SAVVY meets Paranorma

A collaboration between SAVVY Contemporary and Ballhaus Prinzenallee

Neighbours things: Within the PARANORMA series and the projectCURES: Chronic Promises, SAVVY Contemporary and Ballhaus Prinzenallee collaborate on a series of performances. 

The PARANORMA Series creates a space for artists to showcase their work to a Berlin audience. The stage at Ballhaus Prinzenallee is open on Mondays and Tuesdays, providing a platform for emerging and established artists, directors, performers, researchers, and interdisciplinary practices. We focus on creating an inclusive and critical space that allows artists and communities to address and reflect on contemporary social and cultural issues. Meanwhile, CURES: Chronic Promises delves into the idea that healing – whether physical, psychological, or societal – may not follow a linear path or lead to a definitive "cure," much like decolonization.

The SAVVY meets Paranorma / Cures x Paranorma collaboration goes beyond just presenting artwork or projects. It’s all about building a shared space where critical ideas can flow and where conventional narratives are thoughtfully challenged and reexamined. A framework for exploring and thematizing: wounds, resistances, and transformation.

Chapter One 
Fluid Identities: Exploring Queerness and Tradition

This chapter of SAVVY meets PARANORMA features two performances that focus on gender fluidity, personal narrative and the fusion of traditional and contemporary artistic practices. It highlights the interplay between individual experiences, cultural heritage and broader social contexts, explored through dance, literature and performance.

Otniel Tasman: HERMAPRODITO* (beyond the idea of queerness)
As a performing arts artist, I use the body as a political instrument. This performance explores the radicalism of the living body as a form of struggle, challenging conventional ways of feeling and creating new, imaginative, and poetic experiences. It combines ethical-political commitment with transfeminist and queer awareness, re-examining diversity, dismantling privileges, and acknowledging vulnerabilities. I employ political and decolonial bodies, perspectives, feelings, and animalization to deconstruct the spirit of lengger. The work also addresses the social classification of living beings and the dominance of subaltern bodies as institutional violence techniques, shaping our perception of the body and the world.

Otniel Tasman is a young choreographer and Lengger practitioner from the Banyumas tradition. Focused on promoting gender justice and exploring the Lengger tradition's fluid gender values, which reflect Banyumas philosophy and spirituality. In addition to creating traditional and contemporary dance works, I founded the Jagad Lengger Festival to support and celebrate the Banyumas Lengger heritage. My book Lengger is my Religion (2021) shares my experiences and engages the public in discussions on body, gender, tradition, and spirituality.

Otniel's residency is part of the REFLEKT residency programme by Goethe-Institut Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines together with SAVVY Contemporary and TanzFaktur for artists and cultural practitioners from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.  

Hana Hazem Arabi & Nader Humaidan: THIS REALITY IS CONCRETE
Through a blend of songs, dance, and literature, the two artists share intimate reflections on their identities, struggles, and resilience. Their art becomes a powerful lens to explore the complexities of being queer, revealing how personal and collective realities intertwine. In the process, they confront questions of identity and existence, all while navigating the shadow of conflict and war. This performance is not just a journey through their personal narratives but a dialogue on how queer experiences intersect with broader social and political landscapes.

Hana Hazem Arabi s a multidisciplinary Syrian artist working in painting, performance, video art, and installation. Born in 1989 as Hazem Arabi in Suweida, Syria. He began his artistic journey in painting, exhibiting first in Damascus. Living in Germany since 2017, and he studies Theater/Performance in Leipzig. Currently part of the Rimini Protokoll project Ever Given.

Nader Humaidan (he / him) originally from Damascus, Syria, he has been a passionate dancer since the age of four. He lived in Dresden before moving to Berlin a year and a half ago. He leads a dance group consisting of his friends and is currently part of a youth club at Gorki Theater, where he is actively working on a project.

Chapter Two
Andean Diaspora Dialogues: Identity and Resistance

This chapter of SAVVY meets PARANORMA, through musical interventions, a ceramics workshop and community cooking explores Andean heritage and its connection to cultural identity in the context of the diaspora. It also reflects themes of cultural resilience and solidarity promoted by the Centro Intercultural Peruano Todas las Sangres, highlighting the importance of honoring indigenous roots and confronting global injustices.

Juliette Robles​​​​​​​  is an artist of Andean Peruvian descent born in Barcelona who moves towards the reencounter with her roots through music as a healing channel for the pain of rejecting her origin. In this small recital Juliette will share Andean themes with her own clay instruments made by her, her Andean box and her own sound experimentation to honor the indigenous resilience.

The “Huacos Autorretrato” workshop analyzes through clay the phenotypes outside of Western beauty standards, which were imposed as a result of the European anthropological expeditions of the 19th century. In this way, it addresses the stigmatization of racialized faces and bodies as the origin of racism. In the Andean cosmovision, the creation of these sacred vessels represents the alchemy of the natural elements and their connection with the „uku pacha“ (world of the dead), storing the „chicha“, the sacred drink that will accompany them on this transitory and cyclical journey.

The Centro Intercultural Peruano Todas las Sangres Berlin  is an initiative of the Peruvian diaspora in Berlin, created as a space for cultural resistance and solidarity in the face of the challenges of migration and global injustices. Inspired by the legacy of José María Arguedas, the center promotes the defense of Peruvian cultures and its diaspora, solidarity with social struggles in Peru and Abya Yala, and the search for alternatives to the capitalist system. It advocates for the rule of law that protects human rights, rejects neocolonialism, gender violence and discrimination, and promotes Peruvian arts and literature as a means of identity and resistance.