1 June – 21 December 2025
Where evolution is a rolling outwards and differentiating according to competitive pressures, involution suggests a curling inwards, an entangling and enfolding, an intimate co-becoming. In this time of creeping collapse, is it possible to resist the polarization, paralysis and destabilization caused by toxic certainties, and instead look for ways to grow closer in the vulnerability of not-knowing? Seven days of collective practices offer an opportunity to get involved – and explore uncertainty as possibility, perhaps even as hope.
Saturday 28 June 2–6pm
What must we let go of in this ruinous civilization? What must we hold on to? What might we offer to those who come after us?
We gather in the threshold month of June for a ritual-building workshop to cast our imaginations seven generations forward to look back at ourselves from the eyes of future beings. Together, we will compose a shared song and create seven flags to fly in honour of the futures we long for, and the stories we hope will remain. The word rhapsody comes from the Greek rhaptein – to stitch – and oide – song. In this spirit, we will weave voices and sew flags as offerings of connection, vision, and care.
With artivist Dani Mo and Lucy Powell
Saturday 28 June 2–6pm
What must we let go of in this ruinous civilization? What must we hold on to? What might we offer to those who come after us?
We gather in the threshold month of June for a ritual-building workshop to cast our imaginations seven generations forward to look back at ourselves from the eyes of future beings. Together, we will compose a shared song and create seven flags to fly in honour of the futures we long for, and the stories we hope will remain. The word rhapsody comes from the Greek rhaptein – to stitch – and oide – song. In this spirit, we will weave voices and sew flags as offerings of connection, vision, and care.
With artivist Dani Mo and Lucy Powell
THE PETRICHORN
Saturday 19 July 6–8pm
A game that takes place in an area of woodland near hildegard. Players must work together and use all their senses, as well as instruments associated with magical practices, such as dowsing, to navigate. The aim is to develop new ways of relating beyond the human.
The fundamental challenge of a magical system is this: imagine if the world worked in this way, now act on that and see what happens. This form of speculative realism can offer practical ways to escape the impasse into which modernity has led us.
With artist and game designer Simon Johnson.
LEARNING TO LISTEN IN THE LONG DARK: a vigil
Sat 30.08. 7pm – Sun 31.08. 7am
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you again to stay awake and bear witness together through a late summer night. Preparing food and an altar, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in the uncertainty of these times – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, and the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
LEARNING TO LISTEN IN THE LONG DARK: a vigil
Sat 30.08. 7pm – Sun 31.08. 7am
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you again to stay awake and bear witness together through a late summer night. Preparing food and an altar, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in the uncertainty of these times – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
HOME TO ROOST
Saturday 20 September 2–6pm
“The recent cataclysm of events, tumbling over one another, whose sweeping force leaves everybody, spectators who try to reflect on it and actors who try to slow it down, equally numbed and paralyzed…” Hannah Arendt, Home To Roost
Taking inspiration from Hannah Arendt’s text from 1975, this workshop creates space for collective reflection on urgent crises, and transforms them into embodied responses. After taking time to create a shared map of concerns, we will read Arendt’s text together to create a theoretical lens with which to process these issues, before translating them into collective expression through improvised performances. The gathering explores how to make the shift from passive consumption of news towards active meaning-making, creating a visceral and participatory form of civic dialogue.
With artist Jeremiah Day
WACHSENDE NACHBARSCHAFT:
fermenting beyond our fences
Saturday 27 September 3–6pm
In honour of the harvest, we’ll spend the afternoon preserving and fermenting, and setting up stores for the winter months. With wilderness guide and climate journalist Theresa Leisgang.
Please bring clean, large preserving jars and any surplus produce from your garden to share.
This event will be held in German.
WACHSENDE NACHBARSCHAFT:
fermenting beyond our fences
Saturday 27 September 3–6pm
In honour of the harvest, we’ll spend the afternoon preserving and fermenting, and setting up stores for the winter months. With wilderness guide and climate journalist Theresa Leisgang.
Please bring clean, large preserving jars and any surplus produce from your garden to share.
This event will be held in German.
WINTER SOLSTICE:
readings around the campfire
Saturday 20 December 6pm
Join us in exploring the poetics of endarkenment in a series of readings selected in collaboration with poet N. Grindell and spell writer, Zen priest and artist Sal Randolph.
Let’s huddle together around the campfire again and warm our hearts with ritual, Glühwein and hearty soup on the darkest day of the year!
BEGINNING IN THE END
This event was held on 1 June 2025
The birch tree in the garden had to be felled earlier in the year. Let us gather to honour and mourn this tree and its kin, so many of whom are falling victim to drought-induced die-back in Berlin, Brandenburg and beyond. Together we are learning new vocabularies and rituals to engage with these times of roaring loss. Let us join to mark the passing of this arboreal bringer of new beginnings, of regrowth after destruction, new life after death.
The participatory ceremony is guided by Lucy Powell and undertaker Mat Hand of the memento Bestattungskolletiv.
BEGINNING IN THE END
Sunday 1 June 2–5pm
The birch tree in the garden had to be felled earlier in the year. Let us gather to honour and mourn this tree and its kin, so many of whom are falling victim to drought-induced die-back in Berlin, Brandenburg and beyond. Together we are learning new vocabularies and rituals to engage with these times of roaring loss. Let us join to mark the passing of this arboreal bringer of new beginnings, of regrowth after destruction, new life after death.
The participatory ceremony will be guided by Lucy Powell together with undertaker Mat Hand of the memento Bestattungskolletiv.
We invite you to wear something white or silver as a token of kinship.
WACHSENDE NACHBARSCHAFT: foraging beyond our fences
This event took place on 19 June
A stroll through the neighbourhood around the Fauler See in Alt-Hohenschönhausen, meeting some of the delicious and nutritious edible wild plants growing right outside the front door – and an opportunity to visit each others’ gardens. Local wilderness guide Theresa Leisgang will introduce her 10 favourite edible plants of the month of June. We’ll end the afternoon by rustling up something tasty from our finds. Bring a tote bag or two and a curious mind.
INVOLVING IN UNCERTAINTY is funded by Bezirksamt Lichtenberg Berlin from the Bezirkskulturfonds
31 August – 21 December 2024
The world ‘as we know it’ is unravelling before our eyes and society finds itself in territory for which there is no map. This is a liminal zone between the no longer and the not yet. Six participatory events in the wild garden of the HILDEGARD project space in Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen are offered as an invitation to collectively lean into and learn from the uncertainties, discomforts and shadows that haunt this place – with humility, curiosity and humour – so that the possibility of real transformation can emerge.
One day, Swedish sports teacher Leif Nilson decided that there must be more to life than teaching people to run ever faster, and instead decided to dedicate his skills to the art of moving as slowly as possible, organising slow races in his home town.
Inspired by this life-changing practice and the ancient Buddhist technology of walking meditation, the inaugural event of LIVING IN THE LIMINAL, let’s metabolise! is an invitation to young and old to collectively slow down so as to be more present to the urgencies of our time.
The last to finish gets the biggest piece of cake!
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you to stay awake and bear witness together through this late summer night. Preparing food and shelter, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in uncertainty, staying with the trouble and sitting with discomfort – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
We will work with prompts for sensing and reflection throughout the night. We invite you to think about who or what you want to dedicate this vigil to. Collectively we can stay present to it.
Siegmar Zacharias and Lucy Powell invite you to stay awake and bear witness together through this late summer night. Preparing food and shelter, taking a night walk in the woods and with plenty of time for stillness and quiet reflection around the fire, we will explore ways of expanding our capacity for dwelling in uncertainty, staying with the trouble and sitting with discomfort – using somatic meditation practices, plant wisdom, the superpowers of compassion, curiosity and solidarity – in communion with the other creatures of the night.
We will work with prompts for sensing and reflection throughout the night. We invite you to think about who or what you want to dedicate this vigil to. Collectively we can stay present to it.
A safe, respectful, open space for lively conversations about a difficult topic over tea and cake, with other people who will also die one day. The Café Mortel concept originated in Switzerland and developed into the Death Café movement in the UK and has since spread around the world.
Hosted by Aleksandra Mikić and Lucy Powell, this picnic will take place within the connective tissue of the garden, where death and life are so exquisitely intertwined.
A multi-sensory, carnivalesque celebration of monsters, decomposers and transformative processes – and topping-out ceremony for the compost toilet, which guests are warmly invited to help construct. Then it’s time to put your knowledge of nutrient cycles to the test in Ella Ziegler’s Holy Shit quiz, enjoy charismatic speeches by ‘invasive’ species and ‘pests’ courtesy of the Organism Democracy, pick at the bones of Lucy Powell’s edible sculpture, create and sample distilled plant odeurs for insect decomposers with Katrin Petroschkat & Susanne Schmitt at the Barfly Bar, before gathering round the fire for a hearty garden soup as darkness descends.
A multi-sensory, carnivalesque celebration of monsters, decomposers and transformative processes – and topping-out ceremony for the compost toilet, which guests are warmly invited to help construct. Then it’s time to put your knowledge of nutrient cycles to the test in Ella Ziegler’s Holy Shit quiz, enjoy charismatic speeches by ‘invasive’ species and ‘pests’ courtesy of the Organism Democracy, pick at the bones of Lucy Powell’s edible sculpture, create and sample distilled plant odeurs for insect decomposers with Katrin Petroschkat & Susanne Schmitt at the Barfly Bar, before gathering round the fire for a hearty garden soup as darkness descends.
Ukemi, or the art of falling, is a necessary component of martial arts such as aikido, jiu jitsu and judo. It teaches practitioners to deal with fear, uncertainty and failure more skillfully. Dance artist and somatic therapist Moss Beynon-Juckes offers a workshop exploring choreographies of falling. We will work collectively and alone, surrendering, collapsing, building trust, softening, catching one another, gaining intimacy with different surfaces of the earth.
Join us in exploring the poetics of the dark side in a series of readings selected in collaboration with poet N. Grindell, who will read from his recently published volume on recurring collective nightmares, You keep having the same dream. Let’s huddle together around the campfire and warm ourselves with Glühwein and hearty soup on the darkest day of the year!
Join us in exploring the poetics of the dark side in a series of readings selected in collaboration with poet N. Grindell, who will read from his recently published volume on recurring collective nightmares, You keep having the same dream. Let’s huddle together around the campfire and warm ourselves with Glühwein and hearty soup on the darkest day of the year!
02 September 02—07 October 2023
TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES FOR FUTURE FLOURISHING: In the wild garden of Hildegard project space in Alt-Hohenschönhausen, a series of workshops, discussions and participatory performances are an invitation to engage emotionally, sensorially and imaginatively with the urgent issues of our time. Based on the conviction that systemic, ecological and inner transformation are inextricably linked, these practices are offered as a contribution to more-than-human future flourishing.
Siegmar Zacharias offers a workshop that combines a Listening Session, offered as a container for collective public grieving practice, and the opportunity to learn about social justice from Solidago canadensis, Canadian goldenrod.
Siegmar Zacharias offers a workshop that combines a Listening Session, offered as a container for collective public grieving practice, and the opportunity to learn about social justice from Solidago canadensis, Canadian goldenrod.
Why am I still haunted by my background? How deep is my connection to the stories and places of my childhood? What knowlege is hidden behind my East German identity? Do I (still) belong here?
Thirty years after the fall of the Wal,l Rika Weniger, Burkhard Körner and Noah Voelker joined forces to explore the “East German identity” and embarked on an emotional rollercoaster ride. An outdoor theatre evening.
Gardens are often subject to strict maintenance regimes by their human owners. When asked to chose a political title for themselves in the garden, people’s answers often leave little doubt as to the power relations that determine which species are permitted to live there and which are considered undesirable and to be combatted. What happens when the other-than-human beings in the garden are suddenly given a voice that transforms them from subjects to citizens? With Club Real.
Gardens are often subject to strict maintenance regimes by their human owners. When asked to chose a political title for themselves in the garden, people’s answers often leave little doubt as to the power relations that determine which species are permitted to live there and which are considered undesirable and to be combatted. What happens when the other-than-human beings in the garden are suddenly given a voice that transforms them from subjects to citizens?
“What modes of passionate immersion – or love, or intimacy could a stone afford?” Hugo Reinert
Inspired by this question, Alex Toland offers a series of Fluxus-inspired relational exercises that invite reflection on the individual and collective agency of mineral and more-than mineral intimacies and the boundaries of what it means to be alive.
The sapere in homo sapiens points to the origins of wisdom as the ability to taste, take in and absorb. This is very different to simply consuming and can be a long-term source of nourishment perhaps especially in uncertain times.
In this workshop, we will spend the day together, immersing ourselves fully in elaborate preparations for Erntedankfest, the festival of gratitude, truly taking in life’s gifts. We will offer sacrifices to the god of mildew, summon our multispecies ancestors, engage in reciprocal acts of beautification, offer our nitrogen to the plants, let the rice boil over, try out medieval ironing techniques and feast under the stars. With Ella Ziegler and Lucy Powell.
The sapere behind the name homo sapiens points to the origins of wisdom as the ability to taste, take in and absorb. This is very different to simply consuming and can be a longterm source of nourishment perhaps especially in uncertain times.
In this workshop we will spend the day together immersing ourselves fully in elaborate preparations for Erntedankfest, festival of gratitude, truly taking in life’s gifts. We will offer sacrifices to the god of mildew, summon our multispecies ancestors, engage in reciprocal acts of beautifaction, actually use the fresh pasta machine, offer our nitrogen to the plants, let the rice boil over, try out medieval ironing techniques and feast under the stars.
As the autumn sets in and winter draws near, Plan b invite you to dream of better, greener worlds to come. After gathering and binding rosemary, lavender, wormwood and sage, we will collectively enter into future visions beyond the eminent damage to this world and encounter another green world.
What does waking up and stepping into this world feel like, sound like, smell like?
ROOTS IN THE RUINS is funded by Bezirksamt Lichtenberg Berlin from the Bezirkskulturfonds