Bridging the Gaps, connecting the Dots, Deconfining’s Final Conference at Theater der Welt 2026

• Dates: 26–27 June 2026
  
• Venue: Hartmannfabrik Fabrikstr. 11 09111 Chemnitz Germany
  
• Theatre Der Welt Tickets: www.theatrederwelt.de
  
  

From Burkina Faso to Lithuania, from Tanzania to Germany, the Deconfining project has spent the past four years building a dynamic and evolving network of artistic collaboration across continents.

On 26–27 June 2026, this journey will reach a significant milestone in Chemnitz, where the Final Conference — Bridging the Gaps. Connecting the Dots. — will take place as part of the renowned Theater der Welt festival.

This gathering marks the culmination of an ambitious international initiative that has brought together cultural organisations, artists, researchers, and policymakers from across Africa and Europe. Over the course of the project, Deconfining has fostered artistic residencies, co-productions, and critical dialogue, all while navigating an increasingly complex global landscape shaped by mobility restrictions, geopolitical tensions, and structural inequalities.

The conference in Chemnitz offers a vital moment to reflect, exchange, and move forward.

Participants will engage with:

• Artistic outcomes, including films, installations, and collaborative works developed across continents
• Research insights examining cultural policy, mobility, and equitable exchange
• Policy discussions addressing the urgent need for more inclusive and sustainable frameworks for artistic cooperation

At its core, Bridging the Gaps. Connecting the Dots. is not only about looking back — it is about reimagining the future of cross-continental collaboration. It creates space for dialogue between practitioners and decision-makers, while amplifying voices that have historically faced barriers to participation.

Taking place within Theater der Welt, one of Germany’s leading international theatre festivals, the conference is embedded in a wider cultural context that celebrates global artistic exchange. For several weeks, Chemnitz will become a meeting point for artists and audiences from around the world — a fitting setting for Deconfining’s final act.

As the project concludes, the conversations, networks, and ideas it has generated continue to expand. The connections built between partners — from West, East, and Southern Africa to Central and Eastern Europe — form the foundation for future collaboration.

The dots are not only being connected. They are becoming a map for what comes next.

Friday, 26 June Program

• 9:30 Open Doors & Insights
• 10:30 – 10:45 Welcome & Introduction
• 10:45 – 11:15 Two inputs: Cross-continental curation of the festival THEATER DER WELT
• 11:15 – 12:00 Mapping confinement patterns
• 12:00 - 12:15 Break
• 12:15 – 13:00 Connecting the Dots: conversations with Deconfining partners, experts and guests
• 13:00 - 14:00 Lunch break
• 14:00 – 14:45 Connecting the Dots: conversations with Deconfining experts, partners, and guests
• 14:45 - 15:00 Break
• 15:00 - 16:00 Keynote: An invitation to transform your vision of the cultural mobility ethic from an African perspective
  
• 16:00 - 16:15 Break
• 16:15 - 17:30 Intercontinental artistic residencies: A conversation about best practices, actual hurdles, and perspectives

Saturday, 27 June Program

• 9:30 Open Doors & Insights
• 10:30 – 10:45 Welcome & Introduction
• 11:45 – 12:15 Shaping Crossroads: Creating spaces of reflection
• 12:15 – 13:15 Lunch Break
• 13:15 – 14:30 African-European cultural cooperation: future pathways, challenges and valuable lessons
• 14:30 End Of Conference

→ Register for the event HERE 

→ To follow the event via live stream, sign up HERE

KEY PANELS & SPEAKERS

Cross-continental curation of the festival THEATER DER WELT

Faye Kabali-Kagwa and Ndèye Mané Touré.

The international theatre festival THEATER DER WELT is held every three years in a different German city. For the first time in the festival’s history, a nine-member international team of curators is sharing the artistic direction of THEATER DER WELT in Chemnitz 2026. The program thus brings together works created under very different cultural and political conditions in various regions of the world—yet all address common global themes. Questions of identity, origin, power dynamics, and visibility run through many of the productions. On behalf of the curational team, the curators Ndèye Mané Touré (Senegal) and Faye Kabali-Kagwa (South Africa) will welcome the guests of the conference to the festival and give a glimpse into the collective process of curation across time-zones, continents, and realities.

Mapping confinement patterns: Re-thinking artistic mobility

Presentation of the studies of On the Move (Marie le Sourd), Culture Funding Watch (Ouafa Belgacem) and the Czech Culture Institute (Barbora Novotna)

This session is spotlighting valuable research and outcomes from the Deconfining project, exploring how cultural mobility and cooperation can be reimagined across regions and borders. The session will feature brief presentations of the following publications:

• Schengen Visa Code and Cultural Mobility (On the Move)
• Movements of Translation and Return: Art Mobility and the Diaspora (On the Move)
• Rethinking Cultural Mobility: Lessons from Morocco (Culture Funding Watch)
• Cultural Cooperation between the African Continent and the States of Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Culture Institute)

Conversation rounds with Deconfining experts, partners, and guests

The conversation rounds will take place in parallel, before and after lunch, each 45 minutes.They bring together experts, partners, and invited guests to reflect on key questions shaping contemporary cultural collaboration. Moving between broad perspectives and concrete challenges, these sessions open a space for dialogue, exchange, and critical insight. Four central themes will be discussed in the rounds: sustainable models for cultural cooperation, the freedom of artistic expression, strategies for dealing with unforeseen risks in transcontinental collaboration, and the vision of an Artist Visa. Together, these conversations invite participants to rethink the conditions, responsibilities, and future possibilities of working across borders in the arts and cultural field.

Keynote: An invitation to transform your vision of the cultural mobility ethic from an African perspective

Ukhona Ntsali Mlandu followed by a Q&A with Marie le Sourd

In 2023 Mlandu wrote the manifesto text An Invitation To Transform Your Vision of the Cultural Mobility Ethic From An African Perspective. This work sought to amplify the critical and often missing and/or evaded element of the human in cultural mobility discourse. This narrative justice on what cultural mobility and mobility justice ethically demands for transformative engagement as an intersecting pillar for the social justice ecosystem. The human and (in)humane elements emphasis was a form of catharsis, protest and call to action: an invitation to witness the harmed and marginalised’s wound. A healing justice antidote.The keynote reiterates some of the provocations and invitations, reflects on the influence, impact and shifts acknowledging adjacent efforts. And ultimately, in the context of growing international polarising tensions in the geopolitical landscapes a follow up invitation is issued. The invitation to stay a little longer- to linger from the lens of cosmologies of movement building and African hospitality. To understand and employ the role of momentum, audacity, defiance, collective care and solidarity in growing ecosystems that embrace relationality as collective survival and regenerative ingredients for alternative world building and emancipatory futures.

Intercontinental artistic residencies: A conversation about best practices, actual hurdles, and perspectives 

With: Elgas and Ana Lessing Menjibar (online) + 1/2 person on stage.

moderated by Antonia Blau.

Artistic residencies form a key part of the Deconfining project. Adopting a participatory and egalitarian approach, the project has promoted collaboration and co-creation between European and African artists through residencies. As Deconfining comes to a close, we will invite artists and cultural facilitators who contributed to it to share their experiences of intercontinental artistic cooperation over the past four years. The roundtable will explore residencies as a form of collaboration between different continents, focusing on the associated challenges and potential best practices. Providing an overview of international artistic collaboration, it will examine how it has worked and evolved over time.

Shaping Crossroads – Creating spaces of reflection

Workshop with: Lillian Hipolyte,Thobile Maphanga, Joshua Alabi, Milena Gehrt, Felix Sodemann, Joseph Wabwire, Beatrice Waruinge, and Emma Beverley.

Within the framework of Deconfining, Shaping Crossroads is a fellowship program consisting of eight experts on intercontinental mobility who have been working together on various aspects of artistic mobility. Out of this research, and among the different formats developed by the group to explore new perspectives on this urgent topic, the workshop Creating Spaces of Reflection will be conducted during the conference.

Through interpersonal activations we will explore experiences and emotions that are related to the participant’s own mobility experiences and their connection to the experience of art and artworks. We will relate this experience with the outcomes of our research and discussions and aim to formulate a new experience. The workshop tackles the question, how art institutions and venues can create a better visibility for mobility questions. It is also an attempt to connect practices that lean on art and research and to find the places where issues of artists mobility actually reflect on larger issues that are connected to everyone’s daily lives.

African-European cultural cooperation: a conversation about future pathways, challenges and valuable lessons

Panel discussion with Vydia Tamby, Samba Yonga, and Sylvia Amann.

moderated by Antonia Blau.

From the outset, the Deconfining project has sought to promote “decolonised, fair and sustainable intercontinental cultural cooperation”. After four years of implementation, three experts from Europe and Africa who have worked together on the project will discuss what has worked well, the challenges they have faced, and the valuable lessons they have learned. The conversation will focus on the project’s practical aspects, providing a final evaluation from both continents.

During the roundtable, the experts will also present two significant contributions that were developed during the Deconfining project: The Intercontinental Governance Model and the Arnie-Toolkit. The former proposes shifting the focus from ‘inclusion’ (inviting Africans into European spaces) to ‘sovereignty’ (empowering African ecosystems) and ‘common construction’. The toolkit has been designed to foster better relations between Africa and Europe by supporting local stakeholders and providing arguments, priorities and practical advice.

Ndèye Mané Touré holds a Master in Business Administration at the African Institute of Management (I.A.M Dakar), she works in the administration and production of various cultural projects, including dance, music, visual arts, and cinema. With fifteen years of experience, Mané is at the head of Makeda Production, a company under Senegalese law, specializing in the design and production of artistic products and in the organization of events. Mané initiated in 2023 the Bideew Festival which is a constellation of disciplines around astronomy, art, gastronomy, science and technology in rural areas.

Faye Kabali-Kagwa is a curator, arts coordinator, and writer with a keen focus on youth voices. In 2023 she was the curator for the Cradle of Creativity Festival which featured 27 productions from South Africa and abroad. In her work with ASSITEJ she runs the Unlocking Learners’ Creativity project in the Western Cape, as well as heading the 10Children project. Faye was awarded the 2024 Artfleunce Human Rights Youth Activism Award, and was named one of the Mail & Guardians Top 200 Young South Africans. Faye’s writing has included reflecting on contemporary theatre and their commentary on land reformation, same-sex schools and coded patriarchy as well as reminiscing on important ephemeral cultural spaces.

Rodrigo González Alvarado is a cultural practitioner born in Tunja, Colombia, now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His professional work spans leadership in the performing arts, curatorial practice, production, translation, and teaching. At the core of his work are international performing arts festivals, shaped by principles of fair cultural exchange and his own experience of living between countries and identities. Since 2019, he has coordinated MARKET/FIBA and has been involved with the Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA). He has taken on co-curation for the 2026 edition of the festival Theater der Welt.

Barbora Novotná coordinates the InfoPoint NIK at the Czech Cultural Institute. With her background in English Translation Studies and the Theory and History of Theatre at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno, she works as a translator, researcher, and cultural manager. She gained professional experience working on various international projects in the Czech Republic and abroad. Since 2014, she has been based at the Czech Cultural Institute (former Arts and Theatre Institute)

Pavla Hivert, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Department of Arts Management at the Prague University of Economics and Business. Since 2025, she has held the position of financial and administration director at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Until 2025, she was the director of the Arts and Theatre Institute and general director of the Prague Quadrennial. She is a member of a number of expert teams and working groups dealing with cultural policy (Czech Section for Culture of UNESCO) and author of the Czech Republic’s profile in the Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe.

Sara Amini is a performer, singer, and the Artistic Director of Seemia Theatre. Originally from Iran and now based in London, she studied Theatre Directing (BA) at Tehran University and Performance Making (MA) at Goldsmiths, University of London. Since founding Seemia Theatre, she has created prize-winning work presented internationally, directed and assisted at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and is currently developing new touring and community-based productions across the UK. Sara currently serves as a Trustee at Artsdepot and the Gate Theatre in London.

Alex Díaz Loo is an activist for a dignified life and human rights for women and gender non-conforming people in Peru. She’s cofounder and artistic director of Bomba Cuir, an artivist percussion ensemble, and AFFIDARE, a feminist collective. Recently, she helped organize and participated as speaker in the 1st Conference on Music and Gender held in Lima. She’s M.A. in linguistics (U. of Leicester, UK) and has also studied cultural anthropology, graphic design, and education in the US and Peru. She earns a living as a university professor, translator, researcher, and consultant.

Thomas Engel studied theatre at Humboldt-University Berlin and got a PHD 1988. Over 10 years he was working as dramaturge at East German city theatres. From 1988-2025 he has served as Project Manager and Managing Director at the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute. Thomas has been a member of several international and national juries,boards and committees and represented ITI Germany in theatre and culture organisations and networks. In 2011, he co-founded the ITI Committee for the Rights of Artists (ACAR) and served as its coordinator until 2024.

Ouafa Belgacem is CEO at Culture Funding Watch, an organization that helps artists and  organization gain understanding and information about resource mobilization. She has a strong background in supporting Cultural and Creative industries, having spent  years working for governmental and non-governmental cultural institutions, including the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and the EU delegation.Ouafa holds four Master’s degrees (History, Archaeology, Heritage Management, and an MBA). She serves as the Creative Director at the Pan African Chamber of Commerce.

Marie Le Sourd has been Secretary General of On the Move, the international information and advocacy network focused on cultural mobility, since 2012. Prior to this during 12 years, she worked at the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in Singapore, including as Acting Director of the Culture Department and directed the French Cultural Centre in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She sits on the editorial board of the 2026 UNESCO Re-Shaping Policies for Creativity report, and her contributions frequently address structural issues in cultural mobility, including environmental sustainability, accessibility, mental health, forced displacement and working conditions. She has been a board member of Culture Action Europe since June 2025.

Sebastian Hoffmann coordinates the touring artists help desk service on the administrative regulations of cross-border work in the cultural sector (all disciplines) at the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI). He studied North American Studies and Film Studies at FU Berlin and Reed College (USA) and has worked as an agent and promoter in the music sector as well as a consultant at Music Pool Berlin and the Smart Cooperative.

Ukhona Ntsali Mlandu is a festivals curator, an artist, writer, provocateur, facilitator, speaker and arts manager. She is Founder and Head Curator of makwande.republic, a residency and experimental project space. Her work explores restorative healing justice, narrative justice, spatial and mobility justice in all its intersecting iterations. Ukhona is former Director of Greatmore Studios. She has extensive experience working in the theatre industry including one of South Africa’s State theatres, Artscape Theatre as well as former coordinator of the Performing Arts Network of South Africa.

Antonia Blau has been the director of the Goethe-Institut Madrid since 2021. From 2015 until 2020 she was responsable for the EU office at the Goethe-Institut Brussels. From 2012 to 2015 Antonia Blau coordinated the creation of an antenna of the Goethe-Institut in Marseille in the framework of the European Capital of Culture Marseille-Provence 2013. She is interested in the contact points between politics and arts and culture in an international context and holds a German-French PhD.

Elgas – El Hadj Souleymane Gassama, known as Elgas, is a journalist, writer and research fellow at IRIS (Institute for International and Strategic Relations). He animates the radio programme Afrique, mémoires d’un continent on RFI (Radio France Internationale). He is the author of several books (novels, essays, biographies), the most recent of which is Les bons ressentiments (Riveneuve, 2023).

Ana Lessing Menjibar is a German-Spanish Berlin-based performer, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist. She completed the MA Solo/Dance/Authorship (SoDA) at HZT Berlin in 2020 and previously studied Visual Communication, graduating from UdK Berlin in 2008. Her work combines body, sound and multimedia installations, exploring flamenco’s transformative potential in contemporary dance. She teaches at HZT and UdK and has presented her work internationally.

Milena Gehrt works as a curator and project manager in Berlin and Beirut. From 2016 to 2019, she worked with Zoukak Theatre in Beirut, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and independent festivals in Berlin. In Beirut she researched public art interventions and worked with Ashkal Alwan and the Goethe-Institut. At AUB, she co-curated three exhibitions and explored alternative models of artistic exchange. She currently co-curates “Mouth Archives”, a series of culinary and sound performances and coordinates the DECONFINING project “Shaping Crossroads”.

Felix Sodemann grew up in Cologne and came to Berlin after living in Tübingen and Turkey and studying German and literature. He has been working at ITI since 2019, managing the projects touring artists and Shaping Crossroads and is responsible for various conference and event formats. He is also active as a freelance theatre and film maker and translator.

Wabwire Joseph Ian is a cultural innovator and creative producer based in Kampala. Through strategic leadership at KQ Hub Africa and co-founding the Culture & Art Community Impact Fund Africa, he uses the arts to drive civic engagement, social transformation, and intercultural dialogue across Africa. His work centers on leveraging artistic expression as a tool for chang – curating workshops, exhibitions, festivals, and cross-border exchanges that fosters marginalized voices, promote peacebuilding, support artistic mobility, and foster collaborative visions for Africa’s creative future.

Beatrice Waruinge is a humanitarian and human rights advocate committed to Pan-African ideals and refugee welfare. With a background in community development and international relations, she previously supported in refugee case management and human rights advocacy at Amnesty International Kenya. As Operations Coordinator of the “Under Our Skin International Film Festival on Human Rights,” she uses film to drive dialogue on social justice. Currently serving as Program Officer at Selam through Connect for Culture Africa, she champions sustainable public funding for Africa’s Cultural and Creative Industries.

Vydia Tamby is the Cultural advisor to the Mayor of Dakar and founding member of African Capitals of Culture. Vydia designs structural cultural policies and fosters global-local networks. She is also an editor at Vives Voix and a member of Senegal’s Fonds d’archives, focusing on memory and narrative preservation through arts.

Samba Yonga is a Co-Founder of the Women’s History Museum of Zambia.  She is a communications specialist, cultural curator and an award-winning journalist. She is also the founder and managing partner of Ku-Atenga Media, a company that provides communications specialist services across Africa. Samba has been recognized as 100 most influential Africans by Quartz, New York, and one of 40 most influential Africans. She is also a Google Podcast Creator, TEDx Lusaka speaker and has been selected for the distinguished Museum Lab Fellowship for 2022 in Germany and France. She has curated exhibitions, designed digital creative content and written papers focused on indigenous African knowledge systems and narratives in Zambia and Africa. She is a graduate of the Evelyn Hone College School of Journalism and holds an MA in Transnational Communications and Global Media from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Sylvia Amann is the Director of inforelais, Sylvia is a cultural policy expert with 20+ years shaping European CCI strategies and international cultural relations. She co-chaired the EU expert group on CCIs, contributed to Urban Innovative Actions, and focuses on linking culture with climate, local-global cooperation, and transformative policy-making.

The event will be held in English, with German translation available. It is organized by Deconfining partners ITI Germany and Goethe Institute Madrid, in cooperation with Theater der Welt.

We are looking forward to meet you!