A FESTIVAL AND AN EXHIBITION IN BERLIN: FROM THE TREE TO THE EXILED FLIGHT

At the heart of the festival is the work of former fellows of the Martin Roth-Initiative—one of the world’s largest protection programmes for at-risk artists—coordinated by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the Goethe-Institut. Participants include artists and cultural practitioners from Egypt, Belarus, Brazil, India, Iran, Colombia, Montenegro, Myanmar, Russia, Sudan, South Africa, Turkey, and Ukraine. Together, they offer a multifaceted view of loss and transformation—of what remains when home is lost, and what emerges when something new must begin.

The festival’s central image—birds who were once deeply rooted like trees and are now forced to seek new directions—captures its core theme: experiences of loss, new beginnings, and fateful encounters that spark new connections. “In this context, the festival is not just a framework—it is a temporary nest. A space of refuge where voices shaped by displacement can resonate with one another and create new imaginative spaces,” as the curatorial statement puts it.

The festival programme is divided into three sections: Performance and film programme (curated by Emrah Gökdemir), Music programme (curated by Ludmila Pogodina), and Literature and discourse programme (curated by Kholoud Bidak and Anna Karpenko).

Over the course of three days, audiences can expect a vibrant line-up of performances, film screenings, concerts, DJ sets, readings, discussions, and an interactive food workshop. Highlights include a musical performance by South African artist Pure, whose soundscapes explore the search for roots in unfamiliar lands. The performance Letters Home by aliveduo (Alena Starostina and Ivan Nikolaev) evokes a layered response to the loss of home and the tentative building of a new life, drawn from fragments of personal diaries. In her film Come Rain or Shine, filmmaker Zeynep Güzel traces her family’s history in Armenia—a portrait of memory and uprooting. 

Other contributing artists include: Ali Abdollahi, Parham Alizadeh, Dante Buu, Elisabete Finger, Sujatro Ghosh, Emrah Gökdemir, Ludmila Pogodina, Radio Jaguar, Zeyo Mann, Sarvenaz Mostofey, Aya Sammani, Soheil Soheili, Ma Thida, Igor Vidor, and Vahid Zarezadeh.

The accompanying exhibition of the same name remains on view at the ifa Gallery Berlin through June 8, 2025. It brings together around 50 positions across visual arts, performance, literature, and photography, addressing themes such as social violence, political repression, restrictions on freedom of expression, and human rights. The show was curated by Muhammad Salah Abdulaziz, Emrah Gökdemir, Anna Karpenko, and Thibaut de Ruyter.