With the third edition of ‘Transkontinentale’, the Humboldt Forum Foundation is bringing contemporary guest performances from Brazil, China, Cameroon, Nigeria and Aotearoa – the most common Māori name for New Zealand – to Berlin at the Berlin Palace from 30 September to 4 October 2026. Through dance, performance and theatre, the invited artists in this year’s edition explore cultural and natural heritage, water, earth and forests, as well as personal and collective ownership of history and stories. Some of the selected productions will take place amidst the ethnological collections at the Humboldt Forum, offering new perspectives and direct access to the institution’s themes.
Image above: Aufführung des Stücks “ON MY WAY HOME” von Reinaldo Reibeiro und Lucia Oiro im Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Köln © Susanne Troll.
Featuring: Tian Gebing, Zora Snake, Tupua Tigafua, Qudus Onikeku, Reinaldo Ribeiro, Lucas Lacerda and Daniel Weyand, and many more.
The Transkontinentale Festival will open on 30 September 2026 with Luftmasse by Chinese director Tian Gebing – based on a text by Alfred Döblin and featuring a spatial concept by Ai Weiwei. The programme for the following days includes dance and performance pieces by Zora Snake and Qudus Onikeku. Interactive performances by the Brazilians Reinaldo Ribeiro and Lucas Lacerda / Daniel Weyand will take place in exhibitions at the Ethnological Museum, in the foyer and on the roof terrace of the Humboldt Forum. Shel We by the Māori choreographer Tupua Tigafua is designed for audiences of all ages (from 4 years old).
Curated annually by the Humboldt Forum Foundation at Berlin Palace, the festival presents dance, theatre and performance productions from four continents. The invited works engage in dialogue with the themes and collections at the Humboldt Forum in various ways. All events are accompanied by meet-and-greets and discussions with the artists.
The first edition of the Transkontinentale in 2024 commemorated the Berlin Conference on Africa of 1884–85, at which the colonial partition of Africa amongst the European powers was negotiated. The second edition in 2025 focused on the annual theme ‘Relationships and Family’. This year’s festival serves as a prologue to the programme focus ‘Mine. Yours. Ours!?’, which begins at the end of November.
EVENTS AND DATES
Transkontinentale 2026 at the Humboldt Forum
Tian Gebing / Paper Tiger Theatre Studio: Luftmasse
Wednesday, 30 September to Friday, 2 October, 7 pm each evening, Hall 1
Theatre / Dance performance / Co-production, Berlin premiere
The present seems to be in a state of limbo. China’s rise is redefining Asia, and with it, Europe. A hundred years ago, in his futuristic novel Mountains, Seas and Giants, Alfred Döblin had already described this state of affairs in literary terms as a ‘fantasy of facts’: an unending chain of climate catastrophes and continental drift, pandemics and global economic crises. The Sino-German Paper Tiger Theatre Studio has adapted this material for the stage. The performance, co-produced with the ‘Theatre of the World 2026’ festival in Chemnitz, creates a world of images and sound with plenty of movement and using means that are both astonishingly simple and sensuous. The visual concept is by Ai Weiwei. Five dancers, performers and singers from China and Germany work with videography and spatial design. Their bodies, shaped by diverse cultural backgrounds and contemporary discourses, embody the conflicting emotions between bleak visions of the future and the reality of the present.
Featuring: Elena Bechter, Wang Yanan, Sheyang Sibo, Jingwen Li, Fu-Hsuan Shih, Tian Gebing; Direction and text: Tian Gebing; Choreography, producer: Wang Yanan; Music: Piotr Kurek; Lighting design: Zhao Tong; Set design, costumes: Paper Tiger Theatre Studio; Video: Xin Tong; Visual concept: Ai Weiwei; Dramaturgy: Christoph Lepschy
Zora Snake: Le combat des lianes
Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd October, 8.00 pm, Hall 2
Dance / Berlin premiere
For his latest choreography, the exceptional Cameroonian dancer Zora Snake has drawn inspiration from the mighty lianas of his homeland’s forests. Just as the lianas grow and wind their way through the forest, this dance piece winds its way across the stage. It advocates for a mindful approach to our shared natural heritage, standing against the injustices of the current capitalist world order, the exploitation of nature and the destruction of habitats. Movements drawn from hip-hop, contemporary dance and traditional Cameroonian dances come together to form a collective ritual. Following his solo performance *Opéra villageois*, Zora Snake returns to the Humboldt Forum for the second time.
Performance: Zora Snake, Joy Alpuerto Ritter, Jessica Chiye Warshal, Zadi Landry Kipre, Gandir Prudence; Live music: Christiane Prince, Rokia Bamba; Choreography: Zora Snake; Set design: Jean Michel Dissake; Costumes: Lamyne M. A production by Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles. In co-production with Charleroi Danse, Riksteatern Stockholm, South North Foundation, Julidans Amsterdam, One Dance Festival Plovdiv, Theater Freiburg, Manège Maubeuge, africologne Festival Cologne and others. With the support of the Institut Français Cameroon.
Tupua Tigafua: Shel We
Saturday, 3rd and Sunday, 4th October, 4 pm on both days, Hall 2
Dance / German premiere
Shel We is a playful and captivating dance show created by Tupua Tigafua – the acclaimed Māori dancer, award-winning choreographer and unique storyteller. In Shel We, trees, spirits, deer and pranks all play a part. Tupua’s tribute to the American composer and musician Shel Silverstein (known for his children’s book The Giving Tree and the Johnny Cash classic A Boy Named Sue) is built around pieces of music that evoke memories of Tupua’s parents, his family and his surroundings – including Baroque works from the time of James Cook, who claimed Aotearoa / New Zealand for the British Crown. Shel We has captivated audiences of all ages across Aotearoa / New Zealand and in Sweden, and critics agree that the piece “deserves to become a contemporary classic”.
Dance: Villa Lemanu, Sean MacDonald, Chris Ofanoa, Tupua Tigafua, Aloalii Tapu, Andy Tilo. Concept / Choreography: Tupua Tigafua
Qudus Onikeku: Lagos Is A R.A.V.E.
Saturday, 3rd and Sunday, 4th October, 7.00 pm, Special Exhibition Galleries
Dance / European Preview
LAGOS is a R.A.V.E. (Radical Audio Visual Experience) is the title of the new piece for eleven dancers by Nigeria’s leading contemporary choreographer, Qudus Onikeku, and his QDance Company. It explores the megacity of Lagos as a living choreography and asks how history continues to move through bodies that carry within them the aftermath of colonialism, military dictatorship, migration, the oil industry, religious ecstasy and new visions of the future. Movement becomes a social technology that opens up new ways for communities to interact – navigating the realms of spirituality, pleasure and resistance. Drawing on Yorùbá cosmology and Nigeria’s socio-political history, the piece blends Afrobeats, rave and youth cultures with the dynamics of urban street life.
Cast: Joshua Anum, Evangel Austin, Bright Bassey, Emmanuel David, Abok Ezekiel, Ruth Felix, Vessy Igben, Matthew Ilione, Tijese Jatto, Lizinmwa Man, Angela Okolo,
Choreography: Qudus Onikeku. Lighting: Michel Abdallah. Production: Hajarat Alli
Reinaldo Ribeiro: On My Way Home
Saturday, 3rd and Sunday, 4th October, 2.00–4.30 pm, Stairwell/Foyer (the exact starting point will be announced in due course)
Participatory performance / Berlin premiere
Sulwe is just three years old; she is ‘German-Kenyan’. Reinaldo Ribeiro is ‘queer’ and ‘Afro-Brazilian’. Visa applications and bureaucracy shape their movements – and their identities. Who decides who they are or are allowed to be?
On My Way Home combines performance, film and discussion, exploring questions of identity, migration and decolonisation through personal stories. Ten performers work with bricks as a central element of the production. They are carried, stacked and passed on, transforming on stage into symbols of possession, loss and new beginnings. Whilst looting and dispossession are linked to the history of colonialism, bricks also represent reconstruction and the possibility of creating something new.
Featuring: Dessa Ganda, Judith Harder, Tatiana Mejía, Taiwo Ojudun, Reinaldo Ribeiro. Directed by: Reinaldo Ribeiro, Lucia Oiro. Video: Kefa Oiro
Lucas Lacerda, Daniel Weyand: Parte de Nós
Saturday, 3rd and Sunday, 4th October, at 12 noon and 5 pm on both days, starting in the foyer
Audio walk / German premiere
From the very beginning, we have been telling each other stories about what it means to be human, where we come from and where we belong. Some stories still shape our lives today, whilst others have been forgotten forever. Parte de Nós is the rediscovery of one such forgotten story: the fable of a primeval bird that was abducted from its own flock. A bird as old as time itself – the last of its kind – embarks on a solitary quest to find a companion who sings with the same voice. The Brazilian artist Lucas Lacerda lends his voice to some of the many legends surrounding the sacred bird, from the bedtime story his grandmother told him as a child to the place where it was last seen: on the Rio Vermelho in Salvador de Bahia. Parte de Nós is an artistic audio walk that Lucas Lacerda has further developed in collaboration with the German artist Daniel Weyand for the Humboldt Forum – an immersive experience that combines speculative fiction, documentary narratives and live performance. The audience are provided with headphones and invited to take part in a three-dimensional sound journey through the spaces of the Humboldt Forum – a sensory tour through time, echoes and emotions.
Featuring: Lucas Lacerda & Daniel Weyand (text, direction, performance, sound design), Norma Lacerda (performance), Luciana Lacerda (artist support and assistance), and others.
‘Transkontinentale’ is an event organised by the Humboldt Forum Foundation at Berlin Palace.
One venue, four partners: this diversity of voices is already inherent in the collaboration between the partners. At the Humboldt Forum, the Humboldt Forum Foundation at Berlin Palace, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art of the State Museums of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin with the Humboldt Laboratory, and the Berlin City Museum with the Berlin Exhibition are all working together.
WHEN?
Wednesday, 30 September to Sunday, 4 October 2026
WHERE?
Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss
Schloßplatz
10178 Berlin
