The School of Self-Defense &endash; Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

Violence often begins before it is fully apparent. It starts with how you’re looked at, with words, labels and attributions, with being made to feel like you didn’t belong or weren’t represented; and even memory and remembering can be a form of violence. If violence comes in so many ways, then self-defense must also have a wider spectrum. The School of Self-Defense invites us to rethink self-defense as both a reaction to violence and a practice that can be shared: through the body, in space, and through collective action.

Starting points are artistic practices pioneered by Davi Pontes and Wallace Ferreira, two artists from Rio de Janeiro whose work explores how violence is inscribed in the body and how your own body and movement choreography can be used in response as an act of resistance. The School expands this practice further, bringing it into a collective space where it can be shared, disseminated, and explored from other perspectives. With its clear focus on participation and codetermination, The School of Self-Defense is conceived as an ongoing series of workshops, discussions, performances, ballroom and dance events, and other collective formats. Artists, thinkers, and communities from Berlin, Brazil, and beyond will come together to exchange ideas and contribute to the production of new forms of knowledge.

In the discussion-based formats, theorist Denise Ferreira da Silva will analyse the global links between racialization and violence. Talk sessions with dance theorists, among them André Lepecki, seek to open up a perspective on performance as political space.

A Major Ball held on the main stage will connect international with local scenes.
In various categories such as Runway, Performance, and Realness, they showcase how identity, belonging, and presence are actively created. A Kiki Ball at the Prater venue will focus on young talents and local communities. New voices looking to make themselves heard and seen are particularly welcome, as well as all those who simply want to test their skills.

The weekend-long event is rounded off with workshops, lectures, and conversations with international artists and intellectuals: Brazilian artist Puma Camillê’s approach combines capoeira and voguing to develop body strategies that straddle martial arts and performance. Ana Pi, also from Brazil, works with the body, with memory and diasporic narratives to explore how history has inscribed itself in the body. The artist and researcher Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro investigates corporality, spirituality, and resistance as forms of cultural self-assertion.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation