25 May – October 2025
Where evolution is a rolling outwards and differentiating according to competitive pressures, involution suggests a curling inwards, an entangling and enfolding, an intimate co-becoming. In this time of creeping collapse, is it possible to resist the polarization, paralysis and destabilization caused by toxic certainties, and instead look for ways to grow closer in the vulnerability of not-knowing? Seven days of collective practices offer an opportunity to get involved – and explore uncertainty as possibility, perhaps even as hope.
Full programme details soon!
BEGINNING IN THE END
Sunday 25 May 2–5pm
A funeral ceremony for our beautiful birch tree, which sadly had to be felled earlier in the year. More information to follow…
We would love if you would join us in marking the occasion.
31 August – 21 December 2024
The world ‘as we know it’ is unravelling before our eyes and society finds itself in territory for which there is no map. This is a liminal zone between the no longer and the not yet. Six participatory events in the wild garden of the HILDEGARD project space in Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen are offered as an invitation to collectively lean into and learn from the uncertainties, discomforts and shadows that haunt this place – with humility, curiosity and humour – so that the possibility of real transformation can emerge.
One day, Swedish sports teacher Leif Nilson decided that there must be more to life than teaching people to run ever faster, and instead decided to dedicate his skills to the art of moving as slowly as possible, organising slow races in his home town.
Inspired by this life-changing practice and the ancient Buddhist technology of walking meditation, the inaugural event of LIVING IN THE LIMINAL, let’s metabolise! is an invitation to young and old to collectively slow down so as to be more present to the urgencies of our time.
The last to finish gets the biggest piece of cake!
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you to stay awake and bear witness together through this late summer night. Preparing food and shelter, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in uncertainty, staying with the trouble and sitting with discomfort – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
We will work with prompts for sensing and reflection throughout the night. We invite you to think about who or what you want to dedicate this vigil to. Collectively we can stay present to it.
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you to stay awake and bear witness together through this late summer night. Preparing food and shelter, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in uncertainty, staying with the trouble and sitting with discomfort – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
We will work with prompts for sensing and reflection throughout the night. We invite you to think about who or what you want to dedicate this vigil to. Collectively we can stay present to it.
A safe, respectful, open space for lively conversations about a difficult topic over tea and cake, with other people who will also die one day. The Café Mortel concept originated in Switzerland and developed into the Death Café movement in the UK and has since spread around the world.
Hosted by Aleksandra Mikić and Lucy Powell, this picnic will take place within the connective tissue of the garden, where death and life are so exquisitely intertwined.
A multi-sensory, carnivalesque celebration of monsters, decomposers and transformative processes – and topping-out ceremony for the compost toilet, which guests are warmly invited to help construct. Then it’s time to put your knowledge of nutrient cycles to the test in Ella Ziegler’s Holy Shit quiz, enjoy charismatic speeches by ‘invasive’ species and ‘pests’ courtesy of the Organism Democracy, pick at the bones of Lucy Powell’s edible sculpture, create and sample distilled plant odeurs for insect decomposers with Katrin Petroschkat & Susanne Schmitt at the Barfly Bar, before gathering round the fire for a hearty garden soup as darkness descends.
A multi-sensory, carnivalesque celebration of monsters, decomposers and transformative processes – and topping-out ceremony for the compost toilet, which guests are warmly invited to help construct. Then it’s time to put your knowledge of nutrient cycles to the test in Ella Ziegler’s Holy Shit quiz, enjoy charismatic speeches by ‘invasive’ species and ‘pests’ courtesy of the Organism Democracy, pick at the bones of Lucy Powell’s edible sculpture, create and sample distilled plant odeurs for insect decomposers with Katrin Petroschkat & Susanne Schmitt at the Barfly Bar, before gathering round the fire for a hearty garden soup as darkness descends.
Ukemi, or the art of falling, is a necessary component of martial arts such as aikido, jiu jitsu and judo. It teaches practitioners to deal with fear, uncertainty and failure more skillfully. Dance artist and somatic therapist Moss Beynon-Juckes offers a workshop exploring choreographies of falling. We will work collectively and alone, surrendering, collapsing, building trust, softening, catching one another, gaining intimacy with different surfaces of the earth.
Join us in exploring the poetics of the dark side in a series of readings selected in collaboration with poet N. Grindell, who will read from his recently published volume on recurring collective nightmares, You keep having the same dream. Let’s huddle together around the campfire and warm ourselves with Glühwein and hearty soup on the darkest day of the year!
Join us in exploring the poetics of the dark side in a series of readings selected in collaboration with poet N. Grindell, who will read from his recently published volume on recurring collective nightmares, You keep having the same dream. Let’s huddle together around the campfire and warm ourselves with Glühwein and hearty soup on the darkest day of the year!
LIVING IN THE LIMINAL is funded by Bezirksamt Lichtenberg Berlin from the Bezirkskulturfonds
02 September 02—07 October 2023
TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES FOR FUTURE FLOURISHING: In the wild garden of Hildegard project space in Alt-Hohenschönhausen, a series of workshops, discussions and participatory performances are an invitation to engage emotionally, sensorially and imaginatively with the urgent issues of our time. Based on the conviction that systemic, ecological and inner transformation are inextricably linked, these practices are offered as a contribution to more-than-human future flourishing.
Siegmar Zacharias offers a workshop that combines a Listening Session, offered as a container for collective public grieving practice, and the opportunity to learn about social justice from Solidago canadensis, Canadian goldenrod.
Siegmar Zacharias offers a workshop that combines a Listening Session, offered as a container for collective public grieving practice, and the opportunity to learn about social justice from Solidago canadensis, Canadian goldenrod.
Why am I still haunted by my background? How deep is my connection to the stories and places of my childhood? What knowlege is hidden behind my East German identity? Do I (still) belong here?
Thirty years after the fall of the Wal,l Rika Weniger, Burkhard Körner and Noah Voelker joined forces to explore the “East German identity” and embarked on an emotional rollercoaster ride. An outdoor theatre evening.
Gardens are often subject to strict maintenance regimes by their human owners. When asked to chose a political title for themselves in the garden, people’s answers often leave little doubt as to the power relations that determine which species are permitted to live there and which are considered undesirable and to be combatted. What happens when the other-than-human beings in the garden are suddenly given a voice that transforms them from subjects to citizens? With Club Real.
Gardens are often subject to strict maintenance regimes by their human owners. When asked to chose a political title for themselves in the garden, people’s answers often leave little doubt as to the power relations that determine which species are permitted to live there and which are considered undesirable and to be combatted. What happens when the other-than-human beings in the garden are suddenly given a voice that transforms them from subjects to citizens?
“What modes of passionate immersion – or love, or intimacy could a stone afford?” Hugo Reinert
Inspired by this question, Alex Toland offers a series of Fluxus-inspired relational exercises that invite reflection on the individual and collective agency of mineral and more-than mineral intimacies and the boundaries of what it means to be alive.
The sapere in homo sapiens points to the origins of wisdom as the ability to taste, take in and absorb. This is very different to simply consuming and can be a long-term source of nourishment perhaps especially in uncertain times.
In this workshop, we will spend the day together, immersing ourselves fully in elaborate preparations for Erntedankfest, the festival of gratitude, truly taking in life’s gifts. We will offer sacrifices to the god of mildew, summon our multispecies ancestors, engage in reciprocal acts of beautification, offer our nitrogen to the plants, let the rice boil over, try out medieval ironing techniques and feast under the stars. With Ella Ziegler and Lucy Powell.
The sapere behind the name homo sapiens points to the origins of wisdom as the ability to taste, take in and absorb. This is very different to simply consuming and can be a longterm source of nourishment perhaps especially in uncertain times.
In this workshop we will spend the day together immersing ourselves fully in elaborate preparations for Erntedankfest, festival of gratitude, truly taking in life’s gifts. We will offer sacrifices to the god of mildew, summon our multispecies ancestors, engage in reciprocal acts of beautifaction, actually use the fresh pasta machine, offer our nitrogen to the plants, let the rice boil over, try out medieval ironing techniques and feast under the stars.
As the autumn sets in and winter draws near, Plan b invite you to dream of better, greener worlds to come. After gathering and binding rosemary, lavender, wormwood and sage, we will collectively enter into future visions beyond the eminent damage to this world and encounter another green world.
What does waking up and stepping into this world feel like, sound like, smell like?
ROOTS IN THE RUINS is funded by Bezirksamt Lichtenberg Berlin from the Bezirkskulturfonds