17.12.2026—20.12.2026
Liquid Border of Solid Hope
Venue:
Radialsystem (Halle)
Tickets:
Pay what you can (10/15/20/25)
Duration:
approx. 90 Min
Dates:
Info:
Following the performance on Friday, 18 December, there will be an artist talk.
Description
The Mediterranean is a place of simultaneity. “Liquid Border of Solid Hope” by Jasmin İhraç explores this diasporic space, which has been shaped by movement, encounter and migration for centuries. The performance premieres in December in Radialsystem. It combines elements of archival research and interviews from central migration points such as Marseille, Lampedusa and western Turkey with movement/dance and live sound. Musicians and dancers encounter the audience in an open archive, weaving together individual exploration and collective ritual, and questioning the meaning of empathy and solidarity.
When 58,000 Armenians fled from genocide in the Ottoman Empire to Marseille in the 1920s, they used passenger ships, travelling with legal transit documents. These ships connected cities which are hardly possible to access directly via waterways today due to changed political circumstances, providing safe escape routes that no longer exist. Over 35,000 people have lost their lives on the central Mediterranean route since 2014 due to restrictive European migration politics. “Liquid Border of Solid Hope” is a dedication to those who never arrived in a new life. It is also a dedication to the sea itself as an ecosystem, a geophysical balance of power, and a place of longing and fascination.
“Liquid border of Solid Hope” is presented at Radialsystem as part of the :LOVE: cooperation between Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem. “Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik” is an initiative specifically designed to improve conditions for dance professionals.
Following the performance on Friday, 18 December, there will be an artist talk.
When 58,000 Armenians fled from genocide in the Ottoman Empire to Marseille in the 1920s, they used passenger ships, travelling with legal transit documents. These ships connected cities which are hardly possible to access directly via waterways today due to changed political circumstances, providing safe escape routes that no longer exist. Over 35,000 people have lost their lives on the central Mediterranean route since 2014 due to restrictive European migration politics. “Liquid Border of Solid Hope” is a dedication to those who never arrived in a new life. It is also a dedication to the sea itself as an ecosystem, a geophysical balance of power, and a place of longing and fascination.
“Liquid border of Solid Hope” is presented at Radialsystem as part of the :LOVE: cooperation between Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem. “Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik” is an initiative specifically designed to improve conditions for dance professionals.
Following the performance on Friday, 18 December, there will be an artist talk.
Credits
Artistic direction, choreography, dance, performance and spatial design: Jasmin İhraç
Dance, performance and choreographic collaboration: Tamar Sonn , Maia Joseph, Omagbitse Omagbemi
Live music and composition: Grégoire Simon , Merve Salgar
Lighting design and technical direction: Catalina Fernández
Spatial design and (paper) objects: Natalia Orendain
Sound and composition: Ketan Bhatti
Video: Dora Đurkesac
Dramaturgy: Lidy Mouw
Artistic production management: Martina Neu
Choreographic research: Juan Corres Benito, Malika Lamwersiek
Costume consultancy: Thelma Bonavita
Assistence: Büşra Mutlu
Press and communications: Marcelo Vilela
A production by Jasmin İhraç. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Radial Foundation.
Co-produced by Radialsystem, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn, Uferstudios, Life Long Burning, and Futures Lost and Found, co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Special thanks to everyone who generously contributed their time for an interview. Further thanks to Astrid Artin-Loussikian and Houry Varjabedian, as well as the entire team at ARAM – L’association pour la recherche et l’archivage de la mémoire arménienne, Marseille for their introduction to the archive; to visual artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian; to Leil Zehra of Watch The Med Alarmphone; to Naomi Holz of Seapunks; and to UNITED for Intercultural Action and its campaign “Fortress Europe: No More Deaths” for permission to use the List of Refugee Deaths.
Many thanks also to Joshua Wicke, Marion Sparber, Torsten Podraza and Sasha Waltz & Guests.
Dance, performance and choreographic collaboration: Tamar Sonn , Maia Joseph, Omagbitse Omagbemi
Live music and composition: Grégoire Simon , Merve Salgar
Lighting design and technical direction: Catalina Fernández
Spatial design and (paper) objects: Natalia Orendain
Sound and composition: Ketan Bhatti
Video: Dora Đurkesac
Dramaturgy: Lidy Mouw
Artistic production management: Martina Neu
Choreographic research: Juan Corres Benito, Malika Lamwersiek
Costume consultancy: Thelma Bonavita
Assistence: Büşra Mutlu
Press and communications: Marcelo Vilela
A production by Jasmin İhraç. Funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Radial Foundation.
Co-produced by Radialsystem, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Theater im Ballsaal Bonn, Uferstudios, Life Long Burning, and Futures Lost and Found, co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Special thanks to everyone who generously contributed their time for an interview. Further thanks to Astrid Artin-Loussikian and Houry Varjabedian, as well as the entire team at ARAM – L’association pour la recherche et l’archivage de la mémoire arménienne, Marseille for their introduction to the archive; to visual artist Silvina Der-Meguerditchian; to Leil Zehra of Watch The Med Alarmphone; to Naomi Holz of Seapunks; and to UNITED for Intercultural Action and its campaign “Fortress Europe: No More Deaths” for permission to use the List of Refugee Deaths.
Many thanks also to Joshua Wicke, Marion Sparber, Torsten Podraza and Sasha Waltz & Guests.
Biographies
Jasmin İhraç
Jasmin İhraç is a choreographer, dancer, and sociologist. Parallel to her sociology studies at Freie Universität Berlin, she studied Contemporary Dance, Context, and Choreography at HZT Berlin. Her artistic practice unfolds at the intersection of performance, choreography, film, and research, frequently dealing with questions of memory, borders, and embodied knowledge. Her work has been presented at venues and festivals such as Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Palais de Tokyo, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Salt Beyoğlu, HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among many others. İhraç lives and works in Berlin.
Maia Joseph works as a freelance artist in performance as well as in the fashion and film industries. Her solo piece “The Other” premiered at the Interplay Festival 2025 in Turin. She has worked with Luna Park and Christoph Winkler, and in 2027/28 will present a new work by Alex Baczyński-Jenkins.
Tamar Sonn is a performer and dancer who initiates her own projects. She has worked with choreographers such as Kat Válastur, Shaked Mochiach, Adi Boutrous, Sharon Vazanna, Noa Zuk, Ohad Fishof, Annabelle Dvir, Emanuel Gat, Idan Sharabi, Odelya Kuperberg and Idan Cohen. Alongside her artistic work, she has founded several platforms for sustainable working conditions for independent dancers.
Omagbitse Omagbemi is a dancer and performer who has appeared in the Punchdrunk productions “Sleep No More” in New York City and Shanghai and “The Burnt City” in London. She has been a member of the Dance On Ensemble since 2020, performing in choreographies by Lucinda Childs, Daniel Linehan, Meg Stuart and Cherish Menzo. She has also worked with Kat Válastur, Yvonne Rainer, Ralph Lemon, Deborah Hay, Vicky Shick, Maria Hassabi, Neil Greenberg, Wally Cardona, Joanna Kotze, David Gordon, Jeremy Nelson, the Irish Modern Dance Theater and many others.
Merve Salgar is a tanbur player. She collaborates with musicians from both the traditional and the experimental music scenes. Deeply rooted in the Ottoman-Turkish musical tradition, she also explores new ways of playing the tanbur, developing a personal language that gives the instrument a contemporary perspective.
Grégoire Simon is a performer (viola and violin), composer and producer of electronic music. As principal violist of the renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, he has performed worldwide. Simon has developed music for contemporary dance productions, including for Milla Koistinen, Eric Minh-Cuong Castain (Cie Shonen) and Alessandro Sciarroni, which have been shown at renowned venues across Europe. With his project SUGAR, Simon builds bridges between chamber music and pop music. He has created commissioned works for Ensemble Flashback, Zafraan Ensemble, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop and Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra.
Ketan Bhatti is a border-crosser between different genres and cultural worlds. His work ranges from contemporary chamber music to experimental music and dance theatre, stage and film scores, and electronic, hip-hop-based productions. His compositions have been performed at many renowned venues across Germany. Ketan Bhatti’s works have been presented by ensembles such as LUX:NM, Ensemble Resonanz and Ensemble Reflektor at festivals including Jazzfest Berlin and the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik. In 2013, he co-founded the multiple award-winning Trickster Orchestra with Cymin Samawatie. Bhatti has received numerous grants and prizes, most recently the Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge Prize in 2025. After the opera “Berlin Alexanderplatz” (Opernwelt: “best world premiere,” 09/23), “Der Rote Wal” followed in 2024/25 at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
Catalina Fernández is a lighting and sound designer for theatre, dance and performance. She composes subliminal spaces and designs site-specific installations. She works as technical director on several productions. Fernández studied film and photography at Unitec University in Bogotá and lighting design at the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte (IUNA) in Buenos Aires.
Lidy Mouw works as a dramaturg, choreographer, director and curator in the visual and performing arts. She studied dance, choreography and dance pedagogy, and her practice focuses on the moving and diverse body. She teaches her methodology of authentic artistic action to students and in participatory formats. She leads the mixed-abled artists’ group hatschisi art in Potsdam.
Natalia Orendain del Castillo is a visual artist, scenographer and researcher. She works at the intersection of theatre, opera and installation, and her practice investigates spatial perception, sound and everyday performativity through immersive and participatory formats. She studied at the Centre for Research Architecture (Goldsmiths, University of London) and has realised projects in Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, Nigeria, the Czech Republic and Mexico.
Thelma Bonavita is a dance artist at the intersection of choreography, visual art and fashion. Bonavita studied classical dance, the Laban method and postmodern dance. She has developed an artistic programme in three formats (performances, costumes and workshops) that combines FLESHION (flesh and fashion) research, the relationship between body and fashion through sensorimotor experience, and her own artistic clothing productions.
Dora Đurkesac works in contemporary dance, intermedia art and design research, using sculpture, sound, somatic practices and visual media. Since 2009, she has collaborated with dance artists and collectives, combining dance, design and digital media. Her work has been presented in Berlin, Amsterdam, Zagreb, New York and Reykjavík, among other places. She studied New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Industrial Design at the Faculty of Architecture, School of Design, in Zagreb.
Büşra Mutlu is a cultural manager in the fields of communication, production and editing. She was coordinator for communication and audience formats at the Pera Museum in Istanbul and editorial director at the Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM). Mutlu is co-founder of Umami Kitap, an independent queer feminist publishing house in Istanbul. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Western languages and literature from Boğaziçi University and is currently completing a master’s degree in English Studies at FU Berlin.