Where are people fleeing to, when they escape to Berlin? For two weeks the Gorki is providing over 30 international artists and activists with a platform to consider this question. In addition to artistic contributions, a daily programme of debates, films and other productions will address the borders that rip the populations of Berlin and Europe apart, in both visible and invisible ways.

Organized by Shermin Langhoff with Alyosha Begrich, Çağla İlk and Antje Weitzel

Special Gorki Issue 

with Karo Akpokiere, Nevin Aladağ, Anonymous Stateless Immigrants, bankleer, Mirko Borscht, Hamze Bytyci, Danica Dakić, Harun Farocki, Azin Feizabadi, Hajusom, Manaf Halbouni, Alfredo Jaar, Sven Johne, Leon Kahane, Thomas Kilpper/Massimo Ricciardo, Reinhard Kleist, Daniel Knorr, Hans-Werner Kroesinger, Birgit Auf der Lauer & Caspar Pauli, metroZones, Hakan Savaş Mican, Ersan Mondtag, Marina Naprushkina, Sebastian Nübling, Emeka Ogboh, Refugee Club Impulse, TALKING STRAIGHT, Maria Walcher, We Will Rise, Wermke/Leinkauf, Zentrum für Politische Schönheit, Tobias Zielony, Students of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and many other participant

At the core of the Herbstsalon (Autumn Salon) is a theatre project from Sebastian Nübling on the Gorki mainstage: In unserem Namen (In Our Name) traces the crisis of representation and asks how movements of solidarity can develop into political action.

After the first Berliner Herbstsalon in 2013 dealt with questions of identity, nation and origin, the Gorki is dedicating the second edition to the subject of escape. Over centuries Berlin has grown through and with refugees. Likewise, the new arrivals of recent months are already an indispensable part of the city’s fabric, and will continue to change this country in the years to come. While the political Berlin Republic is discussing avoiding misplaced incentives and quarrelling about defence rather than acceptance, the city’s reality is already something else. The contradictions are becoming increasingly more obvious.

Why is it that the European values of « freedom » and « self-determination » can only apply to a few, and that on a continent, which invokes human rights and thus the right to freely choose a place of employment and residence, people can be held in camps and their food rationed? The refugee movement raises questions about humanism and dignity, participation and representation, which affect all of us and our social coexistence. Refugees have brought these questions straight into the heart of the capital city of Berlin, and they remain unanswered to this day. The 2nd Berliner Herbstsalon is an attempt to secure the space for a temporary, ideal public sphere: watching, thinking and speaking as a communal experience.

Opening of the 2. Berliner Herbstsalon on 13th November, at 18:00 clock
Then open: Fr/Sa, 14–24 clock; So–Do, 14–20 clock
Locations: Palais am Festungsgraben, Maxim Gorki Theater + environment
Free admission, except for the production of In unserem Namen (16 / reduced 8 EUR) and guest performances (5 / reduced 3 EUR)

Production Manager: Anja Lindner
Project Assistant: Claire Spilker

Event infos