Opening of the III. phase of the Roma Biennale WE ARE HERE! As part of 48 Stunden Neukölln

Please pay attention to the hygiene measures of 48 Stunden Neukölln: https://48-stunden-neukoelln.de/de/page/hygieneregeln

On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the self-organised art festival by and with Roma and BIPoC artists opens its third phase on the theme of survival.

The open-air event celebrates the strength and courage of people who have left their old lives, their loved ones, and their own homes – to survive, to escape bombs and life-threatening conditions. Amid the (post-)migrant district of Neukölln, however, the question of survival after having fled also arises: after the right-wing terrorist attack in Hanau in February 2020, the danger to the lives of many racialised people in Germany became real.

Thus the centre piece of the event and stage at the same time – the truck Captain Django Sastipe, specially designed for the 2nd Roma Biennale by Damian James Le Bas – bears the names of the people murdered in Hanau on its forehead. In addition, to live music by Orphe Band, video artworks by Kristóf Horváth, Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Selma Selman, and Charles Newland, among others, will be projected in the truck during the event, as well as artistic posters by Nihad Nino Pušija, Krzysztof Gill, Sead Kazanxhiu, Dan Turner, Jeffrey Wynne and Danyang Zhao. Under the motto “Art is not a luxury good, but a necessity”, posters can be taken away.

The neighbourhood campus Dammweg will serve as our space: a long-closed and enchanted wasteland that has been brought back to life by the Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln – from the initiative of Urbane Praxis, coordinated by Berlin Mondiale and in cooperation with S27 – Kunst und Bildung and Laial e.V.

As part of the 2nd Roma Biennale WE ARE HERE!, 50 artists address five different aspects of BEING HERE from the perspective of the racialised, oppressed and marginalised on the occasion of important anniversaries of the history and present of Roma between 8 April and 24 October: self-confession, resistance and resilience, survival, memory and finally the very fact of existence.

The 2nd Roma Biennale WE ARE HERE! is a project by RomaTrial e.V. in co-operation with Allianz Kulturstiftung. Supported by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin. The media partners are Monopol and Der Freitag.