On September 10th, the artistic director of the HKW, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, the deputy director, Henriette Gallus, and the co-curators Ibou Diop and Max Czollek presented the project heimaten, initiated by the “Haus der Kulturen der Welt“ (HKW). heimaten aims to redefine the concept of “homeland” in the context of the real, plural composition of German society and launches a nationwide program scheduled to last four years.
The project is supported by a network of civil society initiatives and cultural institutions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including the CPPD and DialogPerspektives e.V., as well as numerous CPPD network partners, such as Decolonize Berlin e.V., ausARTen, Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V., Schauspielhaus Wien, Wertansich(t), fluctoplasma, Initiative 19. Februar Hanau, RomaTrial e.V., and many others.
Planned activities include, among others, a series of discourses (2025), which will link strategies of “home-making” (Heimatisierung) with questions of plural memory work, as well as two festivals: the De-Berlinization festival in March 2025 at the HKW in Berlin, and the decentralized heimaten festival, which will take place throughout September with cooperation partners across the entire German-speaking region, leading up to the federal election.
More information about heimaten, the network, and the opening program (September 13–15, 2024) can be found here: heimaten. We look forward to shaping and collaborating over the next four years.