April at HKW
4.4.2025
Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism
Literature Festival
Fri., 11–Sa., 12 April
Surreal Continuum reimagines and remaps the Surrealist movement on its centenary. Despite its global resonance, Surrealism has often been narrowly framed as a male, European movement. Surreal Continuum counters this narrative by engaging with other contributors to Surrealist thought and practice across different geographies, such as Suzanne Césaire, Joyce Mansour, and Ted Joans, while also forging new connections to the works of contemporary practitioners such as Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Moses März, Emilie Moorhouse, Savanna ‘Sweetwater’ Morgan, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Ben Okri, Lisa Spalt, Yoko Tawada, and others.
Festival programme
Readings, Conversations, Performances, DJ Set, Installations, Films
11–12 April
Memories of a Time When All Successful Revolutions Were Made By the Message of the Poets
Map Installation by Moses März
11–27 April
Deberlinization
Refabulating the World, A Theory of Praxis
Conversations, Talks, Reading, Music, Screening
Fri., 25–Sun., 27 April
In 1884–85, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck convened a conference in Berlin to organize the division of the African continent between the emerging industrial and military powers. This meeting, attended by fourteen European countries, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, was primarily aimed at securing their extractivist and commercial interests. This process led to a profound fragmentation of the endogenous political structures of the African continent, leaving a lasting mark on its political, economic, and social history.
140 years after this pivotal event, it seems urgent to unravel the structures knotted by the principles of colonial appropriation, identify their continuities, and settle their epistemological legacies. Curated by Ibou Coulibaly Diop and Franck Hermann Ekra, Deberlinization does this in the city where these structures were codified—bringing together activists and practitioners from the fields of visual arts, performing arts, cinema, music, architecture, literature, economics, the humanities and social sciences, and politics.
With Yousra Abourabi, Didier Awadi, Memory Biwa, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Simukai Chigudu, Mansour Ciss Kanakassy, Daniele Daude, Nikita Dhawan, Mamadou Diouf, Soeuf Elbadawi, Christine Eyene, Tiken Jah Fakoly, N’Goné Fall, Julia Grosse, Maguèye Kassé, Maame A.S. Mensa-Bonsu, Célestin Monga, Simon Njami, Ladan Osman, Raphaëlle Red, Djelifily Sako, Alioune Sall Paloma, Maboula Soumahoro, Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí, Hildegard Titus, Abdourahman Waberi, Hyam Yared, Abdenour Zahzah
Heimatization: (Post) East German?
Conversation
Wed., 16 April, 19:00
The second evening of the Heimatization discussion series is dedicated to the question of how facts, assertions, and attributions about the GDR shape today’s reality and how a (post) East German identity can actually be narrated. Lecturer and migration consultant Sergej Prokopkin gives a keynote speech on the Post-East approach, which he co-developed. Afterwards, author Paula Fürstenberg, cultural scientist Peggy Piesche, historian Patrice G. Poutrus, and author Olivia Wenzel discuss these and other questions, moderated by the heimaten co-curators Max Czollek and Ibou Diop.
The first volume in the 'haɪ̯maːtn̩ publication series, We’ve Already Been There, with poetry and photography by Björn Kuhligk, is available now.
Who Does Germany Belong To?
#1: The post-migrant decade
The heimaten-Podcast
With Max Czollek & Naika Foroutan
From Wed., 9 April
Who does Germany belong to? In eight podcast episodes, Max Czollek and his guests shed light on different perspectives and concepts of belonging in a plural society. The dialogue creates an archive of home and resistance, reminding us that these discussions are not new and that strategies have already been found in the past that can be taken further today.
In episode 1, Czollek talks to Naika Foroutan, Professor of Integration Research and Social Policy at Humboldt University in Berlin, about the past post-migrant decade: about the origins of the term ‘post-migrant’ in theatre and art as well as its political relevance.
Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests
Exhibition and Research Project
Until 16 June
With macro histories ever present as a backdrop, Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests primarily concerns itself with micro stories, with many works focusing on individuals who have embarked on travels across the world or realized projects that gather encyclopaedic knowledge from across cultural contexts and perspectives. The exhibition considers periods and individuals that predate or fall outside of modern colonial eras, overshadowed as they have been by Eurocentric historiography and the liberal myth of the heroic individual and the ethos of the traveller as a devourer of worlds. In considering the aforementioned examples of pre-modern universalities, the challenge of devising an apparatus able to do historic justice to the majority of anonymous travellers who, through their toil and labour, have built and sustain the world of global capital, is taken up.
A reader accompanies with essays, interviews, and artistic contributions the exhibition.
Walks, interactive tours and conversations on art open perspectives on the contents of the exhibition.
Kids' Disco
Bass and Balloons under the Disco Ball
Sun., 6 April, 15:00–17:00
The Beginning is Near
Conversation with Max Czollek and Tobias Ginsberg
Wed., 23 March, 18:00
The Beginning is Near takes the calamities of recent years and those currently looming as a starting point from which to move forward to different and better things. The question of what has not worked and is currently not working is closely linked to the question of the future. It forms the context for Czollek’s conversations with people who, in one way or another, are dealing with the question of how things can and must continue. In April, Czollek engages in a conversation with author and director Tobias Ginsberg.
Sabar, Polyrhythm, and the Politics of Body Movement
Dance workshop series
29.–30. April
Originating from Senegalese shores, sabar is a sonic language that was born out of the coastal oral traditions of Wolof, Lébou, and Sérère communities. The term comes from the Wolof language, designating the single drum instrument as well as its ensemble, the drumming style, its sensual dancing, and the popular celebration which often takes place in the context of important social events such as naming ceremonies, weddings, and rituals of initiations, among others.
In 2025, HKW again hosts sabar drummers Nago Guèye Koité & SAF SAP to collectively revive and resonate with the vibrations of sabar drumming, its dance, and its ceremonial practices in a series of dance workshops.
Dance workshops
17:00-19:00
Tue., 29 & Wed., 30 April
Tue., 6 & Wed., 7 May
Tue., 24 & Wed., 25 June
Mo., 7 & Tue., 8 July
Tue., 21 & Wed., 22 October
Tue., 11 & Wed., 12 November
Tue., 2 & Wed., 3 December
Please register via sabar@hkw.de
Calender
Until 16 June
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00
Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests
Exhibition, walks, conversations on art, interactive tours
€8/€6, free admission on Mondays
Sun., 6 April
14:00–18:00
Childcare
Free admission, please register
15:00–17:00
Kids' Disco
Free admission
Fri., 11–Sat., 12 April
Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism
Literature festival
EN/DE/various, free admission
Wed., 16 April
19:00
Heimatization: (Post-) East German?
Conversation
DE/EN/DGS, €5
Wed., 23 April
18:00
The Beginning is Near
Max Czollek in conversation with Tobias Ginsburg
DE/EN/DGS, €5
Fri., 25–Sun., 27 April
Deberlinization
Conversations, Talks, Reading, Music, Screening
DE/EN/FR/various, day-ticket €5, three-day pass: €10,50
Tue., 29–Wed., 30 April
17:00–19:00
Sabar dance workshop
DE/FR/Wolof, €20
Visit Information
Opening Times
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00
Free admission on Mondays
Extended opening hours during evening programmes
Childcare
HKW offers free childcare for many of its programmes. For further information visit hkw.de.
Current information about visiting and accessibility.
Weltwirtschaft Restaurant is open daily from 12:00–00:00.
Contact
Jan Trautmann
Pressesprecher
Lead Communications Officer
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 10557
Berlin
T: + 49 (0) 30 397 87 157