Dear Binghis,

We are happy to invite you to the next chapter of our project "The Roots of Our Hands, Deep as Revolt", a discourse and performance program at HAU Hebbel am Ufer from November 24th to 26th 2023.  

Historically, non-white and non-Western voices have always been excluded in discourses on environmentalism, sustainability, and eco-movements. By addressing the colonial entanglements of the environmental movement in Germany, Nyabinghi Lab looks at the history of these exclusions, challenges the narrative of the human / nature binary, and connects environmental discourses to anticolonial struggles. Through performances, lectures, and discussions, artists and curators explore how the colonial roots of the ecological movement have remained a white spot despite profoundly shaping environmental discourses, politics, and practices to this day. How can decolonial and queer ecologies become sites of possibilities for alternative imaginaries of nature, sustainability, mutuality, Blackness, (non)humanity, and ecological responsibility?

 

Funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). In Cooperation with HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Chimurenga and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien. Part of the exhibition “The Roots of Our Hands Deep as Revolt: Entangled Colonialities of the Green” at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (18.11.2023–14.01.2024 - see below).

 

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Program 24.11.2023

what the body remembers: the colonial history of the green movement

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19:00-20:45, HAU2
Panel with Dr. Morcedai Ogada, Zara Zandieh and Kwesi Aikins, moderation: Saskia Köbschall

 

Screening of “Zamani” (Zara Zandieh)
Germany (2022, 11:50 min.)

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In a magical forest where everything seems to talk to one-another, four siblings from another time-space reality come together to summon one of their kins from the past. The ancestor beholds a message for them. A message to the Earthlings on how to face climate change.

21:00-22:00, HAU2
“What the Body Remembers” – Performance by Amora C. Bosco

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22:00, CAN Bar
Afterparty with DJ Set by Mandy aka Bad Puppy

 

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Program 25.11.2023

what the land remembers: racism and environmental injustice

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15:30-18:00

After The Company

 

A film programme by Lisabona Rahman and Ragil Huda

Screening this evening will be two films that take place in Indonesia, set almost half a century apart, linked by the theme of “landsploitation”. “The Builders” from 1972 proclaims the promise of economic prosperity that is only possible at the expense of the earth as it is exploited by oil production. This is followed by “30 Tahun Su Lewat (30 Years Have Passed)” from 2019, showing the lives left behind by profiteering palm oil plantations.
“The Builders” adopts logic along with its accompanying economic model. The narrative fits into the machinery of an authoritarian state that uses nationalist jargon to justify plundering environmental resources. The film itself was created by the image production machinery: behind it is a Hong Kong-based company owned by New Zealand director Brian Brake. His aerial shots, the highly stylised image design, and the imposing voiceover convey the language of colonial power. In contrast is “30 Years Have Passed”, a film of resistance by directors Monaliza Upuya and Bernad Koten. Shot with simple means, it focuses on one goal: to give a voice to the people who once lived in harmony with the earth, but meanwhile have been displaced by the company that created and eventually abandoned the region's palm oil plantations.

19:00-20:45
Panel with Zina Saro-Wiwa, Peter Emorinken-Donatus and Imeh Ituen, moderation: Aouefa Amoussouvi

 

21:00-22:00
Performance by Ladji Kone “Going Green – Upside Down” (“Allant vert a l´envers”)

 

The performance “Allant vert a l´envers” addresses the synergy and proximity between humans and nature, and reflects on humans as nature. It's a project about questioning natural instincts, about the complicity and closeness of city dwellers with urban greenery, with rituals in chaos and unconscious imbalance with no guaranteed points of reference. Projecting ourselves from a park in Ouagadougou, we find ourselves in the middle of a magical space that is losing its balance and threatened by various dangers. Their unexpected inhabitants are faced with the challenge of saving their habitat, and despite their different characters, they are looking for collective answers. Will the natural spirits and mythical deities be on their side? 

 

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Program 26.11.2023

black ecology: resistance, poetics and imaginaries

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16:00-18:00
Workshop “Food of the Gods: Cosmology, History and Biology of Cacao” mit Aouefa Amoussouvi

Registration required at tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de

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19:00-20:45
Panel with J.T. Roane, Duron Chavis and Ama Josephine Budge, moderation: Anguezomo Mba Bikoro

 

21:00-22:00
Performance by House of Brownies “Queerdom”

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With “Queerdom”, the Hamburg-based collective House of Brownies presents its first independent, full-length work as a complex but inclusive experimental arrangement. With “Queerdom”, the collective creates its own space that turns the binarity of backstage and stage on its head. A formal experiment in which orders are dissolved. Emergence / Becoming are not hidden as stylistic devices, but worked out. Thus new forms of being together emerge, questions of authenticity and identity are reformulated in a moving way. In the following gala all performers do what they do best: They present their art. But the collective swirls many more binary orders: Gender, race, class and diverse dance styles.

22:00, CAN Bar
After party with DJ set by Nissa (SLIC Unit)

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Nissa’s style is influenced by the Soul, Disco and early Rap her parents introduced her to, the Pop and RnB anthems she worshiped as a teen and the dark sounds hailing from Atlanta, Houston and Memphis that seeped through her brother’s bedroom walls. Combining bass and club music from all over the world, her sound is a diverse sound collage featuring international gems. 

Please find current information on the programme at

HAU Hebbel am Ufer