5 to 13 September 2025
PLATAFORMA BERLIN is the decolonial, independent platform for Dance, Performance, Film, Critical Thinking, and New & Ancestral Technologies, centering intersectional bodies as protagonists. The focus is on BIPoC/Latinx (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color/of Latin American origin) artists and their lived experiences, with the festival exploring intimate expressions of ancestral connection in the twilight of geopolitical and ecological catastrophe.
For its 12th edition, PLATAFORMA BERLIN 2025 opens space for a wide range of proposals, from expressions of pleasure and carnival to critical reflections on the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest.
PLATAFORMA BERLIN invites artists from Abya Yala (the so-called Americas) and the Iberian Peninsula including voices from Chile, Brasil, Cuba, España, Colombia, Portugal, USA/ Liberia and México,to share transdisciplinary reflections on the existential experiences of humanity, while embodying the transfiguration of colonial wounds.
PLATAFORMA BERLIN offers windows for reflection, celebration, and mourning with these dualities holding space for multiplicity, resistance, and stories that might otherwise remain silenced. Alongside performances, the program includes two podium discussions, a LAB, a short film screening, an online performance in Chile, an on-site intervention in Mexico, two workshops, and a surprise celebration.
Eros and Thanatos represent two fundamental forces: life and death. Eros (Lebenstrieb), the life instinct, is a creative, generative principle that pulses through human beings, animals, the earth, and the waters. In contrast, Thanatos (Todestrieb) is the death drive, a force of destruction, entropy, and return.
The world as we know it is collapsing. We don’t have to collapse with it. In these times of Pachakutiy (In Quechua language, this cosmogonic concept means ‘the turning of the world’), Eros shows us how to move with change, while Thanatos would have us crushed by it. Eros enables renewal, offering the possibility to thrive. This spirit of transformation lies at the heart of PLATAFORMA BERLIN 2025, shaped by the vital perspectives of the Global South (Global Majority).
Frantz Fanon, the Caribbean psychoanalyst and theorist, deeply analysed the psychological violence of colonialism through the lens of Eros and Thanatos, exploring how these opposing forces shape individual and collective identities under the "white gaze."
This year, marking the 100th anniversary of Fanon’s birth, the festival foregrounds works that navigate the complex interplay between Eros and Thanatos. We believe that an excess of Thanatos must be countered by an excess of Eros.
As we face the continued dismantling of Berlin’s independent arts scene, we extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who makes PLATAFORMA BERLIN possible. To our co-producer DOCKART and partner South Embassy; to the friends and allies who show up when they are most needed; and above all, to the artists whose courage, brilliance, and vitality lie at the heart of this festival, nourishing it and inspiring us all.
PLATAFORMA BERLIN is an initiative by BIPoC/Latinx curators Martha Hincapié Charry and Areli Moran in collaboration with local artists and institutions and in co-production with DOCK ART.
Programme
Siziwa, to dance so the Earth keep spinning
Wiwa First Nation, short film
5 / 6 / 9 / 10 / 12 / 13 September 2025, 7 pm
DOCK ART Foyer
PLATAFORMA LAB
LAB - United Networks in picnic format for BIPoC and allies
6 September 2025, 4.30 pm
B>Talk / BIDE- Barcelona International Exchange
10 September 2025, 12 pm – 1 pm
Curatorial perspectives on the relationship between Abyayala and Europe - Panel Discussion
13 September 2025, 4:30 pm
PLATAFORMA THEATER PROGRAM
double bill:
BLACK RESISTANCE PRACTICE 1 by Colleen Ndemeh Fitzgerald (premiere)
FERAL by Josefina Cerda (German premiere)
5 / 6 September 2025, 7.30 pm
*Artist Talk following the performance on September 6
FERAL by Josefina Cerda (German premiere)
7 September 2025, 7.30 pm
FIGUEIREDO by Pedro Vilela (German premiere)
9 / 10 September 2025, 7.30 pm
*Artist Talk following the performance on September 10
double bill:
INSTANTE GRADUAL -GRADUAL INSTANT- by Kirenia Martinez (German premiere)
SAMBA by Reinaldo Ribeiro (German premiere)
12 / 13 September 2025, 7.30 pm
*Artist Talk following the performance on September 12