Art Space in Exile
Welcome to Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile!
“Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile” is a newly founded center of contemporary art to support artists from Ukraine and other countries where people suffer from war and prosecution, but also for independent artists from the Berlin Freie Szene. We offer spaces to create and show your artistic work and a network for artistic cooperation and exchange. We curate and organise exhibitions, concerts, theatre shows and film screenings s as well as workshop, lectures and other educational programs.
18.4.2024 LOBBY is back! We are opening the concert season at Hotel Continental with Lobby series Vol. 5
LOBBY del Mundo
With Vol. 5 - "LOBBY del Mundo", we invite you to explore with us the rich musical heritages from migrant communities from the Arab World, Persia and Africa living and working in Berlin. This series of live concerts will celebrate the enormous diversity of the Berlin music scene and the universal language of art to raise voice for social change, empathy and understanding. Come and enjoy with us unique Live music, a cool DJ Aftershow and chillzone in our lovely backyard-garden. More…
CONCERTS: 18/4, 2/5, 16/5, 30/5. Doors always at 7 pm
FREE ENTRY
Upcoming:
27.4.24
CIRCUS SESSIONS
Acrobatics I Dance I Comedy I Music
The Circus Sessions are a new melting pot of Berlin’s vibrant international circus and variety arts scene. Hosted by „Hotel Continental – Art Space in exile” and curated by Scenic Circus, this show features a rotating cast of circus artists, dancers, comedians and musicians. Come and enjoy this wild mixture of extraordinary talent!
About Scenic Circus
Scenic Circus has been founded in 2021 by Daniel Burow with the aim to promote new approaches in circus arts and produce circus shows for a diverse audience. Scenic Circus productions are based on the appreciation for classical circus arts and combine it with other genres to create unique shows experiences.
In 2023, Scenic Circus has produced the show LYALKA in collaboration with the Kyiv Municipal Academy for Circus and Performing Arts and with a cast of young artists from Ukraine. The show has been presented, among others, at Circusstad Festival Rotterdam and Berlin Circus Festival.
Sat, 27.4.2024 20:00 Hotel Continental
Upcoming:
4.5.24
Shalene / Ver-rückt
A Music and Theatre Tragic Comedy by Iryna Lazer
Written and directed by Iryna Lazer I Actors: Iryna Lazer, Ivan Doan Musicians: Daniil Zverkhanovskyi, Iryna Slobodeniuk, Evgenii Kostytz I Music by Iryna Lazer, Oleksii Mikriukov, Daniil Zverkhanovskyi I Live-animation by Sofiia Melnyk.
With english and german subtitles.
The play focuses on different periods of war and atrocities committed in towns and villages around Ukraine’s capital in February and March 2022: from the initial helicopters advance in Hostomel up to the subsequent attacks on civilians. The screenplay is based on victims’ testimonies that were personally documented by the play’s creators.
The story is told by the characters of two Ukrainian “babusia” (senior rural ladies) who survived the Russian invasion and the following occupation of the Kyiv region. The two women, Ania and Ninka, share the horrors they witnessed in an absurd, yet reality-based, amusing fashion, sing the survival instructions, selflessly dance to the explosions, scream at the skies to shoot down the jets.
The two ladies keep living despite the constant presence of an impalpable grey-green hostile military mass, the ‘shalene’ (crazy, furious, insane), that persistently crawls towards their homes. At first, Ania and Ninka struggle to identify this obscure ancient evil that keeps pushing closer and closer, but later on they detect and clearly identify the adversary wearing helmets with a Z sign on. It is in this moment of materialization of the evil that the fear disappears and they know how to deal with the enemy.
A dream-like oneiric play in which the humor has a firm stand against the brutality and in which the Ukrainian vitality fights against the Russian evil.
Sat, 4.5.2024 20:00 Hotel Continental
Upcoming:
5.5.24
MAVKA
Live Looping Concert
The incomparable MAVKA live on stage at Hotel Continental!
Sun, 5.5.2024 20:00
Hotel Continental
Performances of the Ukrainian singer Mavka are IDM, trance, noise, ambient and folk feasts where rich soprano vocals and electronic sound are mixed into polyphony through complex combinations of live-looping techniques. It’s a real choir conducted and constructed by one person who sings not only in Ukrainian but also in her own invented language.
This concert is a unique chance to dive into the world of fantastic music combinations of voice, percussion, and electronic devices that Mavka crafted for years.
New songs, new sound experiments, new otherworld experience are being prepared for Berlin public.
Mavka had to move to Berlin in 2022 as her native town in Kyiv region was under russian attack the very first day of the full-scale invasion. Soon Mavka will return back home to Ukraine.
Save the Date:
Truths in Conflict - Voices from Belarus
Conference & Festival 24. & 25.5.2024 at Hotel Continental
Ever since the falsified presidential elections in August 2020 in Belarus and the subsequent demonstrations for democracy and justice, the repression on political activists and independent journalists increased. Today the protagonists of the Belarusian democracy and civic rights movement are either in prison or in exile. The country has fallen silent, apart from propaganda very little information gets in or out of Belarus.
However, the plight of Belarus remains of crucial importance. What happens in Belarus serves as a stark reminder and a warning signal for democracies everywhere, illustrating the fragility of freedom and the need for vigilant defense of journalistic integrity.
The two-day Conference and Cultural Festival will highlight the situation of freedom of speech and artistic expression in Belarus. The full pogramm will follow soon. More Info…
16.3.-23.4.24
WHO - IF NOT US?
An exhibition of Ukrainian activism during the war
Exhibition Programme:
Sunday, 24.3. 15:00 Curators Tour to the Exhibition. Free entry
Saturday 30.3. 15:00 Curators Tour to the Exhibition. Free entry
Saturday 6.4. 16:00 Workshop: “Empowering Activists: Workshop on Activism in Berlin” , held by Vladyslava Vorobiova, co-founder and Volunteer Manager at Vitsche,
Sunday, 7.4. 15:00 Curators Tour to the Exhibition. Free entry
16:00 Art-lecture: “Artivism: how artists challenged society" by Victoria, Portrait Art-Guide project @portrait.art.guide
Saturday, 13.4. 17:00 - 22:00 Retrospective and future perspectives of Unity”. An encounter with different Ukrainian activist organizations currently active in Berlin and Brandenburg. The event will consist of a program with several activities: listening to Ukrainian music and poetry, a Ukrainian cooking workshop, performances, therapeutic activities, and an open discussion panel about how to keep unity for Ukrainian victory and freedom in the international, political, cultural, artistic, educational, and social dimensions.
Sunday 14.4. 15:00 Curators Tour to the Exhibition. Free entry
Sunday 21.4. 15:00 Curators Tour to the Exhibition. Free entry
The exhibition "Who – If Not Us?" challenges the definition of activism in the 21st Century by highlighting five organisations: Vitsche, Monday Kitchen, Berlin to Borders, Yestandup and Chervona Kalyna, whoare fighting for Ukrainian freedom in diverse ways. From stand-up comedy to community cooking, each group reaches a different audience yet prides themself on one common goal: fostering solidarity and community to keep the enduring fire of Ukrainian resistance burning.
The exhibition’s opening will take place on March 16 and will include a round-table discussion with the groups themselves, live Ukrainian music and special guest performances.
Exhibition Vernissage: 16.03 17:00
Opening Times: Tuesday – Friday 16:00 - 20:00
Saturday/Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
Free entry
The exhibition is created by the Team of Hotel Continental.
Curators: Tanya Stas Valeriia Pliekhotko, Borja Martin-Andino. Communication: Mariia Yakovenko, Ben Goldby, Victor Alvarez Hobbs.
Idea & conception: Christine Dissmann
Backyard Lobby welcomes you!
Videos on Hotel Continental: