Curated by Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall, Tmnit Zere, in collaboration with Wearebornfree! Empowerment Radio / 23.9.–4.10. / HAU1, HAU2, HAU4

With: Abenaa Adomako, Robbie Aitken, Maya Alban-Zapata, Idil Nuna Baydar als Jilet Ayşe, Franck Bidin, Bino Byansi Bjakuleka, Memory Biwa, Edna Bonhomme, Celina Bostic, Thelma Buabeng, Caxxianne, Pepetual Mforde Chiangong, Mister Colfer, Dr. Dr. Daniele G. Daude, Lamin Fofana, Quinsy Gario, Natalie Greffel, Saraya Gomis, Karina Griffith, Raphael Hillebrand, Nyima Jadama, Muhammed Lamin Jamada, Jennifer Kamau, Manmeet Kaur, Label Noir, Georgina Leo St Laurent, Ligia Lewis, Robert Machiri, Mandhla, Sajan Mani, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, MINCO, Grace Ndiritu, Nasheeka Nedsreal, Nguyễn + Transitory, Katharina Oguntoye, Musa Okwonga, Shanti Suki Osman, Eric Otieno, Barbara Santos, Shannon Sea, Lerato Shadi, Ahmed Soura, The String Archestra, The Swag, Armeghan Taheri, DJ Walta, Moro Yapha, ZOE and others

Guest curators Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall and Tmnit Zere conceive the opening programme in this new space in HAU1. “Radical Mutation” forges bridges between historical struggles for equality, anti-racism and representation in culture and current efforts for radical change. Berlin is the starting point for tracing these histories and their legacies. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and current struggles against structural inequalities, the programme envisions cultural realities that deeply reflect our complexities and become spaces for alliances, recovery and healing.

This is what the guest curators say about their work at HAU1:

“The programme ‘Radical Mutation: On the Ruins of Rising Suns’ forges bridges between historical struggles for equality, anti-racism and representation in arts/culture and current efforts for radical change in cultural spaces. The city of Berlin is the starting point for tracing these histories and their legacies, which lead us from Douala to Neukölln, from Tiergarten to Harlem and beyond. The title of the programme references one of the first recorded Black theatre revues produced in Germany (‘Sunrise in Morning Land’, 1930) staged at a popular working class ballroom in Neukölln, which challenged the portrayal of Black people in cultural productions of the Weimar Republic. ‘Radical Mutation’ symbolically attends ‘Sunrise in Morning Land’’s performance, strolls through Berlin’s Tiergarten with Alain Locke and Claude McKay in the 1920s, who later shaped the Harlem Renaissance movement, discusses culture and politics with actress Rasha (portrayed in Schad’s painting ‘Agosta the Winged Man and Rasha the Black Dove’, 1929) in her circus caravan on Leopoldplatz and listens in on May Ayim and Audre Lourde’s conversations on poetry and the anti-racist struggle. ‘Radical Mutation’ commemorates these endeavours, traces their erasure and shifts them to a historical theatre space built in 1908 (the Hebbel-Theater, HAU1). In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and current struggles against racism and structural and environmental inequalities, the programme becomes a caesura. It envisions cultural realities that deeply reflect our complexities and become spaces for alliances, recovery and healing.” – Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall and Tmnit Zere

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