Never Work Talks: Helen Hester, Anajara Amarante, Olivia Hyunsin Kim – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

Never Work Talks: Helen Hester, Anajara Amarante, Olivia Hyunsin Kim

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Over the course of two days, the festival’s artistic program will be accompanied by a series of lec­tures and discussions.

We begin on June 24 with a look at a possible future and the question of what a “post-work” society might look like—a world in which work is organized very differently and no longer forms the center of our identity and social organization. For this, we have invited Helen Hester, who has gained international attention through her publications Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018), After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time (with Nick Srnicek, Verso, 2023), and Post-Work: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How We Get There (with Will Stronge, Bloomsbury, 2025). Following a keynote, she will discuss with artists Anajara Amarante and Olivia Hyunsin Kim what visions for artistic work in a post-work society might look like.

On June 25, philosopher and author Amelia Horgan and sociologist and author Nicole Mayer-Ahuja will engage in a keynote conversation about the realities of our current world of work under capitalism, contemporary class society and the divisions that wage labor creates, as well as the potential of “resistant idleness” and sometimes unexpected alliances.

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With: Helen Hester, Anajara Amarante, Olivia Hyunsin Kim

A production by Sophiensæle. 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.

Helen Hester is Professor of Gender, Technology and Cultural Politics at the University of West London. Her publications include Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018); After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time (with Nick Srnicek, Verso, 2023) and Post-Work: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How We Get There (with Will Stronge, Bloomsbury, 2025). 

Anajara Amarante is a Brazilian crip & lgbt+ artist who is Berlin based, working at the intersection of disability justice, dissident bodies and arts. Their main media of work is the moving body. Their professional interests are personal and political: queer, dissident bodies, marginalized communities and art practices. Their main artistic practice is concentrated in the field of performing arts (focus choreography), and some visual arts. As someone who studied biology and as a former teacher, they are interested in nature and the people who defend it, as well as access-centered pedagogies & environmental education.

Olivia Hyunsin Kim(she/her or they/them) is a choreographer, director and curator. Their works range from opera to installations. In 2019, she received first prize at the Amadeu Antonio Prize and graduated with distinction from the MA program in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. She holds a BA in German from Seoul National University and studied dance at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Falmouth University. She was an artist-in-residence at ImPulsTanz in 2017, Goethe-Institut Montréal and Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique in 2022, Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul from 2021–2023, and Goethe-Institut Salvador in 2023. During the 2022/23 season, she was Composer-in-Residence at the Hanover State Opera. Her works have been presented internationally, including at Sophiensæle, tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, Rote Fabrik Zürich, Hanover State Opera, Stuttgart State Opera, Art Sonje CenterSeoul, and Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City. Under the name ddanddarakim, she collaborates across disciplines on choreographic works with a queer-feminist and postcolonial focus. Since 2023, she has been part of the PSR Kollektiv curating Heizhaus.

  • Helen Hester sits at a table, resting their chin on folded hands. She wears a denim jacket and looks pensively into the camera. Trees are visible in a blurred background through a window.
    Helen Hester © Ione Saizar
  • Black-and-white portrait of a person against a light background. The person wears a crew-neck sweater and smiles gently into the camera.
    Anajara Amarante © Magdalena Sebald
  • EN: Close-up of a person with long black hair wearing an olive green jacket. The person looks calmly into the camera. Water and a blurred city skyline are visible in the background.
    Olivia Hyunsin Kim © Christian Cattelan