In 2025 and 2026 Oyoun is proudly supported by the Supporting Act Foundation through their Impact Grant. Find out more about their programming and opportunities here: https://thesupportingact.org/
Songs of the Sea / 2025
Songs of the Sea arise from systemic injustice, from the relentless struggle against oppression and from the fight for freedom of expression. It honors Palestine's long history of self-narration, of refusing to submit and of reclaiming stories that have been silenced. This counter-space of art, testimony and collective memory becomes a vessel for visibility, agency and the right to exist.
Songs of the Sea is a call and a vessel. It forges partnerships with solidarity networks, letting testimonies and visions move like tides across borders. These currents carry the voices that have been systematically silenced, refusing their erasure, insisting that they be seen, heard, remembered. Every act of witness becomes a declaration. Every shared word becomes resistance. This is a long-term, action-driven endeavor, convening gatherings where artists, allies and communities come together to reclaim and expand spaces of cultural resistance. We strive to move beyond algorithmic platforms, establishing archives and spaces held in our care or in collaboration with trusted partners, where stories, artworks and testimonies can be preserved, shared and accessed on our own terms, protected from erasure and censorship. In this ongoing journey, each voice becomes a wave, each act of witnessing a song. Across the sea and through cultural spaces everywhere, silence transforms into presence, stillness into action and erasure into collective power.
Songs of the Sea inverts the maps of colonial power, allowing memory, care and art to chart the course. It positions itself as an intervention to reclaim the narrative, to bridge geographies, histories and communities, and to ensure that voices meant to be silenced are instead amplified. Here, making and witnessing is itself an act of survival, an act of insistence, a refusal to be silenced.
Join the circle. Add your voice, share your memory, bear witness. Together we can build the archives and stages where silenced stories thrive. Make space. Make song. Make history.
Crowdfunding campaign: Save Oyoun. Protect artistic freedom
Over the last days and weeks our work has changed abruptly. Instead of planning and implementing an extensive cultural programme for 2024 and 2025, we are now facing the immediate withdrawal of the €1 million in annual funding, which we need to pay our 32-strong team a salary, and the consequential closure of Oyoun.
On XNUMX November XNUMX, we only found out by chance, via the livestream of the cultural committee meeting, that Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) was going to close Oyoun and that we would have to vacate our community space in Lucy-Lameck-Str. within five weeks.
Our request for access to the files, which was communicated directly after the committee meeting, has remained unanswered to this day and there is a fundamental rejection of constructive dialogue on the part of the Senate of Culture. However, the legal report by Myrsini Laaser (lawyer for criminal and migration law) indicates that our XNUMX-year project funding (XNUMX-XNUMX) is a binding commitment and that the funding will not expire in December XNUMX. We are confident and will defend ourselves against this arbitrary decision.
We are now dependent on your support in order to at least cope with the high legal and court fees that lie ahead of us.. You can find the entire text and the gofundme campaign here here.
Oyoun must stay. Especially in Germany. Especially now.
Click here to sign the open letter.
As of 6 November, the Berlin Senate is taking measures to close down the cultural centre Oyoun. The reason: a “mourning and grieving” event organised by Göttingen Peace Prize winner “Jewish voice for a just peace in the Middle East” at Oyoun on 4 November. The Berlin Senate requested Oyoun to cancel the event because it would be “too politically charged”. Oyoun decided to stand in solidarity with Jewish Voice and refused, claiming subjective and arbitrary judgement by the Senate. Now Oyoun stands to lose their state funding, effectively closing its doors. Our statement can be found here
Oyoun is an award-winning, bipoc-run, cosmopolitan, intersectional arts & culture venue, and a home for queer*feminist, migrant and decolonial perspectives. Oyoun employs 32, mostly marginalised, staff and fellows. The cancellation of funding means the end of an organisation that actively contributes to Berlin's religious, cultural, ethnic and political plurality. We have therefore written an open letter, which has currently been signed by over 7000 supporters of Oyoun.
Oyoun must stay. Especially in Germany. Especially now.
You can find the open letter via the following link: https://forms.gle/b55EbzEBa6YfM8DMA
You can also find further information about this at the news section on our website.
RESIDENCY CULTURAL/ CREATIVE/ RESEARCH/ SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
*please read the full offer to see who is eligible to apply*
Funded residency (3-4 months): Join our team at Oyoun, Berlin's anti-disciplinary epicenter dedicated to decolonial, migrant and queer*feminist arts and culture.
.
We are looking for a new or would-be entrepreneur to join our team, bring in their ideas and further develop projects with a focus on one of these three areas:
– Resilience
– digital skills
– Green Skills
Your responsibilities include community building, event management, design research, admin work and more. You will be working closely with the founders and artistic direction team.
Start: asap but flexible
Location: Berlin
Please send your CV and cover letter to hallo(at)oyoun.de or tell a friend
As this is an EU funded program, you need to be a resident in one of the 27 European Member States (** EXCEPT GERMANY **) or the UK, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Kosovo as well as EU outermost regions and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs). This means you must have been living in one of the aforementioned countries at least for the past six months. However, it is regardless of nationality or the nature of your residence permit. Moreover, students are not eligible for this residency.
We are excited to hear from you!
EVENTS
- There are no upcoming events.
- There are no upcoming events.
past events
Screening: Okinawa no Harumoni — Gadag
Oyoun Lucy-Lameck-Strasse 32, BerlinMonday, April 29, 2024, 7:30 - 9:00 PM @ Oyoun, Club (Souterrain) Film Screening: Yamatani Tetsuo, Okinawa no Harumoni, 1979, 86 min. Subtitles: with English subtitles In July 1977, [... ]
Program in Seoul — Gadag
Oyoun Lucy-Lameck-Strasse 32, BerlinApril 26, 2024, 8 PM @ 용주골 성노동자 지킴이 농성장 (야외) This event will take place in Paju, South Korea. How can art be a link for a global alliance between the marginalized [...]
Bedtime Stories: Performance evening by GADAG Lab with Min Yoon — Gadag
Oyoun Lucy-Lameck-Strasse 32, Berlin(c) left: Shirin Moaiyeri; right: Thu Nguyễn. Bedtime Stories: Performance evening from GADAG Lab with Min Yoon April 21, 2024, 5:00 - 7:00 PM @ Oyoun, Club (Souterrain) - 5 [...]
news + highlights
notes
Contact
Do you have a question or idea about the concept, program or cooperation? Then feel free to write us a message and we will get back to you shortly.