Berlin | Re:Writing the Future - a hybrid decentralised festival

Re:Writing the Future takes place 25-28 February 2021, a decentralized, cooperative hybrid festival of urban life as diverse, heterogeneous and critical, shaped and informed by the practice and sensibilities of new-comers and passersby. Exiled artists from around the world, the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) and cultural institutions in Berlin are invited to participate, cooperate, collaborate.

During a long pandemic winter, as free movement is restricted and nations lock themselves in, the festival Re:Writing the Future offers a different perspective on the world we live in. As everything becomes uncertain, we need experts on uncertainty. As we experience life-threatening danger, we can learn from those who have long lived dangerously. As divisions, separations and distances seem to be the order of the day, we should listen to those who know much about border-crossing and togetherness. As art and culture seem expendable in the fight against the virus, let us look to those who have been making art against all odds. And as democracies become fragile and institutions opaque, why not ask the opinions of those who have suffered from autocracies and dictatorships?

Over the course of four days of debates, presentations, lectures, concerts, readings, performances, exhibitions and workshops; online, offline and hybrid; in multiple places in Berlin and wherever we are, Re:Writing the future will be a festival of and by and for those of us who have been forced to leave home because they make art, those of us who have been working to keep cities open to new voices and those of us who offer creative and open spaces to develop new voices. Our societies have long contradicted the idea that “here” and “there”, “us” and “them” are fitting terms to describe the ever-shifting, ever-moving, multilingual reality we inhabit. There is here; they are us; we are them. Let’s make this reality an experience.

It will be an opportunity to discuss the role of diversified cultural practices for the social and cultural life of cities, and the role of cities in times of reactionary and illiberal national governments. It will also offer a series of workshops to forge new alliances for a different path toward the future. With participation by Herta Müller, Can Dündar, Nazeeha Saeed, Milo Rau, Eyal Weizman, Ali Hassan, Wolfgang Kaleck, Esra Karakaya, Rasha Nahas...

The festival Re:Writing the future is carried out by Allianz Kulturstiftung, in cooperation with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, in partnership with ICORN – International Cities of Refuge Network and funded by the Senate for Culture and Europe of the City of Berlin.