The 7th edition of NORDWIND Festival will pull off a balancing act between two places that couldn’t be further away from each other, the Arctic region and the African continent. During the festival, 120 artists from 18 countries will present their work in 17 performances, six concerts and two exhibitions. The 44 events in Berlin and Hamburg comprise 12 world premieres. The NORDWIND will take place from 7th November 2017 to 13th January 2018 in Berlin and from 8th to 16th December 2017 in Hamburg.

This year’s NORDWIND will explore questions about the unity, fragility and diversity of constructions of identity. In “Songs of a Melting Iceberg – Displaced without Moving”, for the first time, artists and scholars from the Arctic, northern countries, the African continent, Berlin and Hamburg will be invited to work together on artistic projects. In the process, they will try to get away from stereotypes and prejudices and to formulate and exchange their own perspectives and artistic ways of working.

“This festival is like a third space between the ‘global North’ and the ‘global South’, in which various competencies and traditions come together,” explains Solvej Helweg Ovesen, Head Curator of “Songs of a Melting Iceberg”, in Berlin. “Especially since right now there is a lot of economic interest in these regions, which are rich in natural resources, it’s important to bring together artistic positions from these countries.”

The conceptual approach of linking up artists from the Arctic region, the African continent, Berlin and Hamburg and to think about local identities and global development in the process is unique to this European and international festival. Especially in times when concepts such as ‘nation’, ‘identity’ and ‘cultural origin’ are being exploited by right-wing populist movements, it’s important to re-appropriate these terms and resist a one-sided interpretation.

“Songs of a Melting Iceberg – Displaced without Moving” will take place in five different venues in Berlin and Hamburg: SAVVY Contemporary, Silent Green, Studio 1 of Art Centre Bethanien, Galerie Wedding and Kampnagel. The festival’s cooperative partners are the XJAZZ Festival and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

Some of the artists who will present their work in Berlin (B) and/or Hamburg (HH) are the Norwegian dance company Carte Blanche (HH), Markus Öhrn (B/HH), Serge Aimé Coulibaly (HH), Laurent Chétouane (B/HH), Constanza Macras (B) in collaboration with the Egyptian choreographer Adham Hafez, Qudus Onikeku (B/HH) from Nigeria, the South African performer Athi-Patra Ruga (B/HH), the Danish artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (B/HH), the Congolese performer Michèle Magema (B/HH), Syowia Kyambi (B) from Kenya, Tanya Tagaq (HH) from Canada and Ivalo Frank (B) from Greenland. The Galerie Wedding will show an exhibition and performances by the Finnish artists Dafna Maimon, who also addresses the theme of ‘displacement’ in her work, from 16 Nov. 2017 to 13 Jan.  2018. The installation which probably has the most provocative title, “Martyr Museum” by the Danish artists collective The Other Eye of the Tiger, dedicates itself to the question of what we are willing to die for, from 28 Nov. to 6 Dec. 2017 at the Studio 1 of Art Centre Bethanien. In collaboration with Sort/Hvid, the exhibition will show a diverse range of historical figures such as Rosa Luxemburg, Socrates and Jeanne D’Arc, but also Mohammed Atta. However, the exhibition does not venerate the martyrs, but rather objectively and informatively sheds light on the different aspects that characterise martyrs.

Find the here more information about the PROGRAMME 

The festival will be accompanied by the theoretical symposium “Non-Orientable Surfaces” (from 7 th to 11th Nov. in Berlin). Over four days, experts will discuss questions about the construction of identities, the concept of culture and physical and mental displacement.

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www.nordwind-festival.de