Save energy

Save energy

Address
Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin

CalendarTicketsAccessibility

  1. Home

  2. Reflexes & Reflections

Reflexes & Reflections

Key Visual Reflexes & Reflections 2026

The Great Disorder

4-Day Focus curated by Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel

Reflexes & Reflections 2026

Reflexes & Reflections 2026 will take place from 27 August to 30 August.

The Berliner Festspiele are a cultural institution closely connected with the changing history of Berlin and the partition of Europe. But what marks out the present state of the world? What are the political, social and cultural consequences derived from a global order that is increasingly shaped by wars, imperial power grabs and multipolar lines of conflict? The four-day focus Reflexes & Reflections Die große Unordnung (The Great Disorder) will examine the effects of these developments on liberal democracies and international co-operation. A special highlight is the conversation with former Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on the evening of 28 August 2026. She will discuss the challenges of the current geopolitical shifts for open societies together with the curators of Reflexes and Reflections, Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel. Prominent speakers from the worlds of politics, academia and the arts – including Adam Tooze, Meera Nanda and Steffen Mau – will shed light on the future of liberal institutions and alliances, the continuity of colonial violence, lines of conflict within Germany’s post-migrant society as well as artistic and curatorial reactions to a world in disorder. 

Save the date!

Impressions 2025

  • Dancers lie on the stage, legs drawn up and one arm stretched upwards.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Julia Gat

  • The Installation of Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze und Miloš Trakilović.

    MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE. By Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo of the Reflexe&Reflexionen stage.

    Opening with Jeffrey Goldberg

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo from the event. Four people are sitting in chairs on a stage. They are engaged in a discussion.

    Who Can Have a Stage? On Artistic Freedom and Deplatforming. Panel with Elke Buhr, Emanuel Gat, Nora Sternfeld, Deniz Yücel.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Stefan Niggemeier, Hasnain Kazim, Mithu Sanyal und Gilda Sahebi on the panel talk.

    Who Has the Last Word? The Power of Personal Testimony in Public Debate. Panel with Hasnain Kazim, Gilda Sahebi, Mithu Sanyal, Stefan Niggemeier.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Five dancers striking athletic poses on a dark stage.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani on stage. Max Uthoff is laughing loudly, holding his head against his hand.

    Late-Night Programme with Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Dancers lie on the stage, legs drawn up and one arm stretched upwards.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Julia Gat

  • The Installation of Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze und Miloš Trakilović.

    MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE. By Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo of the Reflexe&Reflexionen stage.

    Opening with Jeffrey Goldberg

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo from the event. Four people are sitting in chairs on a stage. They are engaged in a discussion.

    Who Can Have a Stage? On Artistic Freedom and Deplatforming. Panel with Elke Buhr, Emanuel Gat, Nora Sternfeld, Deniz Yücel.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Stefan Niggemeier, Hasnain Kazim, Mithu Sanyal und Gilda Sahebi on the panel talk.

    Who Has the Last Word? The Power of Personal Testimony in Public Debate. Panel with Hasnain Kazim, Gilda Sahebi, Mithu Sanyal, Stefan Niggemeier.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Five dancers striking athletic poses on a dark stage.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani on stage. Max Uthoff is laughing loudly, holding his head against his hand.

    Late-Night Programme with Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Dancers lie on the stage, legs drawn up and one arm stretched upwards.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Julia Gat

  • The Installation of Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze und Miloš Trakilović.

    MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE. By Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo of the Reflexe&Reflexionen stage.

    Opening with Jeffrey Goldberg

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • A photo from the event. Four people are sitting in chairs on a stage. They are engaged in a discussion.

    Who Can Have a Stage? On Artistic Freedom and Deplatforming. Panel with Elke Buhr, Emanuel Gat, Nora Sternfeld, Deniz Yücel.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Stefan Niggemeier, Hasnain Kazim, Mithu Sanyal und Gilda Sahebi on the panel talk.

    Who Has the Last Word? The Power of Personal Testimony in Public Debate. Panel with Hasnain Kazim, Gilda Sahebi, Mithu Sanyal, Stefan Niggemeier.

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Five dancers striking athletic poses on a dark stage.

    Freedom Sonata by Emanuel Gat

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

  • Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani on stage. Max Uthoff is laughing loudly, holding his head against his hand.

    Late-Night Programme with Max Uthoff and Enissa Amani

    © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Fabian Schellhorn

Reflexes & Reflections in the Media Library

On the future of debate culture: The videos of the second edition of “Reflexes & Reflections” with lectures, discussions and a late-night programme are available in the Media Library.

To the Media Library
People sit on a stage and look at each other.

Who Can Have a Stage? On Artistic Freedom and Deplatforming

© Berliner Festspiele / Reflexe & Reflexionen

About Reflexes & Reflections

The “Reflexes & Reflections” theme days are a programme series organised by Berliner Festspiele. In times of increasing polarisation of social debates, it aims to create open and controversial spaces for discussion. “Reflexes & Reflections” brings together artistic and discursive positions to negotiate social problems and contentious issues.

Read more

More Berliner Festspiele

Collage of three individuals perceived as female, whose faces are partially painted with colorful dots and collaged with floral motifs.

Gropius Bau |

Performance

Leila Hekmat: Roses Rising – The Movement  

6 & 7 March 2026

How does the bourgeois longing for revolt take shape, when the faith in progress and reason is unsettled? Berlin-based artist and director Leila Hekmat explores this question in her newly commissioned performance Roses Rising – The Movement. Moving between concert and ballet, the piece transforms the space into a landscape hovering between bunker, rehearsal room and dreamscape and invites the audience to witness a dinner party unravel into a happening.

Gropius Bau |

Exhibition

Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes: Persistence of Vision

19 March to 28 June 2026

Working in New York City between the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and the onset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Peter Hujar captured a pivotal cultural moment in piercing black-and-white photographs. In the exhibition Persistence of Vision, Hujar’s photographs are interspersed with contemporary works by New York City-based artist Liz Deschenes, opening up an intergenerational dialogue on photography.