“Das wiederkehrende Besondere | The Returning Singular”
Artistic Salon
Nachtasyl at Thalia Theater Hamburg | 13 November 2026 | 4:30–8:00 pm
Curated by Daniel Laufer
Programme in German and English
With the #ShabbatEdition, Dagesh brings the Dagesh–Studio on the Road series to Hamburg for the first time. Under the title “Das wiederkehrende Besondere | The Returning Singular”, the evening is devoted to Shabbat as a recurring exception, a weekly interruption of everyday life, and creates a space for artistic practice.
The #ShabbatEdition draws on the tradition of Jewish salons as places of encounter, exchange and art. In the Nachtasyl of the Thalia Theater, a contemporary salon takes shape in which artistic contributions accompany, comment on and reinterpret Shabbat. The transition from the everyday to Shabbat is marked by the lighting of the Shabbat candles and shaped by musical, literary and performative contributions. They take up central motifs of Shabbat: repetition and interruption, community and retreat, voice and silence. In this way, different artistic perspectives on this special time open up, along with spaces for encounter between artists and audience.
With contributions from: Micki Weinberg, Lana Lux, Daniel Gerzenberg, Masha the Rich Man, Tobias Herzberg, Leonard Dick, Daniel Kahn and Yeva Lapsker
The #ShabbatEdition “Das wiederkehrende Besondere | The Returning Singular” is the fourth edition of the nationwide series Dagesh–Studio on the Road, which makes contemporary Jewish positions in contemporary art visible. Following stops in Chemnitz, Dresden and Veitshöchheim, it takes place in Hamburg in cooperation with the Thalia Theater and the Altonaer Museum, and with the support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism.
The evening is framed by a networking meeting of Jewish artists from the nationwide and European Dagesh network at the Altonaer Museum, on the occasion of the special exhibition “People & Places. Hamburg’s Jewish History,” which opens on 11 November 2026. Dagesh – Jewish Art in Context is involved in curating the exhibition’s contemporary artistic positions.
Through contributions to the opening programme, a networking event and a practical workshop, the CPPD and Dagesh – Jewish Art in Context are helping to shape the programme for the 2026 fluctoplasma Festival (22–24 October 2026) in Hamburg. Over two days of the festival, both programmes will offer insights into their work on pluralistic cultures of remembrance, curatorial research, practices of remembrance and participatory cultural work, as well as artistic perspectives on contemporary Jewish life, the culture of remembrance and social participation.
The festival kicks off with the official opening (22 October), featuring an opening address by CPPD curator Max Czollek, a jury statement by Dagesh speaker Yana Lemberska, and the panel discussion “Alone we’re done for, together we’ll get it done”, which brings together representatives from CPPD and Dagesh artists.
On the second day of the festival (23 October), the workshop ‘Jewish Art in Context’, organised by Dagesh in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Anti-Semitism-Critical Education and Research (KOAS). It is aimed at the Diversity Steering Group of the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre as well as interested members of the university community, and will explore issues surrounding contemporary Jewish art in social discourse whilst offering insights into anti-Semitism-critical perspectives in art and culture.
Programme:
OPENING & PANELDISCUSSION
„Allein sind wir erledigt, zusammen erledigen wir das“
Entry from 5.30 pm | Forum, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg: Harvestehuder Weg 12, 20148 Hamburg
with Dan Thy Nguyen & Nina Reiprich, Max Czollek, Yana Lemberska | Panelist*innen: Ido Gotlib, Nhi Le, Julia Wissert, Moderation: Sonia Smolenski
*
WORKSHOP
„Jüdische Kunst im Kontext”
3 – 5 pm | Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
“The function of freedom is to free someone else,” said Toni Morrison in a speech at Barnard College in 1979. Freedom that stops at one’s own freedom fails to fulfil its purpose. A statement that is perhaps even more pressing today than it was back then.
The past two decades have profoundly transformed the German cultural landscape. Artists, curators, authors and cultural institutions from post-migrant backgrounds have opened up new perspectives on memory, belonging and social participation. They have expanded the so-called ‘German canon’ and insisted that a pluralistic society should be understood not as a promise for the future, but as an existing reality. A success story, albeit one that is far from complete.
A self-description rooted in resistance has long since become a cultural category in its own right, with its own institutions, aesthetics and prominent voices. Who, in this process, gains visibility, resources and institutional access? And who remains invisible, even though it is precisely in their name that others speak? After all, representation does not automatically equate to emancipation.
Amid growing authoritarian pressure, the very nature of the question of emancipation is changing. The freedom of the ‘other’ becomes a prerequisite for one’s own freedom. Solidarity does not presuppose equality of experience – it begins where, despite unequal levels of vulnerability, we are politically interdependent. So what responsibilities arise from the fact that our freedoms are interdependent, even though our vulnerabilities are unevenly distributed? This is the question the panel will be addressing.
Together with representatives from the arts, culture and civil society, it will look back and look ahead: what have the post-migrant movements of recent decades actually changed? Where have their promises remained unfulfilled, and which forms of solidarity have worked, and which have not? How can we talk about different experiences of racism, anti-Semitism, migration, exile and social exclusion without equating them or pitting them against one another? And what alliances do we need at a time when plurality itself is once again becoming a political bargaining chip?
The panel will open the fluctoplasma Festival 2026 and is being held in collaboration with two programmes run by DialoguePerspectives e.V.: the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD), which focuses on pluralistic cultures of remembrance, curatorial research, practices of remembrance and participatory cultural work; and Dagesh – Jewish Art in Context, which brings artistic perspectives on contemporary Jewish life, the culture of remembrance and social participation into the dialogue.
How can Jewish perspectives be made visible in art and culture, and what is needed within institutions to achieve this? This question will be explored on 23 October from 3 pm to 5 pm at the workshop ‘Jewish Art in Context’ at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, organised by Dagesh in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Anti-Semitism-Critical Education and Research (KOAS). The workshop is aimed at the Diversity Steering Group as well as interested members of the university community and provides an insight into anti-Semitism-critical methods and approaches to tackling anti-Semitism in arts and cultural institutions.
On 19 September 2026, the Dynamic Memory Lab exhibition »Cycles of Decolonisation« at the Biblioteca de Alcântara – José Dias Coelho in Lisbon concluded with a special closing event featuring the interdisciplinary solo performance Ọ̀KÀNRÀN – A Origem by Jorge Ciprianno.
The exhibition »Cycles of Decolonisation« reflected on how the legacies of European colonialism and the challenges of mental decolonisation continue to shape relationships among peoples and cultures in Europe. It opened on 24 April 2026 as part of the international CPPD Festival After the Carnations – »Cycles of Decolonisation« and Democratic Futures. Since then, the exhibition has been on view at the Biblioteca de Alcântara – José Dias Coelho.
As part of the finissage, Ọ̀KÀNRÀN – A Origem approaches the crossroads as a living space in which ancestry, displacement and Black queer existence continually reshape one another. Grounded in the transformative force of Èṣù, the work understands origin not as a fixed point, but as a continuous movement of rupture and return. Through dance, voice, text and performative presence, the racialised body becomes a living archive in which memory is not represented but enacted, opening up spiral temporalities where past, present and future coexist. Rather than revisiting history, Ọ̀KÀNRÀNasks how the body can become a site for imagining decolonial futures.
The event is taking place in cooperation with the Biblioteca de Alcântara – José Dias Coelho and was initiated by our Dynamic Memory Lab local curators, André Soares and Cátia Severino.
The Dynamic Memory Lab is the CPPD’s central innovative exhibition format. It understands memory culture as a living, evolving process and responds to the dynamics and specific needs of contemporary cultures of remembrance in the 21st century. »Cycles of Decolonisation« is one of three touring exhibitions. CPPD is currently developing its fourth Dynamic Memory Lab, »listening | re:member | re:act«, which will open on 29 November 2026 in Vienna in cooperation with Brunnenpassage.
Fotos: Joní Riccos
Antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism are too often treated as separate problems – or, worse, pitted against one another, with one invoked to excuse or deflect from the other. Both have risen sharply across Europe in recent years, precisely as many societies are retreating from their commitment to pluralism and political forces are increasingly challenging the idea that diversity is a democratic good worth protecting.
This raises an uncomfortable question: What happens when forms of hatred are played off against each other in public debate – and what is lost for the communities caught in between? Bringing together practitioners and experts from Jewish and Muslim communities and wider civil society, this panel will examine what protection, resilience, and solidarity look like in practice. How are communities responding to concrete threats? Which institutional and political strategies are effective? And what does it take to build alliances between communities whose experiences of exclusion do not simply mirror one another?
Taking the UK as a point of departure, the discussion will explore how these tensions play out on the ground – and what they demand of communities, civil society, and public institutions.
We warmly invite you to join for this conversation and to consider what defending pluralism requires of all of us today.
The European Practitioners Network Against Antisemitism (EPNA) connects more than 100 institutions working to combat antisemitism across Europe and beyond. It promotes international cooperation, facilitates the exchange of expertise and experience, and supports its members in developing effective, practice-based prevention strategies.
The Future 500 programme brings together emerging leaders from politics, business, academia, the arts, and civil society. Through international interreligious, worldview, and intercultural dialogue, participants develop and implement concrete initiatives that strengthen social cohesion across Europe.
Both programmes are part of DialoguePerspectives e.V., a Berlin-based European platform working to strengthen pluralistic and resilient societies. Its work focuses on interreligious and worldview dialogue, combating antisemitism, developing a pluralistic European culture of remembrance, and communicating contemporary Jewish life through educational programmes across Germany.
“Historical responsibility cannot be voted away.” With these words, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation called on the federal and state governments last Sunday to legally safeguard the independence of memorial sites – particularly in Saxony-Anhalt – by: through funding structures that ensure these institutions remain operational even in the event of a politically motivated withdrawal of state funding; through the targeted involvement of smaller memorial sites and local initiatives; and through the expansion of existing networks for joint educational work, legal advice and public support in the event of attacks on the institutions and their staff.
Just how urgent this demand is became clear that very same evening at the joint themed event ‘GEMEINSAM – GEGENWART – ERINNERN’, organised by the CPPD in collaboration with the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation as part of the Weimar Arts Festival. Shortly after 6 pm, Jens-Christian Wagner, Director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Noa K. Ha, Research Director of the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), and Nicole Schweiß, a teacher and advocate for anti-discrimination education, joined the audience in following the first exit poll results for the state election in Saxony-Anhalt. Although the result came as no surprise to anyone, it prompted a moment of pause and brief silence, until clear words followed: “Let’s not allow ourselves to be divided!”.
Thementag
Through two workshops, a panel discussion and a concert, the day explored the question of what remembrance means today, how it relates to the present, and how it can be practised as a collective, active endeavour. Participants from the CPPD network, as well as from the fields of education, academia and contemporary arts, came together to discuss.
Workshops
“Songs as Memory”: Musicians Yael Gat and Alex Stolze from the Dagesh network explored Jewish songs with the participants as vehicles of memory and expressions of resistance, combining historical narratives with musical practice.
“Dimensions of a plural culture of remembrance”: Nicole Schweiß and Igor Mitschnik, managing directors of Austausch e.V., asked participants whose history is remembered and whose is not. Using a coordinate system illustrating the interplay between past and future, they highlighted various themes of remembrance, areas of tension and missing perspectives.
The highlight of the evening was the panel discussion between Jens-Christian Wagner and Noa K. Ha. Moderated by Nicole Schweiß, the two spoke about how remembrance can be co-opted and how memory can become the foundation of solidarity – a question that took on added urgency in the wake of election night.
Konzert
To round off the day, Yael Gat and Alex Stolze interwove Jewish musical history with contemporary sound aesthetics in their concert and, with the spontaneous participation of attendees from the preceding workshop, created a soundscape that closely linked historical roots with the present.
The theme day demonstrated once again that a pluralistic culture of remembrance requires space for diverse experiences and a critical engagement with German and European history. We would like to thank the Kunstfest Weimar and the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation for their collaboration, and our Netzwerkwerk members for their contributions. We look forward to continuing this exchange!
Fotos: Thomas Müller & Candy Welz | Kunstfest Weimar
What changes when we truly listen to those voices that have long been shaping the memory and future of European societies? The culture of remembrance is a contested field throughout Europe. The Dynamic Memory Lab ‘listening | re:member | re:act’ presents memory as a practice: vibrant, plural, malleable – and as something that is actively shaped. The focus is on people and initiatives that remain capable of taking action in the midst of social crises: they remember, organise, challenge, connect, repair and create spaces in which forms of coexistence based on solidarity become possible. Their work is both intervention and reflection – it shifts what is remembered in Europe and who has a voice in the process.
This transnational exhibition project brings together the work of the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD) in Berlin with the ‘Erinnern in Zukunft’ initiative at the Brunnenpassage in Vienna. The Dynamic Memory Lab is an innovative exhibition format that explores urban experiences of migration, participation and belonging. It is based on a political practice of listening that connects experiences, broadens the concept of belonging and makes social change imaginable: for the exhibition, audio and video interviews were conducted with around 20 civil society actors from migrant-diasporic, anti-racist and artistic contexts. The concerns of all those involved are also made visually and tactilely tangible through a symbolic object or material. The voices heard here, and the objects that accompany them, make visitors participants in social change – without co-opting them. Those who listen are not persuaded, but rather brought into a relationship with the subject matter. The Dynamic Memory Lab is thus also an artistic intervention at Vienna’s Praterstern: in a place where tens of thousands change trains, pass each other by and move on every day, a space for lingering emerges – the transit area becomes a space of resonance.
On 28 November 2026, the Dynamic Memory Lab will open at FLUCC in Vienna, to mark the “60th anniversary of the recruitment agreement with the former Yugoslavia”.
Dagesh Studio on the Road #SukkotEdition 2026
“Der Himmel als Dach | The Sky as a Roof”
Jewish Cultural Museum Veitshöchheim | September 25 – October 2, 2026
Exhibition Opening: September 26, 2026
Curated by: Johanna Weiß & Daniel Laufer
Artists: Michal Fuchs, Elianna Renner, Toni Mauersberg, Regina Potomkina and more
The exhibition “Der Himmel als Dach | The Sky as a Roof” takes the Jewish festival of Sukkot as its starting point for an artistic exploration of fragility, protection, and community in a time of crisis. Sukkot commemorates the period of wandering and dwelling in temporary shelters during the Exodus from Egypt. The sukkah embodies a precarious place of refuge — one that offers no guarantees of safety, yet enables a form of pausing, openness, and togetherness.
Especially today, in the face of war, displacement, ecological crises, political uncertainty, social polarization, and growing isolation, the symbolism of the sukkah takes on new relevance. It stands for the temporary shelters that refugees, marginalized groups, or people living in unstable circumstances must seek out or improvise. In this way, the sukkah raises a fundamental question — not only architecturally, but also socially: What does protection mean when it cannot be permanent? And what does community mean under fragile conditions?
To accompany the exhibition, a sukkah will be constructed that is both traditionally rooted and creatively designed. As a fragile structure, it is permeable to the elements — far removed from the permanence of a solid building. It is precisely in this temporality that a central idea of Sukkot becomes visible: the awareness that human life and all our achievements are fragile and exist within a larger context. This fragility invites us to acknowledge impermanence, to connect with the present moment, and to rediscover the value of simplicity and interconnectedness.
The gesture of invitation, sharing, and provisional gathering forms the heart of the exhibition, pointing to the idea of community as a form of resistance. “The Sky as a Roof” understands the sukkah as a space of encounter — where tradition and contemporary artistic positions meet — as a place of listening, community, and reflection.
“Der Himmel als Dach | The Sky as a Roof” is part of the nationwide series Dagesh Studio on the Road, which brings contemporary Jewish perspectives in current art to wider visibility, and is realized in collaboration with the Jewish Cultural Museum Veitshöchheim.
Following the Purim Edition in March in Dresden, we continue the series in September 2026 with the #SukkotEdition in Veitshöchheim. From September 25 to October 2, 2026, we will activate the Jewish Cultural Museum Veitshöchheim and the sukkah in the museum’s historic synagogue courtyard, creating a space where tradition and contemporary art come together. The exhibition opening will take place on September 26, 2026. Further information about the accompanying program will follow shortly.
In this episode Nicole Schweiss speaks with Elyse Picker, Managing Director for National Programs at Rekindle, about a U.S. model for bridge‑building between Black and Jewish communities. Rekindle began in Cleveland and now supports roughly 20 chapters nationwide: a five‑session (≈15 hours) fellowship that combines historical readings, structured dialogue, and commitments to respectful conversation and a growing alumni network that turns dialogue into local action.
We discuss how Rekindle intentionally brings diverse voices into each cohort, uses “I‑statements” and facilitator commitments to create braver spaces, and adapts the program to local contexts (from learning trips to community events and collaborative projects). Elise also reflects on transnational learning and what European practitioners can take away from Rekindle’s chapter model.
For feedback or comments, write us.
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Intro: Bethany Odd | Moderator: Nicole Schweiß | Speaker: Elyse Picker | Audio-Edit: Gal Yaron Mayersohn | Music: Hopeful Start by John Bartmann is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License | Illustration: Saskia Schlarmann | Editing: Nihal Çalışır | Project Lead: Florian Eisheuer, Johanna Korneli, Jo Frank | © 2026 DialoguePerspectives e.V. | https://against-antisemitism.eu/ | Insta: dialogueperspectives_epna
In this episode of Global DialoguePerspectives, Jo Frank speaks with Marco Ventura – Professor of Law and Religion at the University of Siena and a leading scholar of religious freedom, religious diplomacy, and the relationship between religion and innovation. Drawing on his work across academia and European policy networks, Ventura reflects on how religious communities engage with technological change, artificial intelligence, and shifting forms of authority in contemporary societies.
Together, they explore the ambivalent relationship between religion and innovation, discussing AI, social media, access, power, and the future of dialogue in an increasingly fragmented world. The conversation examines how technological developments challenge established categories of religion and politics, and why maintaining dialogue across differences remains essential in times of uncertainty and conflict.
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Global DialoguePerspectives, the Future 500 podcast series, brings together emerging thinkers and changemakers from around the world to explore the ideas shaping our societies and to engage with questions of trust, cooperation, and meaningful dialogue across divides. The conversations explore current philosophical and technological developments and examine their impact on dialogue, on rebuilding relationships, and on practical cross-community initiatives amid rising tensions across Europe and around the world. Through expert insights, personal reflections, and shared conversations, we explore: How do we build sustainable movements for change?
We invite you to listen to Global DialoguePerspectives and get involved.
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Speakers: Jo Frank, Marco Ventura | Intro: İrem Çörekçi | Editorial team: Nihal Çalışır | Audio-Edit: Gal Mayersohn | Illustration: Andrea Schmidt | Music: Alex Stolze & Yael Gat – White Noise | Programme Lead: Kira Wisniewski | Project Lead: Jo Frank, Johanna Korneli | © 2026 DialoguePerspectives e.V. | https://future500network.com
Interreligious dialogue has built much of its legitimacy on an unexamined syllogism: that contact generates understanding, understanding generates trust, and trust eventually yields peace. This sequence is breaking down in practice. The Russian Orthodox Church’s theological framing of the war in Ukraine, the collapse of dialogue spaces following 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza, and the rise of antisemitism and anti-Muslim racism across Europe have exposed how readily encounter can coexist with, or provide cover for, ongoing harm. Rafael Tyszblat of our partner organisation Connecting Actions stated: “Looking for common ground too soon is often a result of not being honest when it comes to power dynamics. Peace cannot be achieved through good intentions alone.” What is required is not a further format, but the willingness to interrogate whom a given space of encounter actually serves.
This problem was substantiated most forcefully by keynote speaker Prof. Cyril Hovorun, defrocked by the Moscow Patriarchate in December 2023 for his opposition to the war, who argued that the Russian Orthodox Church did not merely fail to prevent the invasion — it furnished that war with theology.
The workshop proceeded to a broader interrogation of the field’s premises. It situated dialogue within its contemporary European context — advancing secularisation, growing religious diversity through migration, and a resurgent Christian nationalism that risks instrumentalising religious belonging itself. It then turned to more conceptual terrain, examining how trans- and posthumanist thought unsettles dialogue’s foundational assumption of a stable human subject capable of speaking for a position, an assumption already under pressure from AI and algorithmic systems.
Theoretical reflection was paired with practical engagement, including a multilingual, cross-community magazine presented as a model of dialogue conceived as an ongoing practice rather than a discrete event. Structured group sessions returned repeatedly to four questions: what dialogue is, what has worked, where it has failed, and who remains absent from it.
DialoguePerspectives director Jo Frank extended this scrutiny to the network’s own practice, arguing that a field reluctant to question itself requires at least one space that insists on doing so regardless. What remained unresolved was who determines when a room is sufficiently safe for such questioning, and whose difficult subjects are named while others are quietly deferred.
Responsibility for this work now falls to the Future 500 network’s own participants, who are tasked with translating the workshop’s naming of power into a standing practice — redefining and reimplementing dialogue, inviting in the mediators, experts, and communities identified as absent, and retiring formats that no longer merit the designation. This inquiry continues this autumn at the Future 500 Autumn Workshop, “Religion as a Weapon – Violence and the Challenge of Solidarity” (13–15 October 2026, London, held in partnership with the EPNA programme).
Fotos: Natalia Reich
