It’s been almost 30 years since half a million people gathered on Alexanderplatz for the largest demonstration ever in the history of the GDR. The “Immersion” event series at Haus der Berliner Festspiele reminisces on the spirit of optimism during the year between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1990 reunification of Germany. The Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic), former seat of East Germany’s parliament, will be symbolically reconstructed as a space of possibilities and a site for open discourse. For one entire weekend, it will function as a reimagined setting for activists, musicians and theater performers to participate at round tables as if back in 1989, drawing on the reformist strategies of the civil rights movement in its heyday. Writer Bernhard Schlink will speak at this experimental assembly, as will art historian Bénédicte Savoy, philosopher Susan Buck-Morss and former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis. A dance piece by Trajal Harrell, a performance by artist collective Cheap and a “Musikpalast” curated by André de Ridder will round out the program. In a world once again coming apart at the seams, hope remains that this polyphonic and independent parliament of the future can playfully generate ideas for a new, transnational European constitution. (Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Emanuel Florakis, Burkhard Peter, Goranka Matic)
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstr.24, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf; map
Tickets for “Palast der Republik – Art, Discourse & Parliament” are available online
Fri 8.3.2019, from 18h; Sat & Sun 9.3.-10.3.2019, from 12h
