© Maiada Aboud
Ocupied Stage is a performance art festival that reclaims the stage as a site of evidence, critical inquiry, and collective truth-telling. Taking place in Berlin, a city shaped by division, surveillance, and unresolved histories, the festival approaches performance as both commemoration and confrontation. It positions the stage as an occupied terrain where narratives are contested, silenced voices re-emerge, and truth is articulated in real time.
Against silencing, propaganda, and the weaponisation of memory, Occupied Stage asserts performance as counter-performance: a cultural practice that refuses erasure and challenges enforced neutrality. The festival brings together artists working across performance, music, dance, theatre, sound, and interdisciplinary practices whose work engages with questions of power, displacement, censorship, and social responsibility.
Rooted in Berlin’s paradoxical landscape, a city that carefully curates remembrance while increasingly restricting present-day dissent, Occupied Stage insists on accountability in the present tense. It foregrounds artistic practices that function as testimony, examining how violence is normalised, histories are rewritten, and non-violent forms of political expression are delegitimised through dominant narratives. The festival prioritises voices from migrant and diasporic communities, particularly artists whose lived experiences are often marginalised within mainstream cultural institutions.
Occupied Stage is a temporary occupation of cultural space where performance becomes a method of witnessing, critical presence, and imagining alternative futures grounded in dignity and ethical responsibility.
Palestine first, but never alone.
Lab Project
The Lab category features emerging project concepts exploring future artistic possibilities. These sketches represent coculture's exploratory spirit, highlighting innovative ideas awaiting development.
While realization isn't guaranteed, this space invites viewers to envision the potential of transformative art and cultural narratives.
The Rawabet Project
Occupied Stage is part of Rawabet, a transnational project which aims to facilitate accessibility between European audiences and Arab artists based in Europe. Rawabet is supported by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency within the framework of CREATIVE EUROPE. The views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Meet the Team
Artistic Director: Khaled Barakeh
Project Manager: Khaoula Ben El Hadj
Coordinator: Tamara Ghantous
Curators: Dr Maiada Aboud & Savanna Fortgang
Financial Supervisor: Leonardo Vegli
Designer: Engy El Shenawy
Saturday, 14.03.2026
12:00–14:00 → Where the Body Speaks, Workshop by Dr. Maiada Aboud. An embodied exploration of memory, movement, and trauma-informed practice.
14:30–17:00 → Film Screenings: The Devil’s Driver by Mohammad Abugeth and Daniel Carsenty - Ghafweh by Abdullah Milhem. The screening is followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.
17:00–18:00 → Live performance by Taخmeera, blending West and North African musical traditions with contemporary Afro influences.
18:00–20:00 → Community Iftar by Wasahlan, accompanied by a listening session by Aalia Iraki.
Friday, 20.03.2026
17:00 → Doors Open. Free with registration: luma.com/uouzr6t3
19:00-19:45 → “100 Sounds of Belonging: Berlin” by Golsana Shenasaei. Inspired by the stories of 100 migrants in the city, the work explores how sound shapes memory, identity, and our sense of belonging. Featuring: Golsana Shenasaei (cello / electronics / visuals), Niki Yaghmaee (violin), Roshanak Rafani (percussion), Mayila Khodadin (dance / choreography), Munir Arreola (dance / choreography).
20:00-21:30 → Community Dinner
21:00-21:45 → “Walls of Grief حيطان الحسرة” by Ahmad Baba. An exploration of the embodiment of loss through architectural memory, treating walls as archives of grief.
22:00-22:30 → “Systematic Abduction” by Afshin Chizari. A live performance that examines removal, censorship, and forced displacement through acts of image-making and erasure.
23:00-23:30 → “CREATURES” by Melodi Yüci. An immersive dance performance exploring fear as a defining condition of the present. The work navigates transcendent spaces shaped by post-human thought, political polarization, and the rise of authoritarian ideologies. Featuring: Melodi Yüce, Sophie Prins.
23:30-01:00 → DJ set by Nourr. A journey to north Africa to pay homage to the queens and kings of chaabi, rai and gnawa music with for their unabashed creativity and unrelenting rythms.
Saturday, 21.03.2026
12:00 → Doors Open. Free with registration: luma.com/uouzr6t3
12:00–13:00 → “Distant Touching” – Workshop by Andrii Romanenko. A somatic practice exploring memory, distance and how the body remembers touch when separation makes physical contact impossible.
13:30–14:30 → Community Lunch
14:30–15:30 → “A Journey Through Ramallah” by Yazan Salah. An immersive listening experience built from field recordings capturing everyday life in Ramallah.
15:30–16:30 → Sound Installation by Razan Sabbagh & Daniel Dominguez Teruel. A layered sonic environment working with voice, archive and song.
16:30–17:00 → “Untie the Tide – Of Breath, Bodies & Borders” by Mazen Alsafadi. A poetry performance moving through grief, breath and collective presence.
17:00–18:00 → “Remembrance تذكّر” by Hend el Balouty. A performance exploring grief, embodied memory and ritual.
18:30–19:00 → Live electronic and harp performance by Aladin & Neam with visual art by Soubhi Shami
19:30–20:30 → Community Dinner
20:30–21:30 → “To Be a Drop in the Sea” by Hassandra. An interactive performance reflecting on migration, water and the Mediterranean as both memory and border.
21:30–22:30 → DJ set by Weldmousa. A set moving from political hip-hop into mahraganat and chaotic bass-driven club rhythms.
22:30–00:00 → DJ set by Dakn. A hybrid DJ set and live rap performance blending heavy beats with Arabic lyricism.
Sunday, 22.03.2026
12:00 → Doors Open. Free with registration: luma.com/uouzr6t3
13:00-15:00 → “Crossing Narratives” by نũn. A collective workshop that will guide you through a meditation, stream of consciousness writing and collective gathering to reflect on and discuss the social, personal, cultural and political dimensions of our time. Featuring Tamara Ghantous and Rawan El Masry.
13:30-15:30 → “From Hell to Hell” by Ibrahim Aljrefawi (SudanUprising Germany). A workshop based on upcoming documentary exploring the journeys of Sudanese minors forced to flee war and ending up detained in Greek prisons.
13:30-15:30 → Hassala Project. A solidarity initiative created to support artists in Gaza whose lives and practices have been disrupted by war.
14:00-14:30→ Community Lunch
16:00-17:15 → “What are you afraid Of?” by Al-Hakawati. A collective theatre work exploring fear as a political and social force shaping everyday life. Moving between personal anxieties and structural forms of violence, the performance questions how fear is produced.
17:30-18:30 → “In The End” by Mohammad Ali Deeb. A dance theatre performance confronting memory, loss and the weight of lived history through the body.
19:00-19:30 → Community Dinner
20:00-20:45 → “A Farewell Letter” by Amr, Marwan Barakat and Roudi Layous from 'ala bab allah. A live music performance rooted in Arabic maqam traditions and expanded through improvisation, electronics and groove.
21:00-21:30 → Wafa Saeid Live with Noah Ismael. Palestinian singer Wafa Saeid and Oud player Noah Ismael come together in a performance rooted in traditional Palestinian and Arabic music, revisiting songs of heritage, memory and belonging.
Tuesday, 31.03.2026
TBA
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