Sea Behind the Wall | Workshop | Agri/Cultural Practice for Climate Justice

A workshop with Mojisola Adebayo and Nicole Wolf
Are you interested in addressing racism and climate injustice? Would you like to explore how art and agroecology can work together? Are you Black, of African or Asian descent, an Indigenous person or Person of Colour, from a migration background or a white person committed to anti-racism?

 If so – read on!

What is the workshop about?
Agri/cultural practices for climate justice is an experimental workshop that provides an embodied introduction to agroecology principles and sustainable landscape design through games and exercises from Theatre of the Oppressed. The workshop, which takes place as part of the outdoor programme “Sea Behind the Wall”, aims to rehearse solutions for change and explores diverse artistic practices, including creative writing, in a playful and accessible way.

Both Agroecology (also referred to as permaculture) and Theatre of the Oppressed are informed by Indigenous and Black knowledge and experiences. This workshop is based on this acknowledgment and focuses on anti-racism, climate justice, decolonizing practices, addressing power structures, understanding the link between colonialism, plantation agriculture and environmental chaos. Participants will explore the potential of theatre and artistic practices to challenge environmental racism. The main sites of the workshop are the garden of Oyoun and of Spore Initiative, with the possibility of reflecting on sites and spaces that are important to you. 

What will we be doing?
Participants will engage in theatre games, observing, reading, creative writing, designing, film screenings, sharing the skill set and experiences of the group, discussing, experimenting with sustainable design techniques individually and in groups and doing practical exercises in the garden, specifically during the 2nd part of the workshop on 30 September. 

Who is the workshop for?
The majority of workshop places will be offered to people who are Black, of African or Asian descent, Indigenous and People of Colour. No specific professional or knowledge background is required but an interest in and commitment to the work of climate justice and anti-racism. The workshop encourages participants to share any artistic practices they are involved in but does not depend on this. 

Where and when?

First part:
1 September 5-7pm
2 September 10am-5pm + optional evening programme
3 September 10am-4pm

@Oyoun Garden (inside if it rains):

Second part:
30 September 10am-5pm

@Spore Initiative Garden (or inside): 

Ticket: FREE ADMISSION!

To register for the workshop, please write in the form
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 23.08.
E-mail with questions to: Ihisa(at)oyoun.de

Application closed!

The participants will be notified by us via email on August 25th.

Language: English, with German translation if needed.

Further Information:
Food: A set lunch on Saturday and Sunday during the first workshop will be provided free of charge at Oyoun. 

Full participation in all workshop sessions and their entire duration is requested.

Breaks and mealtimes will be included in the schedule which will be shared in advance with participants.

Maximum number of participants: 16. The majority of workshop places will be offered to people who are Black, of African or Asian descent, Indigenous and People of Colour. Part of the work will be in smaller groups and break out groups can be facilitated.

Childcare: Please let us know if you require childcare and we will try to support this.

Biographies

Mojisola Adebayo

Mojisola Adebayo is a Black British performer, playwright, director, producer, workshop leader and teacher of Nigerian (Yoruba) and Danish descent.

Trained in Theatre of the Oppressed and Physical Theatre, Mojisola has worked internationally in theater, television and radio for over twenty-five years, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Since 1998, Mojisola has taught in academia, primarily at Goldsmiths, University of London, Department of Theatre and Performance. During her fellowship at the University of Potsdam between 2020 and 2022, she conducted research on "White Climate: African Theatre Literatures and Agrarian/Cultural Practices."

Her latest piece, Family Tree, is a play, a performance, a ritual about human agriculture, human farming, earth and the soul, seeds and cells. The play is inspired by the life of Henrietta Lacks and explores the relationship between extraction from Black women's bodies, extractive capitalism, environmental racism, and climate justice.

Website

Nicole Wolf

Nicole Wolf (she/her) is a researcher, writer and Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures (Goldsmiths, University of London), living in Berlin and London, and is white and queer. Her background is in the study of political cinema in terms of its ability to resist what is seen as real and imagine something different. Much of her research and thinking is inspired and informed by artistic and activist practices in South Asia, including military occupied Kashmir. Nicole began training in permaculture in 2014, followed by two PC teacher trainings, including Rosemary Morrow's course in Srinagar, Kashmir. Since then, she has passionately combined her interest in critical ecologies, anti-colonial environmentalism, and creative practice to explore agri-cultural practices as resistance and what a kinematics of the soil might be.

Collective and collaborative processes of learning and making, drawing on diverse bodies of knowledge, are crucial to all these questions. Nicole's participation in "Living Archive - Archivarbeit als zeitgenössische künstlerische Praxis" and "Archive außer sich" (both projects of Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst, Berlin) included research and writing for the restoration of film works by Yugantar, the first feminist film collective in India (see yugantar. Film, produced in collaboration with Deepa Dhanraj) as well as the development of "Soil - City - Solidarity," an interdisciplinary certificate course in urban permaculture, and the symposium "'Tell me what mattered was the ground' - Repair beyond redemption." Together with Mojisola Adebayo, Nicole has developed "Agri-cultural practices" as an experimental workshop method focusing on anti-racism, art and environment (since 2019). Nicole's publications can be found on her website (see below).

Website

Sea Behind the Wall

"Sea behind the Wall’ is a participatory outdoor chapter within Oyoun's overarching initiative Listening to the Land. In this immersive outdoor series, participants are invited to engage on a collective journey that explores neo-colonialism’s complexities, incorporating intergenerational, indigenous and contemporary practices for solidarity.

They will be guided through a range of experiences, including decolonizing agri/cultural workshops, foraging and gardening sessions, film screenings focusing on land and human rights, public interventions led by indigenous communities, and a street side window exhibition that winds its ways through the city of Berlin.

The project “Sea Behind the Wall” is part of the initiative DRAUSSENSTADT funded by Berliner Projektfonds Urbane Praxis as well as Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaflichen Zusammenhalt. Further funded by the Globus Opstart Programm of Nordisk Kulturfond

         
     

Accessibility:

Oyoun is constantly working to make access to all events offered in the building as barrier-free as possible. For individual information on accessibility, please send us an email to access(at)oyoun.de. We will get back to you as soon as possible. More info on this topic here.

Awareness:

At Oyoun there is no place for sexism, queerphobia, transphobia, any form of racism or discrimination such as anti-Black, anti-Muslim racism or antisemitism. The same applies to any kind of violent, aggressive or assaultive behaviour. Oyoun provides an open forum for dialogue and a place where we support and stand up for each other. If someone or something bothers you during an event, please contact a member of our staff who is there to help you! If you would like to share an experience with us after an event, please email us or send us an anonymous message through our website.