15.–31.05.
Making Life in the Ruins
International Performance Festival

With: Paula Almirón, Ntando Cele, Irmãs Brasil, Enad Marouf, marum/Hassandra, Ania Nowak, Netti Nüganen, Adam Seid Tahir, Tiran Willemse, Basel Zaraa a.o.

We live among ruins. Although they don’t always appear as we expect. Some crumble before our eyes or fade into the background, overtaken by time. While others are patched and polished, preserved as though they still hold the world together.  Whether in the cultural and financial policies shaping Berlin, tech moguls waging war over our attention, borders tightening, the erosion of human rights, the violent conflicts unfolding globally - traces of colonialism, deeply rooted social structures, and rigid norms of identity and belonging form the foundation for a world marked by upheaval. All of this is set against the larger question of how we care for a planet running on fumes.

Where nature can no longer reclaim these ruins, where the earth itself bears the marks of exhaustion, destruction can start to sound like the beginning of a hopeful story. But what deserves preservation? And what should finally be allowed to fall? How do we mourn a future that will never come, and continue living with purpose at the same time?

The festival Making Life in the Ruins brings together contemporary artistic practices from different parts of the world that move within this ambivalent tension -  between the deep urge to dismantle old certainties, and our grief over what has been violently taken. These works offer ways of engaging with futures that are no longer possible, and with the pasts that linger—not as burdens, but as raw materials for renewal. They weave memory with imagination to create speculative narratives, archaeologies, and alternative rituals. In this space, history is revisited with care. Past and future generations come into dialogue. Ideas that have run their course are laid to rest, and lost homelands are reconnected with new belonging. A space is made for collective living beyond reproduction as we know it.

What if ruins aren’t just sites of collapse, but of departure? What if, among many endings, there is also a beginning?

More on the exchange and information point Live in the Ruins here.

Concept & Curation: Lena Kollender, Mateusz Szymanówka

Concept Exchange & Accessibility: Stefanie Hauser

Team Sophiensæle

Artistic & Managing Direction: Jens Hillje, Andrea Niederbuchner

Managing Direction: Kerstin Müller

Dramaturgy & Program: Lena Kollender, Mateusz Szymanówka, Elias Capelle (Assistance)

Artistic Administration & Production: Francesca Spisto, Henriette Fock, Esther Beaufils, Vivi Kartsioti, Léonie Duflot, David Flemming

Communication: Sebastian Sury, Miriam Seise, Benedikt Schwank, Stefanie Hauser, Fränze Thiemann

Ticketing & Box Office: Lolita Naudot-Cameron, Judith Wajsgrus, Ragna Knebel

Accounting: Veronika Münder, Marie-Flore Gillet

Head of Technical Department: Fabian Stemmer, Dennis Schönhardt, Walter Freitag (Substitution Head of Technical Department)
Technical Department: Susana Alonso, Ignacio Buquete, Conradin Dreßler, Ernesto Hernandez, Werner Kernebeck, Marian Kipphoff, Gustav Kleinschmidt, Robert Lange, Dirk Lutz, Veit Mahnert, Asli Atasoy Öner, Erik Pade, Yvonne Reittinger, Aurora Rodriguez, Benjamin Schälike, Katharina Scheicher, Boris Schenk, Anna Schröder, Tristan Sötje, Hanna, Kritten Tangsoo, Sebastian König-Hajman, Norman Thörel, Jens Tuch, Falk Windmüller

Bar & Front house staff: Tabea Antonacci, Leoni Ina Layer, Emma Liebs, Deby Nowraty, Friederike Polzin, Greta Vahrenhorst, Rahel "Raps" Wend, Sina Wohnhaas, Frida Zack