Sophiensæle is located in a building rich in history—a history told by the ceiling decorations, cracks in the walls, and drawings on old doors, as well as by the intangible spirits and memories that inhabit this building. The walls, stairwells, and columns also reveal much about the evolution of labor over the 120 years of its existence—and about emancipation, resistance, democratization, and self-organization, as well as the violence, coercion, and exploitation that manifested within and alongside it.

Building on the format of the Historical house tours regularly offered at Sophiensæle, three Berlin-based artists are developing new site-specific performances as commissioned works for the festival.

The ghosts of the colonial past are here with us.
They walk the same corridors, tracing fingers across thick plastered walls,
sensing for the minerals from their mountains that are hidden underneath.
The resistance fighters of the colonial present are coming for us.
No patience for slow transition.
No sweet words to console weak hearts.

For this tour we’ll walk the halls of Sophiensæle together, remembering the labor, especially of Africans, that has quietly built Europe. We’ll feel the weight of the labor.

I wonder, how heavy is the weight of an interrupted future?
How about 1 million interrupted futures?
How heavy is the thought of ancestors lost?
How many backs does it take to carry all of that weight?