In June, the Performing Exiles interdisciplinary festival will take place across several Berlin locations. From 15th to 25th, a program of artistic performances will question, explore and reflect on the concept of exile. Berlin is a place well suited to the topic: a city from which artists were forced into exile in the last century, it now draws artists from all over the world. This is reflected in the festival’s diverse program: its artistic references to exile occur against the backdrop of the Russian war in Ukraine and crises in Iran and Lebanon. In their play Hartaqāt, Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué tell the stories of three authors driven to leave Lebanon. Meanwhile, Iranian director Amir Reza Koohestani deals with the acute situation in Iran in his work Blind Runner, which describes constant struggles against social conditions in the country. Also in the line-up is Stas Zhyrkov and Martín Valdés-Staubers’ Ukrainian-German play News from the past, which considers how we can document violence without reproducing it.
The subject is all-embracing, and the contributions far-reaching: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s search for pan-African identity in his debut production Ancestral Visions of the Future, the Exile Promenade performative walk by director Ada Mukhína, and Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ choreography idiota, which is dedicated to Pandora’s box and comprehensive questions about evil and death. Curious? The festival takes place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele as well as various other venues across the city. Particularly recommended is the opening concert by Zhadan I Sobaky followed by a party in the Kassenhalle, where the Senegalese curator and multidisciplinary artist Alibeta resurrects the Pinguin Bar after more than 70 years. It was a place for jazz, resistance and black activism for a short time in 1949. The line-up is curated by Matthias Lilienthal with curatorial advice from Rabih Mroué.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Credit: “Exile Promenade” von Ada Mukhína, Grafik von Nikoleta Markovic, Foto von Mathias Drücker ; “Blind Runner” von Amir Reza Koohestani, Mehr Theatre Group, Benjamin Krieg; “Depois do silêncio” (Nach der Stille) von Christiane Jatahy, Nurith Wagner-Strauss, Wiener Festwochen
Performing Exiles (15–25.06.2023)
Check out the full program here.
@berlinerfestspiele
