HAUthek

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley works in the fields of animation, sound, performance, archive and video game development. The artist presents their work online, such as with Factory Manchester, or in exhibitions at MoMA in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Kunsthalle Geneva, among others. Brathwaite-Shirley often takes a journey back into colonial history and shows its effects on contemporary societies. With “Resurrection Lands”, playable for a short period on HAU4, the artist returns to HAU after 2022 and 2023. The online game deals with the effects of “trans tourism”. Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley uses this term to describe the voyeuristic way in which Black trans people are portrayed and criticises the exploitation of painful and traumatic experiences of Black people through this behaviour: They are thus robbed of their history and need a way to reclaim it. In “Resurrection Lands”, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley uses speculative fiction to give Black trans ancestors their place in history back: “We have discovered advanced technology to scan the earth and digitally bring back the buried memories of Black trans ancestors.” But the archive of “Resurrection Lands” does not remain a place of adequate remembrance for long. History takes a different course than desired ...

The performative publication “The Words of the Arty Class” examines intersectional class and racism in the art field. The starting point is forms of speechlessness in a society in which criticism of injustice too often goes unheard. The magazine launch presents artistic and theoretical contributions, social criticism and gossip, including “Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss” by Corç George Demir. Snippets from the following sources are used: Uschi Blum / Hape Kerkeling mit Nela Lee bei “Wetten Dass” Backstage “Die WIENER THEATER im Wandel der Zeit!”  Eröffnung Salzburger Festspiele Simon, Frank (director), Litvinoff, Si, Herbert, Don (producers) (1968): The Queen

We’ve had enough! The “House of Self-Defence” looks back on the tradition of queer feminist and anti-racist resistance. What kind of knowledge can arm you against violence? FLINTA* and queer cis men, especially BPOC, are welcome to take part in workshops on self-defence techniques. Afterwards, the “House of Self-Defence” opens its doors. From 21:30, we end the evening at CAN with a DJ set by Neda Sanai aka Nedalot. “Kein schöner Archiv” is a collective under the artistic direction of Michael Annoff and Nuray Demir. It archives the immaterial heritage of post-migrant society live and in public.

Founded by Daniel Glatzel in Berlin in 2006, the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra draws on a colourful spectrum of jazz, traditional music styles from all over the world, avant-garde, independent, and electronica in an attempt to expand and transcend musical boundaries. Malawian music has also strongly influenced the compositions of the orchestra. Largely ignored by Western media, hurricanes and droughts have had devastating consequences on the East African country's rural population. These effects of climate change are exacerbated by takeovers from seed monopolies and the restructuring of the local economy according to capitalist, profit-driven logic. With the charity concert at HAU1, the musicians now want to draw attention to the situation in Malawi and the responsibility of the Global North: They are sending a signal of support and donating their fees to local aid projects that are working to counteract the dire situation.

“Introducing this live online performance, a class analysis of Saint Denis. It’s like a basic crash course in Marxism, but done in the most capitalist medium of our times, the video game”. Thus begins the machinima film by Total Refusal, the multiple award-winning group from Vienna. Machinima (machine+cinema) is the production of films using video games with new storylines and scripts. Creators arrange to meet in virtual worlds, usually popular games, attempting to tell stories of their own, often speaking their own prepared lines. So-called non-playable characters (NPCs) are often given a new role. In “Red Redemption”, we find ourselves in Saint Denis, based on the US-American city of New Orleans during the beginning of the 20th century. Workers toil in factories and sit in the mud outside their huts at night, while the bourgeoisie read newspapers and poetry in well-tended gardens or go to the theatre. Hundreds of NPCs meticulously enact the same class relations characteristic of both virtual and real urban capitalist cityscapes. In this sort of Marxist city tour that Total Refusal is restaging for HAU, the artists use political precision and humour in the mass medium of video games to analyse profit and surplus value, capital, and accumulation.

On 21 December 2020, the trial against the perpetrator of the anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynist attack in Halle on 9 October 2019 reached its verdict. The criminal proceedings involved 45 co-plaintiffs. The victims and their supporters showed a level of commitment that made the Halle trial something special – not just in German legal history but also in the history of left-wing solidarity. Three years on, survivors and joint plaintiffs as well as allies will talk about the trial, unmet demands, and the mutual support that continues to this day, along with disappointments with politics and society. Together, they will address the need to continue fighting hatred towards Jews, racial minorities, and women. * Quote from Naomi Henkel-Guembel

Over 20 million people worldwide play “The Elder Scrolls® Online”. The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is set 1,000 years ago in a fantasy world where players go on quests to slay monsters and collect treasures. The MMORPG is known for its open approach to character building, offering countless possibilities in designing your own avatar, including the option of non-human features. For the third time, HAU welcomes Berlin-based artists Eloïse Bonneviot and Anne de Boer to conduct workshops on gaming, followed by conversations with digital artist Gabriel Massan, and others. During the workshops, participants will experiment with character creation in the “The Elder Scrolls® Online” universe and explore their classes, customisations, and alliances. Besides highlighting avatar development as a tool for utopian worlds, the conversations will cover artistic research on role-playing games, world-building, and the medium of video games. What are the different roles that are assigned when playing? Drawing from this experience, how do character building and avatars reflect on our different contemporary worries? 8.12. Politics Behind Character Building 17:00 – 19:00: Workshop 20:00: Talk with The Mycological Twist, Fantasia Malware and Sarah Friend On the first “Quadrat Sampling“ evening, Eloïse Bonneviot & Anne de Boer invite the participants to develop their own character in “The Elder Scrolls® Online” during a workshop. The second part of the evening will be open to the public and consist of a talk with artist Sarah Friend. The conversation will revolve around the politics behind character building, avatars and online personas.  9.12. Collective Actions of the Characters 17:00 – 19:00: Workshop 20:00: Talk with The Mycological Twist, OMSK Social Club and Gabriel Massan The second evening of “Quadrat Sampling” will start with a workshop based on the different playable characters in “The Elder Scrolls® Online”. During the workshop, the audience will try to achieve different micro-quests and collective activities. This will be followed by a discussion open to the public between artists OMSK Social Club and Gabriel Massan. Looking at their experience and game design, how do they use the different assets and pitfalls of character making and inhabiting in their respective practices? Sarah Friend is an artist and software developer based in Berlin. In 2023, she was a research fellow at Summer of Protocols, led by Venkatesh Rao and the Ethereum Foundation. In 2022, she was a visiting professor at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York). She is represented by Galerie Nagel Draxler (Cologne, Berlin, Munich), and has exhibited at and worked with MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Metz), Kunsthaus Zürich, HEK (Basel), Haus der Kunst (Munich), ArtScience Museum (Singapore), Albright Knox Museum (Buffalo), and KW Institute (Berlin) among others. Gabriel Massan (born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist. Working with with 3D animation, digital sculpture, games, sound, and interactive installations, Massan creates worlds that simulate and narrate situations of inequality within the Latin American experience. Massan has presented talks and conversations at institutions including La Biennale di Venezia, Art Basel Miami, University College London, Royal College Of Arts and Institut Français. They have created significant commissions with Serpentine Arts Technologies (London, 2022-3), Bangkok Biennale (2022), The Photographers’ Gallery (London, 2022), and X Museum (Beijing, 2022). Fantasia Malware is an experimental video game label and collective based in Berlin. The group develop and publish video games, live performances and chaotic, corrupt software. The recent collective projects include “SEX! At Alexanderplatz”, “The Life of Saint Fiona Bianco Xena” and “Orchid Collecter”. In 2022 they produced the four-part event series “Fantasia Malware Presents”: a tiny cross section of the fizzing underbelly of video games, a late capitalist medium wrenched free from the grasp of the marketing team to make boundless alien dream worlds. Fantasia Malware is Jira Duguid, Chloê Langford and Gabriel Helfenstein. They worked together with the National Gallery (United Kingdom), the Royal Opera House Audience Labs (United Kingdom), Transmediale (Germany), A Maze Festival (Germany), Sickhouse (Netherlands) and ACUD Macht Neu (Germany), among others. OMSK Social Club is a collective whose artistic practice is created between two lived worlds – one of life as we know it and the other of role play. OMSK Social Club works closely with networks of viewers, everything is unique and unrehearsed. They have exhibited in various places such as Martin Gropius Bau, HKW, Light Art Space (Berlin), Volksbühne Berlin, Haus der Elektronischen Künste (Basel), Stroom den Haag. The collective was already presented at HAU during the festival “Spy on Me #2” (2020) as part of the programme by dgtl fmnsm.

Iranian feminist revolutionaries, Latin American “mulherismo”, Kurdish “women’s liberation” movements, and similar feminist approaches do not – as liberal and predominantly Western feminist agendas do – restrict themselves to demands for equal shares in the eroding paradigm of the current toxic way of life. Instead, they understand patriarchy to be intersectionally intertwined with extractivism, state violence, and capitalism. For those struggles, mostly originating in the South, feminism is more than a quest for equality or individual empowerment – it is a political project that aims at social justice and structural transformation: decolonization and planetary care work, political sovereignty, socialization of social reproduction, and revolutionary democratization of the everyday. Between June 30 and July 2, the gathering assembled prominent feminist movements, researchers, and cultural workers – Latin American collectives, Kurdish, Iranian, and North African liberation movements, as well as queer and trans-feminist positions – through a collective curatorial process. Here you can find a selection of video recordings.

“Morphogenic Angels” explores a future in which people gain transhuman abilities through organic modifications. These new beings are designated as angels. They can live for hundreds of years and possess the consciousness of all species: ancestral and natural, physical, extraterrestrial, animal, cellular and cosmic. In this first chapter of “Morphogenic Angels”, the artist collective Keiken takes the audience into this future post-capitalist world. In a controller game presented in an immersive installation at HAU3, the audience follows the characters Yaxu and Anamt’u’ul, who fall in love with each other but are also confronted with the consequences of their shared development in a metaverse. The installation includes a video-game screening and virtual reality and ponders which values will be paramount in an AI-mediated world.  The premiere was on 22.5.2023 at HAU3 See also: “Morphogenic Angels” Playthrough (Part 1) with Hungry “Morphogenic Angels” Playthrough (Part 2) with Serpentine Arts Technologies

HAU Hebbel am Ufer has invited the Berlin drag icon "Hungry" to develop a new playthrough for HAU4, in other words a commented livestream of a gaming session. For this, Johannes J. Jaruraak, who is behind the drag figure, is playing the new game by the artist collective Gruppe Keiken as a preview. One week before the premiere at HAU, the audience can immerse themselves in the world of "Morphogenic Angels" from home. The preview will be shown on the Twitch channel "hungxiety", where Jaruraak regularly invites people to playthroughs. The focus is always on fashion, design, make-up and high fashion. The artist designs the drag outfits for his performances exclusively for the respective evening and also makes them himself. They present a variety of aesthetics and worlds. At the same time, they are united by a surreal and melancholic aesthetic. Johannes J. Jaruraak describes his work as "distorted drag". He always sees his performances as empowerment against common ideals of beauty. The approximately three-hour preview begins with a "Get Ready With Me" in which Johannes J. Jaruraak transforms himself into "Hungry" and gives an insight into his fashion work. This is then followed by the commented game. The audience can participate via chat. Johannes J. Jaruraak was born in Bavaria and came to Berlin to study fashion and costume design. He then completed internships in London with Aitor Throup and Vivienne Westwood. He has been touring internationally with "Hungry" very successfully for several years, most recently presenting his performances in Australia and Japan. "Hungry" also has a large following on the Instagram profile "isshehungry" and the Twitch channel "hungxiety". In addition, the drag artist "Hungry" is now conquering the mainstream - for example in the music videos of the singer Björk, for whom Jaruraak also designed the album cover "Utopia".

On the occasion of the premiere of “Wenn der Regen kommt” we invite Svenja Kriegebaum, expert for sustainable cities in times of climate change, for a talk on the digital stage HAU4. Together with her and the group machina eX, we talk about sponge cities and the possibilities of counteracting the climate crisis with the help of geoengineering. Kriegebaum will also explain how Berlin’s water management system works: What actually happens to rainwater when it splashes down the storm drain? Why has water quality been a problem for many years, as in the Spree and the Landwehr Canal?   Svenja Kriegebaum is an engineer for urban infrastructure planning, a doctoral student at Berliner Wasserbetriebe and a team member of the Stormwater Agency Berlin.

“Burning Futures” brings political economist, expert on sustainability policy and transformation research and Scientists for Future co-founder Maja Göpel into conversation with revolutionary philosopher and feminist Eva von Redecker. Both have recently been raising their voices to push for profound change within the context of capitalism, growth logic, sustainability and authoritarianism. Alongside their criticism of the role of property and its distribution, they've been developing visions of the future – whether through political-economic transformation, as in Göpel's case, or through the power of a sharing community seen in recent protest movements, as in von Redecker's. In this discussion, they'll compare and contrast their ideas for necessary change – change based on regeneration rather than on the exhaustion of resources, natural cultures and people.

The interactive workshop series “FACE” experiments with the self-determined and political use of current and future technologies. In the sixth and final edition “FACE Your Demons”, the dgtl fmnsm team, together with artist Andara Shastika, explores the connection between monsters, ghosts and technology from a feminist and postcolonial perspective.

Emerging from the delirious limbo of lockdown the just over five hours long online performance “How the Time Goes” features Forced Entertainment in improvised Zoom-interactions with the pianist Marino Formenti, from separate locations including Sheffield, Berlin, rural France, London, Vienna and Budapest.  Recorded between March and May 2021, the work in seven parts extends the pandemic strangeness of the group’s “End Meeting for All” (which premiered in April 2020 at HAUOnline) to create a spiral patchwork of unedited fragments, neither diary nor fiction.  As the work progresses apparently aimless unbroken video calls drift from theatricality to unexpected intimacy and back again, creating a world in which people cook, practice piano, dance and sleep online.  Recorded in a single live take each episode of “How the Time Goes” lasts between 25 and 60 minutes, offering a mix of wry comedy and melancholic slow-time shenanigans as the group build on the porousness, connection and disconnection inherent in the new online situation to extend their long established modes of live performance and narrative deconstruction. 

With the concept of the Capitalocene, Jason Moore formulates a revolutionary thesis against the discourses of the Anthropocene: it is not humans per se that are responsible for environmental destruction and global warming but rather the capitalist mode of production – that only some humans profit from. Ever since Columbus's invasion of the Americas, global extractive capitalism has been turning the planet as a resource into ‘cheap nature’ and into a global waste dump. The Capitalocene is, according to Moore, a world ecology of power, production and reproduction, carried out through the exploitation of the ‘web of life’. But this logic is reaching its natural limits. The Capitalocene – including class rule, colonialism, patriarchy and fossil-fuelled production – will not survive climate change. Can we therefore hope for a moment of epochal political possibility, for a new ‘planetary justice’? The 11th edition of “Burning Futures” will first be shown as a livestream on HAU4 and will later be released again as a podcast.  

It is reasonable to situate the world on the verge of sense and NON-sense You go round and round and then you stop and you fall to the ground What is deader than dead?  (Ligia Lewis) Full of dark humour and surrealist imagery, Ligia Lewis’ new work “Still Not Still” evokes with poetic force a unique theatrical language, disrupting any fantasy of historical progress. The choreographic composition for seven performers deals with the centuries-old and ongoing exclusions of black and non-white people from the historical record. Can a history full of bad faith, gaps, and holes, particularly for those that fall outside its purview, be left to the past? Inspired by the image of an 8th century Black Madonna in Italy as well as a 14th century French “complainte” (lament), “Still Not Still” addresses these voids as “lacuna” – dark cave –  that have given those of us outside the privileges of white identity an ignorant self. She turns to the dark cave of the theatre space and negotiates the past within it to make another future possible. At the same time tragedy and comedy, the dance piece makes use of the playful, expressionless expressivity and dry, black comedy of “Deadpan”. Lewis designs a world outside of time in which dark gaps are tracked down and stasis is set in motion with the creative power of fictionalisation. Given history is fallible and insufficient, and overdetermined by its victors, what might emerge once it is laid to rest? “Still Not Still” takes shape as a prolonged lamento and offers a musical-performative reclamation, as a formal response to history. “Still Not Still” was originally planned for April 2021 as a dance premiere on the HAU1 stage. Due to the current situation, it is not possible for HAU and the artist to present this work live. Instead, a cinematic experience has been created until the production can be seen live.

As part of “Technologies for Impossible Repair”, “Oh, Lovely Appearance of Death” is a new video that reanimates Jeremy Wade’s artistic work through his ongoing exploration of ecstasy, untenable loss, queerness, and the lived experiences of depression and exhaustion. It is a collaboration with Darcey Bennett, Zander Porter, and the editor Ethan Folk. This is the first part of a longer video work that will come out in HAU4 later this year.   Hosts are a retinue of Wade’s threshold keeping archetypes: the ‘Dead Clown ’ from “Death Asshole Rave Video” 2015, the ‘Battlefield Nurse’, host of “The Future Clinic for Critical Care”, and ‘Puddles the Pelican’ whose speculative, irreverent, queer and flamboyant strategies embrace death to undo capitalist reproduction and unpack an urgent ethics of care. The video work is divided in two parts: “Crisis Karaoke 1” (2016) by Jeremy Wade and Karol Tyminski and “Crisis Karaoke 2” (2020) by Jeremy Wade, Darcey Bennett and Zander Porter. They work together to turn personal breakdowns into affective modes of solidarity aka structural break throughs. The videos reroute the personal symptom-based stigma of depression, anxiety and financial precarity into something that an audience can simply sing along too.

Jota Mombaça’s video work palpably expands upon the world of a fictional and dystopic short story, written by the artist and titled ‘The Birth of Urana.’ The protagonist in this piece evades a colonial, militant and authoritarian force by digging deep into the earth, and in doing so sets forth a material process of transition towards and integrated relationship with earthly matter itself. This story forms part of the artist’s larger practice, in which visions of the end of the world open new ways to think about inhabiting our bodies, as they structure and respond to our relationship with the natural environment. Jota Mombaça in this work envisions a body that transcends colonial binaries and expedient figurations of gender, sexuality and humanness which keep us separated from the natural world. “The Birth of Urana” was originally conceived as a text in 2017 and later remixed as single-channel video-installation, commissioned and presented in 2020 as part of the NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney.

With more than two billion users, Facebook influences our social, economic and political life in ways never before seen. Facebook infringes upon the right to self-determination of peoples and individuals in various ways. The corporation instrumentalizes users as neo-feudal data workers, selling their information to third parties. Facebook is used in various surveillance capacities that infringe upon privacy and further impacts democratic elections in disproportionate ways, of which data capture and targeted campaigns of Cambridge Analytica are a recent example. And the corporation has willfully advised authoritarian regimes such as that of Duterte in the Philippines. As part of “Spy on Me #2 – Artistic Manoeuvres for the Digital Present – Online Programme” the artist Jonas Staal and the lawyer Jan Fermon published the collective action lawsuit to force legal recognition of Facebook as a public domain that should be under ownership and control of its users. Staal and Fermon invite the public to join their lawsuit against Facebook that will be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva coming September 2020. On 26 March 2020 at 19:00 the launch of the campaign took place. From this moment onwards, all information about the campaign and the possibility to join the collective action lawsuit as well as the indictment itself can be found online at collectivize.org. Find an introduction on Youtube and HAU3000. On 9 June 2021, the pre-trial will take place on site and via livestream at the Theatre Rotterdam. With contributions by Quinsy Gario, Clara Balaguer, Jan Fermon, Jonas Staal and others. “Collectivize Facebook” encourages the imagination to picture how Facebook – as well as other multinational companies – could be run as common property in the public interest.

The “Deutsches Museum für Schwarze Unterhaltung und Black Music” (German Museum for Black Entertainment and Black Music) is Germany’s leading museum for black culture, popular music and history. It houses a comprehensive archive of vinyl records, magazines, autographs and memorabilia that are exhibited at a vibrant location for the communication and discussion of black history. A digital tour of the museum immerses the visitor into a movement that brings together stars from Mola Adebisi to Tic Tac Toe all the way to Sydney Youngblood. In their juxtaposition they gain a new visibility, so that similarities and differences in the staging strategies of the stars as well as the reception of the German audience are under discussion. Joana Tischkau, Anta Helena Recke, Elisabeth Hampe und Frieder Blume return to HAU Hebbel am Ufer after their residency two years ago. and present a newly developed, discursive as well as performative schedule of online programming with local guests as an exhibition for Berlin. PROGRAMME Friday, 11.12. 19:00 Opening with Jana Pareigis (Journalist / ZDF moderator) “Unboxing: Tic Tac Toe” Lecture by Dominik Djialeu (BERRIES Kollektiv) Live stream / available until 11.02. German   Saturday, 12.12. 19:00  Digital Tour of the Exhibition Online Premiere / available until 12.01. German 19:00  “Rassistische Imagination der Deutschen bzw. der Deutschen Schlager-Hörer:innen” Lecture by Julio Mendívil (Professor for Ethnomusicology) Afterwards: Talk with Randolph Rose (Singer and actor) / Moderation: Matthias Dell (Journalist)  Live stream / available until 11.02. German Sunday, 13.12. 12:00 “I Got Ants in My Pants and I Need to Dance. Geschichten aus dem Funkadelic” Memories of ex-operator Kerim Saka with clips by Rico Sparx (DJ Eddy Action) from the Funkadelic (FFM) Taped by Erol Nagel (DJ Feedback) 1986 Podcast / available until 11.02. German Tuesday, 15.12. 19:00  “Heute so, morgen so – Deutsche Musikgeschichte revisited” Reaction Video with Megaloh (EMI) & Amewu (Buback) Live stream / available until 11.02. German     Wednesday, 16.12. 19:00  “Black Voices – White Producers” / Talk with Lori Glori (Singer & Composer) & Sarah Farina (DJ & Producer) Live stream / available until 11.02. English Team Digital Tour Direction: Hai Anh Trieu. DOP: An Nguyen. Cut and Color Grading: An Nguyen. 1. AC: Tung Le. Light and Sound: Maximilian Wegner. Stage: Dominik Stillfried. Grip: Hannes Höber.

For feminists around the world Legacy Russell’s book “Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto” was a revelation - a vital new chapter in cyberfeminism, one that explores the relationship between gender, technology and identity. In her urgent manifesto, Russell reveals the many ways that the glitch performs and transforms: how it refuses, throws shade, ghosts, encrypts, mobilises and survives. She argues that we need to embrace the glitch in order to break down the binaries and limitations that define gender, race, sexuality. The divide between the digital and the real world no longer exists: we are connected all the time. What must we do to work out who we are, and where we belong? How do we find the space to grow, unite and confront the systems of oppression? For the festival “Spy on Me #3” Russell presents her arguments for the first time to the German public. The online presentation will start with a video essay of Russell, that lays out the world of “Glitch Feminism” and will be followed by a Q&A with the theory curator of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Margarita Tsomou. Read an excerpt from “Glitch Feminism” on HAU3000.

The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the epistemological shift that we were already going through, with the danger of a proliferation of new forms of biopolitical control, through medical, pharmacological devices as well as cybernetic surveillance. But together with new forms of control and intensification of racial, sexual and gender forms of oppression, the position of the patriarchal and colonial hegemonic subject is being questioned as never before and a multiplicity of processes of emancipation and becoming subject of those that have been objectified in the position of non-human by the colonial and patriarchal history is taking place. It is important to recognize these processes not simply as riots, but as a somatopolitical revolution, a transversal process of emancipation of living bodies against the political systems of extraction and distribution of energy and life on the Planet.  We would like to invite you to be part of this debate addressing the crucial role that the critique of colonial history, anti-racist discourses and practices, the critical relationship between gender, sex, sexuality, race and class forms of oppression, but also the need for interconnectedness of contemporary struggles will play in the current political mutation. Maria Galindo is an artist, performer, activist, writer and cofounder of the Bolivian collective Mujeres Creando. She brings the subaltern practices and knowledge of indigenous women into dialogue with the political and literary traditions of anarchism, punk and nonwhite feminism. The sociologist, writer and curator María Berríos explores issues traversing art, culture, and politics, focusing on Latin America, with a special interest in collective experiments of “Third World” alliances and their exhibition formats. She is part of the curatorial team of the 11th Berlin Biennale. Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro merges installations, sonic radio, live art performances, film & archives. Her work analyses processes of power and fictions in historical archives critically engaging in migrational struggles. Most recently she co-curated the programme “Radical Mutation: On the Ruins of Rising Suns” at HAU. Paul B. Preciado is a philosopher, curator and a pioneer in the fields of gender studies and philosophy of the body. His books, such as “Testo Junkie. Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era”), are considered key works of European queer and trans activism.  

For the “Spy on Me#2 – Artistic Manoeuvres for the Digital Present – Online Programme” the artist James Bridle recorded his lecture “Other Intelligences” in Greece, his place of residence. With this we will open the programme as planned on 20 March at 7pm, but now online. In his lecture Bridle asks: What does the current AI hype say about us? Why are we so obsessed with a technology that could control or destroy us? In the first part of his lecture, Bridle deals with these questions based on his succesful book “New Dark Age. Technology and the End of the Future,” which was also published in German last year. These are the questions that the artist James Bridle, whose book “New Dark Age” was published last year. He then suggests some manoeuvres for the future with which we can already start here and now. What might we learn from animals, plants and ecological systems? Which technologie do we want to use? What type of intelligence do we want?

On 13 January, we presented a pilot of our programme “‘Я выхожу!’ – Berlin meets Minsk” with an online discussion on the current situation in Belarus. A big part of the further planned programme had to be postponed due to lockdown. As part of the event, a new issue of the magazine pARTisanka, edited by Tania Arcimovich, will be published in cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Tania Arcimovich is an author, director and curator from Minsk. She studied theatre at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in Minsk and completed her master's degree in cultural studies at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. Since 2014, she has been curating exhibitions and realising cultural and educational projects together with the likes of the Gallery for contemporary art, Lohvinau Publishing House and international theatre forum TEART. From 2016 to 2019,  Arcimovich taught at the European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus. She is also the co-founder of the ziErne Performative Practices Platform and publisher of the magazine pARTisan / pARTisanka. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Olga Shparaga is a philosopher currently living in exile in Vilnius, where she works closely with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. She studied philosophy in Belarus and Germany, taught philosophy at the European Humanities University in Vilnius from 2001 to 2014, and was editor of the journal Novaja Eŭropa (“New Europe”) from 2006 to 2014. Since then, she has been a professor at the European College of Liberal Arts in Belarus. Shparaga has been a member of the feminist group of the Coordinating Council of the Opposition since its inception. Among her works are the pamphlet “Belarus! The Female Face of the Revolution”, published by edition.fotoTAPETA, and in 2021, Suhrkamp will publish her new book “Die Revolution hat ein weibliches Gesicht – Der Fall Belarus” (“The Revolution Has a Female Face – The Case of Belarus”). Katja Artsiomenka is a journalist and freelance writer for radio. She studied journalism in Belarus and Germany and in 2016 received her PhD from the Dortmund Institute of Journalism. Since the winter semester of 2019-20, she has been a professor of journalism at the University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management (HMKW) in Cologne. Her journalistic work has won awards such as the European Civis Media Prize for Integration and Cultural Diversity.

One of the “Wir treiben die Liebe auf die Weide“ crew‘s favourite songs is “Sing nur” by Hungarian singer Gjon Delhusa, which was released on AMIGA in 1978. Even the original is remarkably soft and doesn't sound like a grey Eastern Bloc cliché. On the HAU Youtube channel it is newly interpreted as a video premiere from home and in a summery version by Sidney Frenz (vocals), Erobique (keys), Marcel Römer (drums/bass), Paul Pötsch (guitar), Jan Schnoor (percussion), Pola Lia Schulten, Anna Suhr, Juno Meinecke, and Albrecht Schrader (choir). Turn up the volume and enjoy! The performances of the revue "Wir treiben die Liebe auf die Weide" originally planned for 9 and 10 April 2020 had to be cancelled due to the known circumstances. HAU Hebbel am Ufer is trying to find alternative dates.

19 February is the first anniversary of the racist attack in Hanau. Alongside an official memorial event on the day itself with the federal president and the minister-president of Hessen, the Initiative 19. Februar Hanau, which consists of relatives, survivors and affected persons, also extends an invitation to an act of collective mourning and remembrance on 14 February. HAU will be streaming the event live from Hanau: “We mourn and remember Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz and Gökhan Gültekin. (…) One year later, we say ourselves what will not be said (at the official commemoration): We speak about the failure of the authorities before, during and after the crime, about the slowness of the offices in providing support and assistance, and even in identifying the most serious problems – the coldness of the bureaucracy. We talk about the inexcusable misconduct of the security forces on the night of the crime, about the unwillingness and sloppiness of the public prosecutor's office and the police in the investigations, in the pursuit of leads, in taking new threats seriously, in our protection. We are talking about the recurring disrespect and degrading gestures of officials, representatives of authorities and police towards relatives and survivors and even towards the dead. We are talking about the normal state of institutional racism. One year later means for us, we accuse.” 19feb-hanau.org

At the end of an awful year, The Chap have made a very good film. A unique, exhilarating and multilayered take on that questionable cultural legacy of 2020: the self-isolation concert video. In the process, the band underwent a self-taught crash course in syncing and editing over ten hours of video and audio material into an exciting one hour nine-screen lo-fi blockbuster. They learned a lot about Go-Pro cameras and about integrating showers, kitchen sinks and Spaghetti Bolognese into a dynamic rock performance. And they realised how much they had been missing spending time and performing together. As one would expect from The Chap, “The Chap Live At Home”, is an emotional journey joining pop songs with rock power, disco moves with noise improv bursts, sadness with silliness, friendship with separation, home improvement with great-looking shorts. Watch the trailer here. Upon releasing their seventh full-length album, “Digital Technology”, in January 2020, The Chap managed to play a short 7-date tour of Germany before you-know-what forced them to cancel all further touring. So when they were asked to appear at this year’s edition of the Contemporary Art Festival of León (FIACmx), Mexico, they jumped at the chance to create something very special: a video version of that current live set, made up of songs from “Digital Technology” as well as a few key Chap classics. Since some members of the Chap live in London and others in Berlin, getting together in front of a camera to perform a “normal” gig was impossible. Instead, on 5 November 2020, at 9pm Central Mexican Time, a small, socially-distanced live audience in León were treated to a nine-screen visual extravaganza that’s part musical video conference, part rock concert movie: for the video, wearing Go Pro cameras on their heads, each half of the band performed the instrumental tracks while filming each other. They then filmed themselves performing the vocals in domestic or outdoor settings. Much more than the usual recorded live performance in a non-distinct room we have become accustomed to, this multi-perspective film tells the weird domestic story of all of us right now – via The Chap’s freakish intensity and edge. 

The pandemic-induced digitalization of local and global relations is accelerating the ways we organize communally, characteristic of networked publics. Now more than ever, collectivity is forming based on the possibilities and conditions of technological connectivity. As as result, newly emerging communities are reliant on the inaccessible and unreadable mechanisms of platform economies and surveillance capitalism, the stakeholders of which are profiting off of the pandemic. How do contemporary forms of meeting relate to these mechanisms? Do these calculated publics need to be dependent on the algorithms, echo chambers and modes of control of Twitter, Facebook, Clubhouse, etc.? Which arising practices of disruption, obfuscation and de-networking can act against the programming of the general public in online infrastructures? Even the bourgeois public sphere emerged via secret societies. Can a similar dialectic be found today that can, beyond rampant conspiracy theories, usher in new communities of solidarity? Timon Beyes is Professor of Sociology of Organisation and Culture at Leuphana University Lüneburg and at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He is a director of Lüneburg’s Centre for Digital Cultures and affiliated with the Digital Democracies Institute, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

Together with the performance collective Pink Valley, seven young actors have spent eight months researching their radical presence. The result, “Radical Present”, is a performative experiment, a search for presence in radical times, a sensuality without conditions, a liberation from tomorrow and yesterday, from the must and the should - but is it possible to keep performance alive in isolation? Probably yes and no. Our boundaries are forced and simultaneously blown up, we no longer know what is normal or what is real. It‘s about our relationships - to the world, to others and to ourselves. Radical presence despite radical absence. Switch on to our live online performance!

The Black German community has pointed out for decades that racism has penetrated all of the structures within our society. In the public debate, however, the search for a solution continues to take place only on an individual basis. Unfortunately, it will not be until we understand the structural dimensions of racism that we will be able to develop promising measures to work against it; after all, structural problems require structrual solutions. Natasha A. Kelly has been a regular part of HAU’s programming since 2015 and has made an essential contribution to furthering the discussions surrounding racism. With her new book, the communication sociologist has created a long overdue foundation for an informed dialogue about racism. On the basis of specific examples from the current debate, she shows where the structures of racism exist and how they have inscribed themselves upon German society. With this, Kelly provides elementary impulses for a productive discussion. For the book launch of “Rassismus. Strukturelle Probleme brauchen strukturelle Lösungen!” (“Racism. Structural Problems Require Structural Solutions!”), Natasha A. Kelly will be joined on stage by Achan Malonda for a live stream from HAU4.

“Befriending Ghosts” searches through cyberspace for ghosts, glitches, bugs, traces, leftovers and spooky temporalities. Over the course of a digital scavenger hunt, the visitors explore abandoned chatrooms, deserted Zoom sessions and the comment function of website that have long since been forgotten. They can rewrite Google Docs, leave digital echoes and hold virtual séances. What does it mean to leave things for a seeming eternity in a time and place that is always current? Can we come a step closer to a collective ghostliness by playing together with the everlasting digital leftovers of other people? How can we become a glitch ourselves and become a digital ghost? A scavenger hunt like a sleepless night where you clamber from link to link, get stuck, lose you way, immerse yourself in strange lives and locations, become acquainted with the unknown and from which you look up from the computer, wake up and ask yourself: are they only ghosts?

The opening night of “Radical Mutation: On the Ruins of Rising Suns” reflects on the forging of bridges between historical struggles for equality, anti-racism and representation in arts/culture and current efforts for radical change in cultural spaces. It features a musical prologue by Lamin Fofana and a conversation between Nyabinghi LAB (Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall, Tmnit Zere) and Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio (Moro Yapha Bino Byansi Bjakuleka, Muhammed Lamin Jadama), discussing visions of cultural realities that deeply reflect our complexities and become spaces for alliances, recovery and healing. The conversation is followed by a key note and performance by actor and comedian Idil Nuna Baydar. Through her famous fictional character Jilet Ayşe, an 18 year old Turkish girl from Neukölln, she performs a is a brilliant social satire that dimantles racist stereotypes, structural discrimination and the notion of integration. The String Archestra will perform fragments from Florence Price (Quartet in G-Dur 1936) and Fela Sowande (African Suite 1951–1952) to retrace the histories of composers from the Black Diaspora, whose music became entangled with narratives of liberation movements. The String Archestra is a chamber string ensemble created in 2016 in Berlin to empower musicians of color in classical music and to recognize composers who have been overlooked in music history because of their ethnicity and gender. Musical Prologue: Lamin Fofana Introduction: Nyabinghi LAB (Tmnit Zere, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall) and Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio (Moro Yapha Bino Byansi Bjakuleka, Muhammed Lamin Jadama) Performance: Idil Nuna Baydar as Jilet Ayşe Music: String Archestra

In his book “Israel - A Utopia”, the Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm speaks about liberal democracy, the politics of memory and ethnic nationalism. He calls for a commitment to the universalism of expanding citizenship to all residents of the region, regardless of their ethnicity. In support of this, he will discuss alternative future visions for Israel and the necessity of a radical universalism as a guiding principle for progressive politics together with the sociologist Eva Illouz and the director of the Einstein Forum, Susan Neiman.

In the three-part podcast series “Artistic Manoeuvres for the Digital Present”, theatre maker and journalist Sarah Fartuun Heinze speaks with participants from the digital lab (online hackathon and residencies) at HAU Hebbel am Ufer. What's it about? The theatre of the future – which, of course, is digital. Right? #1: Online Hackathon A glimpse behind the scenes of #HAUonline – Hackathon: How did the idea come about? What is a hackathon, anyway? How can we imagine what a digital residency looks like? A conversation with HAU dramaturge Sarah Reimann, Ulla Heinrich from dgtl fmsmn and Christiane Hütter about theatrical, and especially digital, spaces for potential. #2: Residencies for the Digital Lab In the second episode, Sarah Fartuun Heinze meets not just the residents themselves – she also gets to know their own visions of the theater of the future. A conversation with the resident artists from the projects “Bodies of Resistance” (Paola Bascon), “The Feeling is Mutual” (Sofia Insua) and “Pixelrave” (Derin Cankaya). #3: The Future of Digital In the third and final podcast episode, In the third and final episode, we take stock of the project as a whole and look towards the future: What could and should they look like, these artistic maneuvers for the digital present?

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”  James Baldwin “Superspreaders” are here to spread their political views on racism, gender, antisemitism; body-shaming and self-love, while not eliminating the importance of emotions in politics. With the support of the artists Anna Fries and Göksu Kunak, the students of the ‘Kulturklasse’ (culture class) – guided by the teacher Andreas Danner – got inspired for their Instagram contributions by “Pleasure Activism” (adrienne maree brown), the work of trans activist and artist Kübra Uzun, and other artists and activists that use social media as their medium. In their contributions, the students voice their concerns and views on discrimination that are also linked to self-hatred or lack of compassion. 

MIMIMI Space is an experimental, interdisciplinary format that creates a space for artistic engagement with racism, a laboratory for self-reflection and healing. The Black body is at the centre of the project, with its inscribed history, memories and experiences. The knowledge of the historical origins of racist structures and the philosophies and ways of thinking that determine them creates the basis for looking ahead. With an awareness of the past and a vision for the future, MIMIMI Space questions the present. MIMIMI Space consists of two parts:  The first part took place December 5-7 2020 at HAU4 and can still be watched there. Three encounters in different formats – a shared meal, performance, improvised dance –illuminate different perspectives on the Black body and relate them to each other. The events are framed by films and objects documenting de Paula's artistic work. In always new ways, he points out the urgency of dealing with racism. “ORI CLEANSE” is the second part of the project. The dance performance is a political statement, a self-empowerment and purification. It is a step towards a decolonised future in which all people are free subjects. The six dancers with very diverse biographical and dancing backgrounds develop new ways of thinking, being and acting on stage, determine themselves the images and ideas they have of themselves and what they want to awaken in others. They show an overwhelming belief in the power of their bodies, their community and solidarity, which gives hope for healing and the beginning of a new era. A source of strength lies in nature, in the awareness for oneself and every other life. In this context, treating yourself and your own body well is a step towards a holistic way of thinking that avoids exploitative structures. The universe, Olorum, stands here for the connection with a larger context. From the vastness of the universe shines the vulnerability and magnificence of life on earth without borders. The dancers orbit each other like stars and refer to something that goes beyond us humans, connects us and makes empathy possible.

The film “Letters from the Continent”, co-produced by HAU, was conceived and shot in May and June 2020 and features 21 artists who live and create in Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Maputo, Moroni, Tunis, and other cities. Filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic it reflects on how for many people there has always been some sort of crisis, either in the form of health, political or, above all, economic crisis and how the handling of it makes them everyday heroes of their lives. From the place they live and dream, each of them speaks and dances about their difficulties, worries but also their survival strategies and hopes. More than ever, they reaffirm the urgency to create, here and now, against all odds. These 21 letters, these 21 self-portraits introduce a new generation of dancers, choreographers, performers and actors who juggle with their surroundings to better invent and share stories of the African continent in full mutation. With: Fatoumata Bagayoko (Mali, sent from Bamako) Collectif d’Art-d’Art / Michael Disanka & Christiana Tabaro (DR Congo, sent from Kinshasa) Cie La Mer noire / Alioune Sow, Khoudia Touré, Kirsner Tsengou Dingha & Pierre-Claver Belleka aka Dexter (Senegal, Liberia, Republic of Congo, sent from Dakar) Hamdi Dridi (Tunisia, sent from Montpellier / France) Didier Ediho (DRCongo, sent from Kinshasa) Chourouk El-Mahati, Moad Haddadi, Mohamed Lamqayssi (Morocco, sent from Belfort / France) Kaïsha Essiane (Gabon, sent from Libreville) Marcel Gbeffa (Benin, sent from Gaborone / Botswana) Qondiswa James (Republic of South Africa, sent from Cape Town) Samwel Japhet (Tanzania, sent from Dar-es-Salaam) Jeannot Kumbonyeki (DR Congo, sent from Kinshasa) Souleymane Ladji Kone (Burkina Faso, sent from Ouagadougou) Seifeddine Manai (Tunisia, sent from Tunis) Judith Olivia Manantenasoa (Madagascar, sent from Antananarivo) Dorine Mokha (DR Congo, sent from Lubumbashi) Abdoul Mujyambere (Rwanda, sent from Kigali) Salim Mzé Hamadi Moisi (Comoros, sent from Moroni) Nagham Salah Othman (Sudan, sent from Cairo) Germaine Sikota (Togo, sent from Lome) Maria Tembé (Mozambique, sent from Maputo) Westsyde Lifestyle / Ambrose Idemudia Joshua, Daniel Emmanuel Olajuwon, Ordia Eromose & Osokoya Yemi (Nigeria, sent from Lagos)

The philosopher, curator and pioneer in the fields of queer studies and philosophy of the body will present his latest book, “An Apartment on Uranus”, in a discussion with Margarita Tsomou. The book was published in German by Suhrkamp Verlag on May 18. The English translation was released by Semiotext(e) in January. The planet Uranus is the inspiration for uranism, a term coined in 1864 by the writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to define the “third sex” and those who “love differently”. Following in Ulrich’s footsteps, Paul B. Preciado dreams of an apartment on Uranus, far beyond earthly categorisations. His new book brings together tales of transition: the testosterone-induced transformation of one’s own body – from Beatriz to Paul – as well as stories of social change, from the Greek crisis to the refugee situation to the Catalonian independence movement. The discussion will also focus on two texts published in the book as a postscript, in which he reflects on the Covid-19 crisis, addresses the relationship between immunity and politics in current and past epidemics, and examines state power and surveillance techniques in times of the virus. Passages will be read by Susanne Sachsse (German) and Black Cracker (English).

In response to neoliberal, extractivist and macho violence, a multitude of resistance movements have been forming in Latin America in the last few years. In doing so, militant protests against social injustice and land grabbing have connected with feminist movements against femicide and sexualised violence and highlight the political relationships between these different forms of violence. On the occasion of the recent publication of Rita Segato’s book “Contra-pedagogías de la crueldad” in German (“Wider die Grausamkeit”), the anthropologist discusses alliances of resistance in Latin America and the possible lessons for Europe with the performance collective LASTESIS, philosopher Eva von Redecker and journalist Carolin Wiedemann.

2020 marked 30 years of Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças. Upon an invitation from HAU Hebbel am Ufer, the choreographer created a series of seven films that reflect on her creations of the last years, but also on the current pandemic and its impact on the lives of the members of the company. “Creation Notebooks” gives an insight into the company's poetic, political and artistic universe. The films are a collage of rehearsal moments, performances, inspirations, images, photographs and artist testimonies. The films will be presented in two parts: The first part – available from 12.3.2021 on HAU4 –includes “Covid-19” about the company’s experience of the last year, and “Maré” which contextualises the work of “Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças” in the favela Maré, Rio de Janeiro, where it is situated. The second part (from 16.3.2021 on HAU4) presents five films which show the repertoire rehearsed in 2019 and scheduled to be presented throughout the year 2020 as part of the company's 30th anniversary celebrations: “Such Stuff As We Are Made Of”, “Formas Breves”, “Pindorama”, “For the Sky Not To Fall” and “Fúria”. The last three were presented at HAU in 2014, 2016 and 2019, respectively.

The Mycological Twist would like to invite you on a quest at HAU3 and organises joint gaming sessions of “No Man’s Sky”. In this game a player can explore a seemingly infinite amount of planets, each with their own unique ecologies. Even after countless hours of play, new things can always be discovered. “Quadrat Sampling E-Ecologies” will consist of two different sessions: In an “introducing workshop” the game and its environment are explored. This will be done through a series of field research tools that have been converted for a digital landscape. In the “gaming session” Eloïse Bonneviot and Anne de Boer invite experts to join them to provoke a different view on the game, and enable a critical reflection onto the narratives and visuals they encounter together with the players. On the background to the production: As personal computers are becoming more and more capable of running visually advanced video games, a myriad of worlds is opening up to audiences around the globe. This domain no longer belongs to the stereotypical, mostly male-youth gamer, but rather becomes a social space for rather diverse groups to meet and explore together. These spaces are becoming the next Social Media. While traditional social media connects us through a performativity of the everyday, navigating games engages us with intense sensations through the temporary emotional embodiment of the avatar. As a player you are both the creator and spectator of the narrative, and even better, you can actively enjoy these narratives with others. Even though these multiplayer games are played by a large number of players, the progression of the gameplay follows similar patterns throughout; kill this, conquer that, become the best, capture it all. A linear quest that dictates the way these spaces operate as well as the audience it attracts. The tropes they endlessly reproduce mirror contemporary constructions of prejudice, power struggle and underlying ideologies. Each game has different problems that demand different explorations and questions to be asked. The two artists Eloïse Bonneviot and Anne de Boer have already been part of the HAU festivals “Spy on Me #2 + #3” and were most recently represented at the 7th Athens Biennial. “Quadrat Sampling E-Ecologies” also takes place in cooperation with the Fritz-Karsen-Schule from Berlin-Neukölln. HAU invites a class to play and discuss together at HAU3.   Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley works predominantly in animation, sound, performance and video games to communicate the experiences of being a Black trans person. Brathwaite-Shirley’s practice focuses on recording the lives of Black trans people, intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell trans stories. Spurred on by a desire to record the “History of trans people both living and past” their work can often be seen as a trans archive. The work has been shown at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, David Kordansky Gallery, Quad Gallery, Arebyte Gallery, Science Gallery, Barbican Centre and Tate Modern. During the 3hd 2020 festival by Creamcake, Danielle shared their film and interactive performance “We Are Here Because of Those That Are Not” on HAU4. Xenia Chiaramonte is a jurist and a socio-legal scholar. In 2019, she published her monograph “Governare il conflitto: La criminalizzazione del movimento No TAV” [“Governing conflict: The Criminalization of the No TAV Movement”], which analyses the criminalization of one of the most longstanding and high-profile environmental movements in Western Europe. In her research, she developed a deep ethnographical approach blended with a theory-oriented vision. Ahmed Isam Aldin Ahmed is a visual artist, designer and blogger from Khartoum. He studied physics at the University of Khartoum and graphic design and photography in Cairo, Visual communication at Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. His practice focuses on immigration and psychology, as well as the processes of revolutions, de-colonial design, and technology. He has participated in various exhibitions between Khartoum, Cairo, and Berlin, and is currently studying Media Art at UDK Berlin. Barbara Marcel is a Brazilian artist and film-maker. Her works explore historical views of nature and how these relate to colonial imagery.

“The Walks” is an app with a collection of audio walks – presented on HAU4 − whose stories and soundscapes are global in scope. After Alpbach, Borgia/Catanzaro, Bucharest, Cleveland, Dresden, Hamburg, Milan and Saarbrücken now it’s Berlin’s turn to show the HAU co-production. Each walk is a short audio experience for a specific place in your city and an invitation to rediscover and interact with your environment.  “The Walks” connects people around the world in a local experience via the fundamental human action of walking. Walking in public gained new meaning with the COVID-19 pandemic. An ancient, daily ritual became an integral part of the new normality. People meet, walk, stroll through neighborhoods, play in landscapes, and perceive their environment anew with every stride. “The Walks” understands walking as a theatrical scenario – an audio-guided walk in parks, a staged walk in supermarkets or timed interactions on riverbanks. In every city, voices, sounds, and music turn familiar places into sites and landscapes into stages step by step through storytelling, dialogical situations, choreographic discoveries, or musical and rhythmic variations on walking. The title of every walk indicates where or how to do it: “Walk for a cemetery,” “Walk along the water,” or “Walk for a traffic island.”

Algorithms creep into our lives like pesky insects. The ant trail has become the model for every form of optimisation: the so-called ANT ALGORITHM ensures that our bubble is always filled to the brim with more of the same. This “explosion of intelligence” makes us humans look like monkeys compared to learning machines. Perhaps social insects can teach us how to think collectively and develop the general intellect foreseen by Marx. andcompany&Co. will speak with guests from the fields of art and science.

With Ricardo de Paula, Sophia Neises, Ralf R. Ollertz, Moritz Ostruschnjak, Matilda Marina Host: Dr. Mariama Diagne The pandemic is leaving social, personal and political traces and making lasting changes. For the contemporary dance scene in particular, which has always operated internationally, closed borders and the impossibility to travel and tour mean major alterations to familiar ways of working. The performing arts – especially dance – are characterised by the encounter, real presence and movement of bodies in time and space. At any rate almost no one questioned this prior to 2020. Yet the impossibility to meet one another physically has brought about artistic formats and strategies that occasionally provide new access and means of expression. We invite you to examine this time of global bewilderment: What situations did artists and dance-makers find particularly burdensome or difficult? Which new formats and artistic approaches will endure? What opportunities and contradictions are contained in digital choreographic work? How can international connections be maintained during the pandemic?

Input: Adham Hafez “Changing the Narratives” with Raphael Moussa Hillebrand, Olivia Hyunsin Kim, Rita Mazza “Providing access” with Elena Basteri, Gabi dan Droste, Jo Parkes Host Dr. Mariama Diagne Artists and cultural institutions operate from within specific contexts that are shaped by various discourses and lived realities, and artistic work can be an impulse for a critique of social structures. It can open up spaces for imagining and reflecting on alternative social systems, and it can even bring utopian visions within reach. At the same time there are many gaps and unconscious mechanisms on structural, communicative and aesthetic levels that are in need of questioning and change. In our two topics “Changing the Narratives” and “Providing access” we question artistic practices and positions for a dissolution of discriminatory structures and mechanisms and consider a diverse, inclusive mediation of these.

Impulse: The autonomous board (Helga Baert, Martin Schick, Sam Trotman) and Jacob Bilabel (Aktionsnetzwerk Nachhaltigkeit in Kultur und Medien / English: “Action Network for Sustainability in Culture and Media”) Workshop groups led by: AG Work Culture (Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V.) Kasia Wolinska, Enrico L'Abbate aka Rilaben and Barbara Greiner, Maximilian Haas and Sandra Umathum, Tischgesellschaft (English: “Table Company”) by Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft with Lea Martini & Magdalena Meindl. Host: Nadine Vollmer For many people, working in crisis mode – in relation to both our ecological and social security – didn’t just start with the pandemic. But the collective experience of the past two years has revealed the weaknesses of global, local and social systems. How do we keep going? A fundamental transformation of our working and life worlds seems unavoidable. How can we create resilient, sustainable and mutable structures? What critical forces do we ascribe to dance in political, social and ecological processes, and how can dance initiate real change as a crisis-tested art form? IMPULSE Jacob Bilabel (Aktionsnetzwerk Nachhaltigkeit in Kultur und Medien) The prevailing narrative of 'sustainability means renunciation & prohibition' paralyzes and slows down urgently needed developments. Today more than ever, it is necessary to develop new narratives and experiences that involve the entire society in this generational task and make it possible to experience an ecological transformation also in the arts sector as manageable.    The autonomous board (Helga Baert, Martin Schick, Sam Trotman)  Following the call of the RESHAPE NETWORK to reimagine fairer governance models, the ‘autonomous board’ (Martin Schick, Helga Baert Sam Trotman and many other voices) has built a collective proposal for action underpinned by a new paradigm. Within this idea lies the proposal to create new narratives, common goals, forms of cooperation instead of competition. This paradigm shift can be traced and implemented with the help of the anti-method ‘Governance of the Possible’.  WORKSHOPS AG Work Culture (Zeitgenössischer Tanz Berlin e.V.) hosted by Kasia Wolinska, Enrico L’Abbate aka Rilaben The  workshop invites all participants to experiment with embodying critical practice. We would like to propose individual and collective reflection on needs, expectations, relations, thoughts, emotional reactions that emerge from our lives at work. If making dance - in a variety of ways and roles - is both the sickness and the cure, we invite you to reflect with us on how we can work differently and what is there to be achieved through work, and dance. Let's talk to each other and speak up for ourselves. All bodies are welcome. No dancing required. An online version of the workshop will happen simultaneously and be facilitated by Barbara Greiner. Maximilian Haas and Sandra Umathum This workshop addresses the challenges for artistic production practices in the face of climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and drastically as possible. However, sustainability is not just a quantitative question of more or less; it demands a qualitative change in the way we live and produce. How are operational ecologies related to aesthetic approaches and ethical responsibilities? How can we transform the modes of production and presentation? And what are the potentials lying in this transformation? The workshop will open the space for discussions, for sharing ideas for action as well as for contributions to rethinking and reorienting human-environment and social relations in times of crisis. Tischgesellschaft von Antje Pfundtner in Gesellschaft mit Lea Martini& Magdalena Meindl Let’s sideline the business cards for a minute to really see what relationships we actually have. We meet each other as cultural workers, all in the same context – dance – but with different intentions. The Tischgesellschaft is inviting you to plough through our respective interests and place them in a new position on the market’s game board: How can we profit from our dissent and different points of view? How can we include present and absent stakeholders into the game?

Opening discussion with Katrin Budde (Head of Committee for Culture in Parliament), Sabine Köhncke (Berlin Senate Department for Culture), Carena Schlewitt (Director at Hellerau, Dresden), Matthias Quabbe (dramaturge) Host: Prasanna Oommen Arlette-Louise Ndakoze, Matthias Quabbe, Melanie Suchy and Annemie Vanackere will introduce the event with a reflection. What role can and should dance play locally, nationally and globally in the future? What particular potential does dance have for a changing society and how can this interrelationship be best promoted through cultural policy? People from dance, politics and funding practice will be discussing these questions. Further discussions will follow at the Tanzkongress – Sharing Potentials in Mainz in June and the international tanzmesse nrw in September. In cooperation with the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (German Dance Association).

A new sexual revolution has begun, and this one will be unstoppable. This revolution begins wherever women, queer, non-binary and trans people – especially those who do not belong to the White majority society – stand up and refuse to consider their bodies as someone else's property. Our time of crises, thanks to them, is also a time of productive transformation, full of deep and lasting changes in our understanding of gender, sex and which bodies and words matter. In “Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback”, Laurie Penny writes infectiously and poignantly about sex and power, trauma and resistance. About the crisis of democracy, the crisis of White masculinity and the reactionary maneuvers of those afraid to lose power. They call for a culture of consent that goes far beyond sex: labour relations, systems of political representation and togetherness also require us to find a logic of continuously negotiated consent in order to heal individual and collective traumas and prevent future ones. After many successful non-fiction books, the author was last at HAU in 2016 to present their debut literary collection, “Babys machen und andere Storys”, also published by Nautilus. Laurie Penny, born 1986 in London, is a book and screenwriter and journalist. They studied English Literature at Oxford and received a Nieman Fellowship for journalism at Harvard. They have written about politics, social justice, pop culture and feminism in the Guardian, New Statesman, Time, New York Times and Vice, among others. As a screenwriter, they have worked on the series “The Nevers”, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” and “Carnival Row”.

The series “On Violence” kicks off with French philosopher Elsa Dorlin, talking about self-defence and patriarchal violence. In “Self-defense: A philosophy of violence” (English translation forthcoming via Verso Books), she explores the historical gap between “defensible” and defenceless bodies, as well as the organised “disarmament” of the subjugated, which calls up the question of violence in every pursuit towards liberation. Along the way, she traces a genealogy of political self-defence from the stories of the Black Panthers to Rodney King to the Suffragettes. In the discourse series “On Violence”, she will publicly discuss her positions for the first time in Germany.

The international network dgtl fmnsm have been presenting feminist, queer and tech-positive perspectives on technology narratives since 2016. Planned as “HOT MESS” in digital space and at HAU2 studio, the creators have developed “HOT MESS *virus version* for “Spy on Me #2 – Artistic Manoeuvres for the Digital Present – Online Programme” with over 15 artistic contributions. To be seen on March 19–22 and 27. “HOT MESS *virus version* is an interactive project, inspired by the often chaotic order of our desktops, of our thought constructs and frivolous digital repositories. All the data, the documents, the suffering and joy, the private and the public, these complex overlapping worlds, are hidden behind small symbols, permeating us as hyper-individualized beings in capitalist work and life cultures. “HOT MESS” attempts a loving and critical devotion to these user interfaces and resigns with relish to the long lost possibility of reducing data volumes or preventing their misuse. With online performances, talks, technological rituals and laboratories of counter-speculation, dgtl fmnsm examines the remaining possibilities of disentangling the data volume in the depths of our devices until they finally overheat and what we call reality finally collapses. Because: Technology is not neutral and only a feminist AI can save us. Friday, 20.3. 12:00     A place taking manual (virus version) Die Blaue Distanz (Anna Erdmann & Franziska Goralski) Platform: Instagram 13:00               “The water we drink first runs through the veins of the servers” Virtual Tour by Die Blaue Distanz 15:00–18:00 Workshop “#alieneffect” Facefilter Workshop for Beginners by Alla Popp 19:30 “IRL * URL – Extended Edition” Video Screening and Artist Talk with Tabitha Swanson 20:00 “GLEAM, LIVE OFFLINE : HOT MESS///” A show with Tiara Roxanne, Maque Pereyras, Biitsi, Anna Zett, American Artist, Nicole Killian, Xene Sky, Jamila Woods 23:00 Late Set Tadleeh (live) also on Soundcloud Saturday, 21.3. 13:00              “MELT DOWN” Meltionary (Loren Britton, Isabel Paehr) Platform: http://meltionary.com/dgtlfmnsm/. 14:00           “Cognitive Boot Camp vs. Multiverse Hack: Ten Easy Steps on How to lose your Reality System“ OMSK SOCIAL CLUB & Mycological Twist 17:00        “How are we still? Who are we kidding in a 21th-centuries-fearful-dream? A Telegram Trip” with Katharina Klappheck Platform: Telegram Chat Sunday, 22.3.               21:00      “Sonic Hibernation Short Story” Platform: Facebook   Friday, 27.3. 16:00 Zine Workshop “Algorithms of Late Capitalism” 18:30 Talk “Future Tense: AI From the Margins” Nakeema Stefflbauer B2B Nushin Yazdani 20:00 VR Performance “Under_the_Sun_2120” Alla Popp 21:00 Talk “REDEFINE” Ash Baccus-Clark 22:30 DJ Set “Happy New Tears” Sonic Hibernation

What is it like to navigate a world that was designed without you? How does it feel to dodge tools that exclude, victimize, or mis-classify you? Today's artificial intelligence is being applied to real life. And the "norms" it is creating perpetuate a grossly unfair system. This is AI, as seen from the margins. This is Future Tense.

After launching in 2020, the Digital Lab is back in its second edition. We will discuss the sustainability of our digital performance practice on two levels: What kinds of encounters, approaches and participation do virtual and hybrid spaces allow? And how can we implement projects in a socially and ecologically responsible way? Together, we aim to determine which themes, forms and ways of working are important for independent contemporary, digital performance arts, beyond the pandemic and in the long term. During the Online Hack Space (curated by Jeanne Charlotte Vogt), five groups along with the HAU4 audience will receive inspiration on digital participatory art, exchange ideas with each other and, in various workshops, further develop the ideas presented in their Online Hack Space applications. At the end of the five-day event, the participants present their concepts, after which a jury will select two groups for a subsequent residency. 30.3., 18:00 / HAU4 Digital Lab #2 Opening: (Annemie Vanackere, Anna Krauß, Jeanne Charlotte Vogt, Sarah Reimann) Inspiration: Judith Ackermann Inspiration: Darsha Hewitt Judith Ackermann is a professor of digital and networked media in social work in Potsdam, focussing on digital theatre and post-digital artistic practice. In the Hack Space, she will share exciting examples of how digital artistic spaces and formats can be made more inclusive and participatory. She is also known as @dieprofessor on TikTok, discovering the performative qualities of social media herself. Canadian media and sound artist Darsha Hewitt lives and works in Berlin. In her work of “media archaeology”, she investigates the hidden power structures and ethical dimensions of technologies. Under the title “HOW TO BEAM: Do-It-Yourself Teleportation for Hybrid Times”, Hewitt is currently researching the changing meaning of personal presence in times of increasingly online encounters. As part of the Hack Space, she will share artistic methods and low-tech solutions for breaking down barriers and reinventing individuality and presence in hybrid worlds. Questions may be asked in the HAU4 chat. The video will be available afterwards in the HAUthek. 31.3., 18:00 / HAU4 Inspiration: Lauren Lee McCarthy Inspirations: Marion Siéfert + allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska Media artist Lauren Lee McCarthy also experiments with special forms of co-presence. In her performances, she creates intimate spaces of encounter in which she lets her audience take on the role of service-oriented artificial intelligence or in which she offers individual mini Zoom sessions to take time to appreciate each other. In her talk, McCarthy will show specific conditions for building relationships with the audience and for intimacy and encounter, which go hand in hand with online spaces. Afterwards, theatre maker Marion Siéfert and artists allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska will present two projects that use online space to build a community. With “_jeanne_dark_”, Marion Siéfert uses Instagram as a digital stage in hybrid performance configurations. Her character Jeanne is a 16-year-old who uses Instagram Reels as both a mirror and a resonance chamber to escape her Catholic family and the bullying of her classmates while seeking support from her online audience and followers. The project “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” by Janne Kummer aka.alaska, alla.popp, Luna Nane & Portrait XO explores the much criticised, structurally discriminatory foundations of artificial intelligence. Following the almost forgotten utopian promise that the net can be a space for a constructive counterculture, they use social media platforms as a medium for collective, artistic and speculative thinking, exploring a queer-feminist dimension of AI. Questions may be asked in the HAU4 chat. The video will be available afterwards in the HAUthek.   30.–3.4. / Gather.Town (internal) Internal programme for the five groups selected by the jury During the Online Hack Space (curated by Jeanne Charlotte Vogt), five groups along with the HAU4 audience will receive inspiration on digital participatory art, exchange ideas with each other and, in various workshops, further develop the ideas presented in their Online Hack Space applications. The practical inspiration will come in the form of talks and presentations by different artists. On Thursday, allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska will start by working with the groups in preparing their skills for others in How-To's for applying our knowledge. On Friday, Christiane Hütter will share various strategies and methods, such as those from the fields of gaming and user experience design, showing us how they can help us rethink theatre practice. She will also discusses the nuances of being a host in online spaces. Finally, media artist Kasia Molga shares her methods for playfully engaging with audiences and raising awareness on issues of resource use and environmental sustainability. Saturday will be spent finalising the concept sketch and preparing the presentation – and an informal closing evening with a walk through forgotten virtual worlds and a listening session. During the Hack Space, the groups are supported by mentors and artists from the collective dgtl fmsnm. Over the course of the event, they will help deal with the participants' and the Hack Space's content-related issues while providing advice and critical feedback. Andara Shastika – Multimedia artist, curator at TERRARISTA TV Sarah Fartuun Heinze – Freelance multidisciplinary artist, writer and cultural educator Philisha Kay – digital art curator and conceptualiser Ulla Heinrich – Curator and developer of digital theatre concepts

The successful influencer Frida becomes the victim of a shitstorm on the social network Vire. Searching for help, she turns to the players who quickly find out that this shitstorm did not happen randomly; it was planned and carried out by a radical right-wing network that uses skilled digital media strategies to permanently influence the social discourse on topics such as feminism, gender, LGBTIQ+ visibility and diversity to bring about racist and sexist policies. The lifestyle influencer Loulou becomes particularly conspicuous here as she reflects sadly on becoming a mother, the fast pace of society and the topic of home. What connections are there between Loulu and the network that is attacking Frida so savagely? Together with Frida and with the help of the internet specialist Robin, the players set off on the search for the strategy manual of the radical right-wing “movement” and slip deeper and deeper into the core of the network… This first project between onlinetheater.live and HAU Hebbel am Ufer is a free smartphone app that invites the players to take part in an interactive fiction. The single player game makes manipulation tactics and attempts to shift the discourse by “new right-wing” networks tangible and demonstrates that social platforms on the internet can be the perfect breeding ground for targeted radicalization. Recommended for people aged 18 and over

For a long time, war no longer seemed to be part of political debates – it seemed to be merely a phenomenon from the past or the fate of distant countries. In 2018, the Italian philosopher and post-operaist Maurizio Lazzarato explained in his book with Éric Alliez why war never disappeared but rather remains a constitutive element of the relationship between the state and capitalism. In “Wars and Capital”, he argues that we are witnessing wars of class, race and gender; wars of civilisation and environment; or wars of subjectivity, which are the secret engine of neoliberal governance. “Frieden” is therefore not an alternative to war, but its continuation, according to Lazzarato. In the third edition of the HAU discourse series “On Violence”, Lazzarato talks about the permanent continuity of warlike violence and its most recent formations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) − the attempt to endow computers with intelligent behaviour and autonomous decision-making processes − has entered almost all areas of life, from cancer research to voice and face recognition in smartphones and virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa. This is very impressive and extremely useful in many areas, but the algorithms of AIs and their databases are produced by humans. And all humans have prejudices. So AI applications become racist, ableist, homophobic, FLINTA* (women, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, transgender, agender)- and xenophobic. The hybrid performance “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” creates a digital space for collective reflection on how a glitchy, queer-feminist AI could function, look and feel. Can glitches, supposed errors in the system, serve as the basis for the data? The project starts on the HAU Instagram channel. For a month, pictures and videos of the research will be shared here, everyone can join in. The Discord Channel of “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” is now online – feel free to join! It is a space for knowledge exchange, information & skill sharing and community building – all about machine learning & Queer-, Data- and Glitch Feminism. On March 4, an online lecture with allapopp & Janne Kummer aka.alaska and guests Buse Çetin, Emily Martinez and Luna Nane will present the results of research at HAU4.

Is the explicit representation of violence in anti-colonial theory and in the critique of racism revictimizing? What form of visibility is hidden in colonial and industrial logistics and in neocolonial and neoliberal structures? In their works, authors Stefano Harney and Fred Moten address questions about forms of violence both implicitly and explicitly. In the second edition of the series “On Violence”, an online lecture for thematic introduction will again be followed by a live discussion at HAU. Fred Moten will be joining via video.

Everything is alive, and everything is intelligent. Just as we are poised to enter a world of super-intelligent machines, we are finally recognising the intelligence and beinghood of animals and plants, to microorganisms and ecosystems. It turns out that there are many ways of doing intelligence, and it's not something which only happens in the head. The author and artist James Bridle returns to HAU and outlines a radical new vision of intelligence, a power that animates every aspect of the world around us, and demands our attention and action − not least when we imagine new smart technologies. 

Following its journey of discovery in 2021, the Berlin-based duo The Mycological Twist once again invites audiences to join them on another journey of discovery in HAU3 for shared gaming sessions of “Farming Simulator”, which was purchased more than three million times this year in only two months. The gaming session on 6.11. will be live streamed on HAU4. In a five-hour tutorial and gaming session, the players will spend time together with experts Aurelia Moniak and Trakal on a virtual farm in Brandenburg. The game and its environment are explored with the help of a series of field research tools that have been adapted for a digital landscape. After a shared break, in the “Gaming Session” Anne de Boer and Eloïse Bonneviot will discuss the various aspects of agriculture today and the effects of industrialisation on rural spaces in Europe following the Second World War together with the players and experts while playfully managing the farm. Aurelia Moniak, born in 1989 in Berlin, studied nutritional sciences and agricultural management and has since been working on sustainable agriculture and agricultural communication. She has worked for various actors in the sector – between farms and industrial enterprises, between lobby groups and public media. She is on the lookout for concepts and innovations that improve agriculture for the majority and not just for a few. And this away from the common narratives that prevail in our society about agriculture. In 2022, her team at DRIVE beta won the VDAJ Communications Award for the Youtube format “Hundert Hektar Heimat” (MDR/funk). Trakal (*1988, Dresden) is a filmmaker, writer and participatory artist based in Berlin. Through collaborative process, performative rituals, historical interrogation and psychodynamic research Trakal develops films, texts and installations. Their work deals with the personal and collective impact of neoliberal subject production, post-socialist processes and surveillance technology. Trakal’s work has been shown among others at Museum for Photography Berlin, Museum Folkwang Essen, Cinemateca Distrital Bogotá, Savvy Contemporary Berlin, Gegenwarten Festival Chemnitz, 7th Athens Biennale. 

Exibition Text How do people react to crises, and what role does digital technology play in this? “Everything Will Be Fine” is an outdoor exhibition by the Berlin-based NGO Tactical Tech in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Visitors are invited to enter a unique inflatable structure and follow self-chosen paths to reflect on their own reactions to our mounting planetary crises. From ambitious technological approaches, such as digital twins of the planet, to the spread of conspiracy theories online, digital technologies are seen as both solutions for and amplifiers of our perma-crisis. The experience asks, in what ways are technologies the lens through which we can witness, investigate and explain our own reactions to crisis, and the reactions of others? The exhibition will be held in the forecourt of the Deutsches Technikmuseum and installed in a structure designed by Czech architects Kogaa, presenting the work of over 20 international artists like Paolo Cirio, Marjolijn Dijkman, Disnovation.org, Vladan Joler, Egor Kraft, Agnieszka Kurant, Sybille Neumeyer, Liam Young and others and creating a space for reflection, interaction and discussion. Visitors will be encouraged to examine their personal responses to crisis – from fight or flight to fix or freeze. The exhibition will also feature a full programme of events including tours, workshops and more. On September 15 there will be an evening with curated short films by artists in the exhibition. The screenings will be accompanied by a discussion with curators Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski. These films will be screened: “CDC Warns”, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, 5:32 Min.  “Algo-Rhythm”, Manu Luksch, 13:56 Min.  “The Border Interfaced”, Joana Moll, 2:49 Min.  “Choreographic Camouflage”, Liam Young, 8:04 Min.  “These Networks Under Our Skin”, Mimi Onuoha, 5:48 Min.  “Zizi & Me”, Jake Elwes, 4:47 Min.  “New colour”, Egor Kraft, 4:43 Min.  “San Andreas Deer Cam”, Brent Watanabe, 1:48 Min.  “Let Me Fix You”, Dasha Illina, 11:49 Min.   Tactical Tech, founded by Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski, is an award-winning international non-profit that creates bold and forward-looking experiences and educational interventions that invite people to think and reflect critically about their relationship with technology and how it changes the world they live in. Tactical Tech are the creators of the popular touring exhibition, “The Glass Room,” now shown in over 50 countries.

“Abolitionism” refers to a theoretical, political and social movement that advocates overcoming state institutions of violence such as prisons and police. Ultimately, the history of violence in modern societies is inextricably linked to the issue of the state’s monopoly on the use of force. In “On Violence #4”, central abolitionist initiatives from Germany come together to talk about the call to dismantle this monopoly on violence, based on the reader “Abolitionism” (Suhrkamp) edited by Vanessa E. Thompson and Daniel Loick: Copwatch_ffm, Abolish Frontex, Women in Exile and Ihr Seid Keine Sicherheit discuss, in the tradition of struggles against the enslavement of Black people, the racist history of state apparatuses of violence and their entanglement with forms of capitalist exploitation and patriarchal oppression. In preparation for the live discussion, there will be an online lecture with Vanessa E. Thompson and Daniel Loick on 17 November.

Malu Peeters has been working with Anna Fries for many years. Together, the artists* developed the very successful HAU co-production "Virtual Wombs" in 2021. The two are passionate about virtual possibilities, immersive experiments and creating tender spaces. The composition, which can be experienced as a sound installation in the context of "Virtual Wombs", and other tracks are now being released as an album under the title "L-0-U". “How can the monstrous sound obscure yet full of love? What is the soundtrack of uncanny creatures? And if the post-human speaks what is their voice like? L-0-U explores the spectrum of the human voice from the fleshly and sexual to the odd and whimsical. It creates an auditory space that is both obnoxious and attractive. Funny songs that are comforting yet unpredictable. Grotesque creatures floating in an underwater world, a bestiary of (im)possible life forms and weirdo lullabies.”

The “digital pleasure center” is a performative installation designed by the dgtl fmnsm collective. Since 2015, dgtl fmnsm have been exploring the intersection of performance, technologies and participatory practices in theatre.  In the “digital pleasure center”, the audience can experience interactive treatments that use technology in a speculative way. If the audience doesn't do anything, nothing happens in the centre. The basis of the “digital pleasure center” is the assumption that a pleasant interface exists or can exist between people and technology, an interface that must be designed, played with and tried out. Despite all the criticism of the digitalisation, monopolisation and technologisation of everyday life, dgtl fmnsm plead for the exploration of the emancipatory potential of tech – by rethinking, hacking and queering it. The digital pleasure generated by the audience's engagement with technology is fed into a “pleasure meter” that is visible to everyone in the space. When this reaches a certain level, “pleasure rituals” (performances) are triggered. From the login to the logout process, the audience interacts exclusively with tech and is guided through the centre by a Telegram chatbot. The focus is on the individual experience of each visitor, the playful testing of various technologies and the personal reflection on power dynamics people have with them.  An interdisciplinary team of multimedia artists, designers, performers and curators has been involved in the conception of the centre. To participate in the treatments at the “center”, you will need:     Your own, fully-charged smartphone (Android, iOS).     … with internet access (WiFi)     … a Telegram account and     … your own headphones

The hybrid performance “Chat-Inferno” examines the communication form of chats with all of their emotionalising and social volatility. Inspired by Dante’s inferno, the artist group Interrobang, already known for their “Müllermatrix” and its online version, “Müller-Fon”, at HAU, is given a space in HAU2 where the audience can walk around with tablets and headphones and chat with each other. Together, the participants set off through the circles of hell of our time: the limbo of the indifferent, the sea of flames of deceptions or in the quagmire of wrathful souls.

Once known throughout the entire German Democratic Republic for its delicious chocolate balls, today the small city of Prückwitz consists solely of closed factory buildings and a timid hope for tourism. A dedicated mayor and a US-American investor could help the city to flourish economically if it weren’t for this one parcel of land: Treuhand sold it to a fortune hunter who has now disappeared during the German Reunification and now it is thwarting the dream of an industrial park. Prückwitz’s dream of revival is threatened once more with collapse due to the legacy of decisions made a long, long time ago. Prückwitz does not exist, but if Prückwitz ever had existed, it would look just like this. Following “Layers of Life”, which was performed at the HAU in 2021, the game theater collective machina eX now returns to this fictitious location of very real events in order to unearth the legacy of issues that the past has left behind in the present. One year after the premiere, we are now presenting the “At Home” version again on HAU4. The multimedia table top game “Life Goes On”, takes the audience on a journey to the West German-East German past and it doesn’t even need to get from the table to do so. With game boards, converted smartphones, headphones, and event cards, the players create their own Prückwitz.

The new multiplayer game explores body norms within a meritocracy from a queer-feminist perspective. The project impressively combines virtual reality performance, gameplay and computing with body theories. Participants traverse different worlds reminiscent of endless desert and mountain landscapes. Each of these environments is dedicated to mechanisms of measuring and optimising bodies. On their journey, players find themselves in a process of transformation that allows them to experience current physical limitations as well as possible future freedoms. As a hybrid art format, “A Travelogue of Morphing Bodies” explores the connection between technology and performance to enable social interactions and collective experiences. The audience can immerse themselves in the performance either collectively at HAU3 using VR glasses or at home on a computer screen at HAU4. In order to play the game at home, it must be downloaded onto your own computer. It is accessible with and without VR glasses. It can be played at the times of the performances at HAU3, so that you can meet players in the theatre.

In 2020 and again a year later as part of the HAU festivals “Spy on Me”, NewfrontEars and the Berlin-based drag artist Oozing Gloop, spatially separated from each other, were trying to find new collective modes for participation. Those who missed the livestreams back then can now experience the impressive film version of 2021: An immersive pop composition of images, music, song and dialogue, a world of drag and meditation created between artificial intelligence and Oozing Gloop's live performance. Where will the relationship with so far alien non-human beings lead?

After months of insurrection and violent state repression, we can name the women’s uprising in Iran a revolutionary movement. The murder of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a young Kurdish woman in custody by the hijab police, triggered this revolution. Yet social dynamics and contentious politics that have affected the unfolding events are not reduced to the hijab – mass strikes, ethnic minority and enviromental justice struggles play a significant role. In Germany and beyond this is still not sufficiently addressed. In the fifth edition of the HAU series “On Violence”, author and filmmaker Chowra Makarmi, scholar and Kurdish activist Kamran Matin and feminist activist Nina Vabab will tackle on the underrepresented intersectional accounts of the Iranian revolution and discuss its different dimensions of violence in a discussion moderated by Iranian-Canadian artist Bahar Noorizadeh. Chowra Makaremi is a filmmaker, author, and anthropologist born in Iran, raised and living in France. She is from a family of political prisoners executed in the 1980s in Iran, which directly impacted the choice of her long-term ongoing research project on state violence in the Islamic Republic, as well as her written and visual works. In 2011, she published “Aziz's Notebook: At the Heart of the Iranian Revolution,” based on her grandfather’s memoirs, in French, and in 2019 she released her feature documentary, “Hitch: an Iranian History.” She is a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), and teaches at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.   Kamran Matin is a Kurdish-Iranian writer and political commentator, and an Associate Professor of International Relations at Sussex University (Brighton, UK) where he teaches international history, international theory, and Middle East politics. His current research focuses on nationalism, nation-formation, non-Western colonialism, limits of post-/de-colonial theory, and the “Kurdish Question” in the Middle East. He is the author of “Recasting Iranian Modernity: International Relations and Social Change” (Routledge, 2013) and numerous articles and op-eds on Kurdish and Iranian politics, and co-editor of “Historical Sociology and World History: Uneven and Combined Development over the Longue Durée” (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016), and of Palgrave’s “Minorities in West Asia and North Africa” (MWANA) series. He is also the director of Centre for Advance International Theory (CAIT). Nina Vabab is a feminist activist, member of the Jina collective and network of feminists4 jina. She is currantly a PhD candidate at the Department of Media and Culture Studies and the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, at Utrecht University. Her research project aims to discuss how the memories of the Pahlavi age have been instrumentalized. Her research interest lies in the audio-visual aspect of cultural memory, with a focus on the concept of media as a text and visual medium for ideological and hegemonic discourse. She completed an MA in “Global Media and Post-national Communication: Theoretical & Contemporary Issues” at SOAS University of London for which she was awarded a Chevening scholarship (2015 - 2016) from the UK government. Before that, she worked as a journalist for a couple of years. Meantime, she was a member of “One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws”. For “Burning Futures”, Nina Vabab will unfold the various ways in which Iranian women have used the built environment as well as visual spaces for the creation of counter-hegemonic imagery.  Bahar Noorizadeh is an Iranian-Canadian artist, writer and filmmaker who looks at the relationship between art and capitalism. Her research investigates the histories of economics, cybernetic socialism, and activist strategies against the financialization of life and the living space. Her work has appeared at the German Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennial 2021, Tate Modern Artists' Cinema Program, Transmediale Festival, Berlinale Forum Expanded among others. Noorizadeh has contributed essays to e-flux Architecture, Journal of Visual Culture, and Sternberg Press; and forthcoming anthologies from Duke University Press and MIT Press. She is pursuing her work as a PhD candidate in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.

At the moment, dystopias are more popular than utopias. Things were completely different in the 1970s, when female authors were creating new models of society on distant planets and in possible terrestrial futures during the heyday of the feminist utopia. In Norway, Gerd Brantenberg simply reverses the power relationships in her novel “The Daughters of Egalia”; in the USA, the triumvirate of feminist science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, and Marge Piercy not only eradicate gender differences in their works, but class-based society and private property as well. “Planet Egalia” brings these utopias together in the form of a ballad opera somewhere between a droll feminist tale and a gender didactic play and sends the characters in the novels off on a group trip to a different continuum of possibility: the earth in the year 2021.

“We need to learn to think of the anomalous, the monstrously different not as a sign of pejoration but as the unfolding of virtual possibilities that point to positive alternatives for us all… the human is now displaced in the direction of a glittering range of post-human variables.” – Rosi Braidotti “Virtual Wombs” brings virtual reality into the theatre space and deals with mutation and transformation and with the potentials of worldbuilding, the creation of digital, reality-expanding worlds. The performers, both physical and virtual, take the audience on a tender journey into the womb of the pregnant post-human.  In this piece, Anan Fries and Malu Peeters build on years of collaboration, previously in the context of the performance collective Henrike Iglesias and the game theatre collective machina eX. Here, they explore their shared passion for virtual possibilities and immersive experiments, introducing the audience to unfamiliar places while creating safe and sensitive spaces.

HAU has been collaborating with Creamcake since 2015, and now they are jointly celebrating the anniversary of the queer-feminist event platform founded by Daniela Seitz and Anja Weigl. For this new digital commissioned work, Paul Barsch and Tilman Hornig of the artist duo New Scenario have been collecting artworks for months. Now, they are subjecting the 83 pieces to a stress test and dismantling them until there is nothing left. The selected artworks' final moments will be captured on video, including drawings, paintings, and sculptures by Adam Cruces, Perce Jerrom, Tobi Keck, Pınar Marul, Andrew Rutherdale, Ekaterina Serikova, Matti Sumari, Orpheo Winter, and many others. The videos will be released incrementally as an online exhibition via Creamcake’s 3hdTV channel and the HAU4 digital stage starting 21 March. This marks the end of Creamcake’s hybrid event series “10/11”, which celebrates the tenth and eleventh years of the ever-evolving platform’s existence.

Percussionist Valentina Magaletti composed “A Queer Anthology of Drums” in 2020 over several home recording sessions as the documentation of a journey that never took place. For HAU4, she is developing a cinematic equivalent of her album, which she dedicates to the queer. In her short film, she translates the multi-layered sound levels into intimate perceptions of everyday occurrences.

Accompanying the new revue by Berlin artist Jeremy Wade on 28 April at HAU1, HAU presents the music video for the final song of the soon to be released EP “Death On The Menu” on HAU4. “In The Long Twilight”, originally written by Ezra Green and adapted by Jeremy Wade and Pianist Quentin Tolimeri, is the story of a busted bird on a long journey. Bennett and Wade wrote a script for the video and video artist Adrian Ganea rose to the occasion with his grace and strangeness sculpting this 3D world by hand. Puddles the Pelican and her six-piece band, The Creatures From The Deep embracing a politically charged form of queer science fiction to see through the violent present. Puddles, a survivor of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, is a scrappy, one-eyed bird of a cabaret singer, coming to you live from a cruise ship floating through hell. Welcome to Minus Level 9, the classy shit hole nightclub in the basement of the ship where she and her band play one gut wrenching torch song after the next. She sings, squawks, moans and tells stories of love and loss. “Once a glorious bird, now covered in oil, which one of you bitches has a match!?!” 

While an international gathering with queer-feminist activists and theorists from diasporic communities between Iran, Kurdistan, North Africa and Latin America is taking place in HAU1 and HAU3, HAU4 is becoming an online meeting place that connects beyond spatial and geographical borders. In the online space, international networks, organizations and movements connect across physical barriers and overcome them. With their demands, queer-feminist actors reach a large public on social platforms and new alliances are formed. Many protests are not visible through public media as they are on social platforms. With “Connect!” two online talks with multi-perspective movements will take place. Joint actions are called for or possibilities for joint support are shown. The direct exchange is in the foreground.

In this video work, the artists of Post-Organic Bauplan, in cooperation with artist Simon Kounovsky (Axonbody), give an insight into their practice, which combines performance and robotics. They design and build robotic prostheses. Using technology, they design extensions of the human body that are influenced by biological processes but not represented as something natural. In the last phase of cicatrisation, fibroblasts form a new layer to replace lost tissue. This secretion not only forms a scar that persists visibly, but also alters the local sensitivity and thus the memory of the body.

“Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.”  N.K. Jemisin Slow days, sick days, fog and forgetting. Disobedient bodies, archives, clocks and flows of capital. The fragility of the body is the focus of RA Walden's queer, disabled and transdisciplinary practice. The Berlin artist radically criticises normative ideas about bodies and capacity in an ever-productive capitalist society. Their works always combine social engagement and artistic research The video premiere “Science Fiction Is Not Pretend” shows a barrage of gloomy images of civilisation: The water is burning, the underground is shaking, animals are being turned into mincemeat. Everyday a buffet of horror, a smorgasbord of unearthly delights. Loneliness, promise, desire and fertile ground. Fallible bodies flailing under the weight of the end of the world. Complicit and raging, there is no higher ground. Sometimes there is hope, but sometimes there is only a logbook – a pathetic record keeping. Alongside their video work, RA Walden presents an accompanying interactive website on HAU4, commissioned by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, and made in collaboration with artist Cooper Lovano. This digital environment welcomes visitors to discover references to “Science Fiction Is Not Pretend” on their own. Notes, images and sounds created in the moments between waking and sleeping. “Who is living inside you?” asks the voice in the video, with despair in one hand, the remote control in the other. RA Walden contributed to the “Manifestos for Queer Futures” to the HAU festival “The present is not enough – Performing Queer Histories and Futures” (2019). Their work was also shown that year at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Newcastle), SOHO20 (New York) and Tate Exchange: Tate Modern (London). Walden was part of the Shandaken: Storm King (New York) residency programme and was a Fellow at the Berlin University of the Arts between 2019 and 2021. In 2020 Walden participated in the residency programme at Wysing Arts Centre (Cambridge) and appeared at the House of World Cultures (Berlin) and elsewhere. In 2021 they presented a solo exhibition at Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam) and was part of group exhibitions at places such as Galerie im Turm (Berlin, with Bini Adamczak), Galerie Wedding (Berlin), Schwules Museum (Berlin), Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart) and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg). Walden will be in residence at La Becque: Switzerland in 2022.

As part of a four-week residency at the “Digital Lab #2”, ghostrich&cylixe and Iyo Bisseck, Petja Ivanova, Rain Rose and Kaya Zakrzewska researched, developed and produced at HAU in spring 2022. They were selected by a jury within the framework of an open call and an online hack space. Which artistic themes, forms and working methods are of perspective importance for the free contemporary digital performance arts? The hybrid work processes were closely accompanied by a camera. The experimental film “NEEDED SPACES” interweaves analogue and digital spaces and provides an insight into the collaboration between the artists and HAU, which revolved around strategies of accessibility and participation.

The film “AI-Lice Through the Looking Glass”, receiving its premiere at the festival, is the result of an extraordinary experiment: artist Lerie Pemanagpo, also a qualified psychologist, went into seclusion for three months and conversed exclusively with Replika. The chatbot app was so popular in the early days the pandemic, reaching four million downloads by the summer of 2020. After obtaining information on the users that engage with it, the artificial intelligence tries to copy their respective personalities and language styles. With this in mind, Pemanagpo has created her own a partner-like counterpart. In her film, she analyses the emotional connection that has been formed, asking: Can the app shield us from loneliness and be a trustworthy conversation partner? It's not only in times of quarantine and isolation that new possibilities of exchange are being sought – within a permanently strained society, there is a pressing challenge of creating new rituals for intimate encounters in our everyday lives. The question that hovers over everything is whether digital devices enable new forms of intimacy, or whether it is merely the “magic” of technology that appears to be meaningful.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an attempt to equip computers with intelligent behaviour and independent decision-making processes. However, it is evident that computers, like the humans they learn from, tend to exhibit discriminatory behaviour. For instance, in image recognition, where AI is frequently used, systems often adhere to fixed norms and "recognize" only men or women, perpetuating binary notions of gender. Due to Corona requirements, the premiere of “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” could not take place at HAU in 2022 as planned, but will now be staged in an updated form. The performance seeks to utilize glitches – perceived errors in the system – as the basis for developing an alternative, queer-feminist AI. Media artists allapopp and Janne Kummer create an AI to dream of bodies that defy societal norms. Their performance combines queer theory, community-based learning approaches, sound, and digital visual art.