Palast der Republik
Art, discourse & parliament
Which emancipatory movements and attitudes from the time preceding the German reunification have disappeared, but are still needed today? Between 8 and 10 March, we will symbolically resurrect the “Palast der Republik” at Haus der Berliner Festspiele: As a “Palace of Counter-Narratives” with discourse, performance, music and film – a new look at the events of the time of the reunification and beyond. Three days, three perspectives on empowerment: “Re-Vision” on 8 March, “1989/2019 – Come Together” on 9 March and “New Alliances for a Different Europe” on 10 March. On Sunday, our programme will culminate in the “Musikpalast”, a “live mixtape for the PEOPLE”.
Artists, philosophers, activists, musicians and theatremakers will fill the building and embark together on a three day journey. On Friday we will remember the progressive proposals advocated by the 1989 citizens’ movements including a draft constitution put forward at the time. On Saturday individual aspects of reform advocated in 1989 will come into contact with ideas and projects of today’s activists in a range of working parties ultimately coming together on Sunday as contributions to a transnational European constitution that will help in times of increasing populism and nationalism to carry visionary social ideas into the future.
The artistic works that will be on display in the “Palast der Republik” behave differently in relation to the discursive programme. Some prolong the echo of an unredeemed rebellion: they preserve the latency of an alternative course of history and the hope for a different world, which may remain unheard in daily political reality, and pour it into atmospheric, ephemeral spaces and images (Trajal Harrell, Alexander Giesche, Augusto Corrieri). Others repeat the horrors of the totalitarian regime of the GDR and banish them to images and rituals (Thomas Demand, Technosekte + Henrike Naumann) or shed light on parapolitical aspects of history and create their own public spheres – subcutaneous and subversive (Anna Zett, Bojana Kunst, Jeremy Wade, CHEAP). They offer themselves as resonating spaces and disturbances of what is said, sometimes quietly and sometimes loud. In the egalitarian juxtaposition of art and discourse, the idea of an interim use of the Palast der Republik also resonates, which in turn was based on the architectural concepts of a “University of the Street” by Cedric Price.
Friday, 8 March 2019
Palast der Republik
Day 1: Re-Vision
with Almuth Berger, Tatjana Böhm, Susan Buck-Morss, Boris Buden, Augusto Corrieri, Bernd Gehrke, Trajal Harrell, Max Hertzberg, Pan Daijing, Bénédicte Savoy, Bernhard Schlink, Technosekte + Henrike Naumann u.a.
Saturday, 9 March 2019
Palast der Republik
Day 2: 1989/2019 - Come Together
with Boris Buden, Naika Foroutan, Bernd Gehrke, Alexander Giesche, Andrej Holm, Srećko Horvat, Anetta Kahane, Thomas Krüger, Bojana Kunst, Antonia Majaca, Irene Misselwitz, The Performance Bar, Vijay Prashad, Jörg Roesler, Andreas Siekmann, Jan Sowa, Gabriele Stötzer, Margarita Tsomou, Jeremy Wade, Anna Zett a.o.
in the evening: CHEAP
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Palast der Republik
Day 3: New Alliances
with Boris Buden, Naika Foroutan, Srećko Horvat, Thomas Krüger, Lorenzo Marsili, Vijay Prashad, Bénédicte Savoy, Anna Stiede, Karen Taylor, Margarita Tsomou & Yanis Varoufakis
in the evening: “Musikpalast”with Astronautalis, Tyondai Braxton, Buke and Gase, Anna Calvi, Cantus Domus, Arone Dyer, Andi Haberl (The Notwist) & Kaj Duncan David, Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin) & stargaze
Palast der Republik
Impressions
Recap: Palast der Republik
Three days full of discourse, performance, music and film. Impressions of the festival with Bernhard Schlink, Bénédicte Savoy, Yanis Varoufakis, Pan Daijing, Trajal Harrel and many others.
