Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald: After Work Tours #3 – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald: After Work Tours #3

A person in a patterned orange dress reads aloud from a book, arms tattooed; a weathered wall and a basket on a radiator in the background.
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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?

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The  tour addresses colonial violence.

Duration

  • Approx. 45 min. without intermission

Language

  • Spoken English

Audience

  • The audience moves through the building together with the performer
  • The tour involves climbing stairs. There are no alternative step-free routes by lift.   
  • The audience carries water canister.
  • Water may be spilled in some places, which can create a risk of slipping
  • There are only a few moments during the tour when it's possible to sit down
  • Portable museum stools are available and will be handed out before the tour if needed

Interaction

  •   The audience is asked to carry water canisters

Light

  • There is one section of the tour that is very dark

Sound

  • Music is played. At one point during the tour it can become loud.

Tickets

  • Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
  • Via the online ticket shop
  • At the box office

You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.

Concept, performance: Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald
Sound design: NANCLA

After Work Tours #3 is being produced in co-operation with Sophiensæle as part of the festival Never Work.Never Work—International Performance Festival is a festival by Sophiensæle, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF). Sophiensæle is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.

Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald is a multidisciplinary performance artist, activist, and cultural worker of Kpelle (Liberian) and Irish-American descent. Her movement-based practice is rooted in Afro-diasporic, West African, and contemporary dance techniques, centering her feminist, antiracist, and anticolonial politics. She received her BA in Dance and Anthropology from Bates College (USA) and her MA with distinction in Performance at the University of the Arts Berlin – HZT (Germany). She has performed and taught in the Americas, West Africa and Europe, including events such as Tanztage Berlin (2025) and the Venice Biennial (2024), as part of the program Black Portratitures. She co-founded Kukily, an Afro-feminist arts collective working across borders in performance, audiovisual media, installation, and community-centered projects. In 2024, Kukily was invited to the Lagos Biennial. Fitzgerald recently started building a cultural institution in Liberia.

  • A person in a patterned orange dress reads aloud from a book, arms tattooed; a weathered wall and a basket on a radiator in the background.
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • A person in a patterned orange dress and long earrings leans smiling against a weathered wall; beside them a basket on an old radiator.
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • ColleenNdemehFitzgerald-AfterWoA person in a patterned orange dress ascends a historic wooden staircase, holding a basket. Further people follow in the background.rkTourNo3©MayraWallraff-24
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • A person in a patterned orange dress reads aloud from a book; a group of people surrounds them, several holding yellow fans. Weathered inner courtyard.
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • A person in a patterned orange dress and yellow shoes stands in front of a red brick wall with an arched gate. Various buckets and jerrycans are arranged in front of them.
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • A person in a patterned orange dress reads aloud from a book in a courtyard; several people stand and sit around them. Colourful buckets and jerrycans in the foreground, a red brick wall in the background.
    © Mayra Wallraff
  • A person in a patterned orange dress ascends a historic wooden staircase, holding a basket and a book. Further people follow behind in sunlight.
    © Mayra Wallraff