiate the present. The 7th edition is entitled Яe:Imagine: The Red House, and turns the Gorki into an open house for debate and art. The program is as diverse as it is intense. Theater premieres meet performances, dance, and music. The festival kicks off with the premiere of Das Rote Haus (The Red House) by Ersan Mondtag & Till Briegleb, inspired by the stories of Stresemannstraße 30 residents and texts by Emine Sevgi Özdamar. In addition, there are works such as Androgynous. Portrait of a Naked Dancer (Lola Arias & River Roux), exploring border crossers between the 1920s and today, and To Be in a Time of War (Murat Dikenci) featuring the poetry of Etel Adnan. Also included are Orit Nahmias’ radically honest Make Love Not War and Yoldas. Frauen, die einander halten (Yoldas. Women Who Hold Each Other) (Nihan Devecioğlu), a poetic-musical collage about the realities of workers in the 1970s and collective empowerment. With Todesfuge, Nazanin Noori transforms Paul Celan’s literary legacy of the same name into a spoken-word opera. Formats shift between levels: sometimes the Herbstsalon is a concert hall, sometimes a reading stage, sometimes a club night. It’s an artistic journey that confronts political questions instead of ignoring them. The Gorki remains what it has always been: a place for voices that are too often silenced — diverse, loud, resistant. The Herbstsalon shows how art not only reflects society but also has the power to transform it.
Text: Inga Krumme / Credit: Ima Li Snijega?, Danica Dakić, 2024, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; Esra Rotthoff
Maxim Gorki Theater, Am Festungsgraben 2, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
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