Exile Promenade is a performative walk that leads to places of historical and current places of exile in the city, which interweave with the exile biographies of the three protagonists and with different eras of migration.
The premiere of the first Berlin edition took place in June 2023 at the Haus of Berliner Festspiele in the frames of the Performing Exiles festival, curated by Matthias Lillienthal in consultation with Rabih Mroué. The second Berlin run of Exile Promenade took place on May 17-23, 2024, in cooperation with the Werkstatt Exilmuseum.
Exile Promenade performatively investigates deserted places, broken ties, and lost identities while asking: What is the task of artists in the face of the war and political repressions? Where do we find the strength to resist? And how do we stay in solidarity with other exiled communities?
Three guides take the audience on a performative walk through the streets of Berlin, to places of historical and contemporary exile from Russia. The non-binary composer, Alina Anufrienko, who left Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, takes you on a sonic journey through the noise of war propaganda that tries to silence queer, feminist, and antiwar voices. Theater-maker Grégoire Lopoukhine investigates the roots of Russian imperialism by revisiting the library of his aristocratic family who escaped from the Bolsheviks to Paris after the October Revolution a century ago. The visual artist Ziliä Qansurá leads you through her native land of Bashqortostan, historically colonized by Russia, in search of ways for healing the collective trauma and breaking the centuries-old cycle of violence.
Team of the second edition of Exile Promenade:
Ada Mukhina – Concept / Director / Text
Alina Anufrienko, Grègoire Lopoukhine, Ziliä Qansurá – Protagonists / Text
Andrej Mirčev – Dramaturgy
Alina Anufrienko – Composition & Sound design
Ziliä Qansurá – Costume design
Georgii Malykh – Sound
Evgenia Chetvertkova – Assistant director
Marit Buchmeier, Lisanne Grotz (xplusdrei Produktionsbüro) – Production management
The following people took part in the creation of the first edition of the walk: Alla Gutnikova (protagonist), Saskia Mommertz (production manager & assistant director), Claudia Peters (production manager, Berliner Festspiele), Maria Kusche (technical director, Berliner Festspiele), Jesko Braun (sound, Berliner Festspiele).
Exile Promenade is a production by Ada Mukhina. The first edition of “Exile Promenade” was premiered as a part of the festival “Performing Exile” at the Haus of Berliner Festspiele in 2023. Its creation was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR. The revival of the production is funded by Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftliche Zusammenarbeit des Landes Berlin. With support of the mobility grant “Culture Moves Europe” funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe-Institut.