Listening to the Past, Hearing the Present (Symposium)

In the organizer's words:

Safi Faye Hall
Free admission

In German and English, with translation into German, English and Vietnamese

Based on the workshop Tasting the Past - Hearing the Present: Towards Disrupting Intergenerational Silence by hany tea as part of Echos der Bruderländer, HKW is developing a project together with the curators hany tea and Amuleto Manuela that focuses on music as a medium of remembrance and intergenerational dialog.

Two consecutive non-public workshops will bring together former contract workers from Cuba, Mozambique and Vietnam with their children. The focus is on personal stories, intergenerational experiences and musical traditions as carriers of collective identity. Music becomes a bridge between past and present.

The first workshop focuses on migration experiences and life in the GDR, while the second develops creative forms of remembrance and transmission. A concluding symposium on November 22, 2025 will open up the space for a public discussion of these perspectives - through concerts, lecture performances, talks and communal listening.

In the workshops, a cassette will be created that is designed as an acoustic capsule. It will contain fragments of conversations, songs sung together and newly created sounds. The cassette will be presented as part of the public program on November 22, 2025, thus involving the general public in the process. Through concerts, talks and communal listening, the symposium will unfold the complexity of memory and migration through sound.

In addition to listening to the cassette together, the program includes a conversation about the role of music in memory and history. The audience is also invited to a listening session with Cuban and Vietnamese bolero, which explores the resonances of longing, displacement and transnational soundscapes.

Musical contributions and concerts come from the Lotus Quartet, The MahuGang and Alafia con Iré, whose performances interweave different musical traditions and trace shared histories through rhythms, melodies and collective memories. The evening ends with a live DJ set by MoLateef, accompanied by Daniel El Congo Allen on saxophone.

Program

15:00-15:20
Welcome
hany tea & Amuleto Manuela
Safi Faye Hall

15:25-16:10
Lecture by Nhi Le
Introduction Paz Guevara, HKW curator (exhibition practices)
Safi Faye Hall

16:15-17:00
El camino de Bô-lê-rô: Talk and listening session with Cube and hany tea
Perspectives of the children of former contract workers from Cuba and Vietnam
Safi Faye Room

17:10-17:50
The MahuGang
Concert
Safi Faye Hall

17:50-18:20
Break

18:20-19:00
Lotus Quartet
concert
Safi Faye Hall

19:10-19:50
Presentation of the cassette "Listening to the Past, Hearing the Present"
Talk about music, memory and history
With: Alfredo Mahumane, Cecilia Schaaf, Lê Mạnh Hùng and Milagro Álvarez
Moderation: Nguyễn Phương Thúy
Safi Faye Hall

20:00-20:55
Alafia con Iré
Concert & Performance
Angie Stardust Foyer

21:00-22:00
MoLateef & Daniel 'El Congo' Allen
DJ Set & Performance
Angie Stardust Foyer

With: hany tea, Amuleto Manuela

Supported by the Federal Agency for Civic Education