House of Diaspora

House of Diaspora is a performance series by the Institut für Neue Soziale Plastik that draws on customs, rituals, and traditions of the Jewish annual cycle and transposes them into contemporary artistic settings. The series opens cultural spaces, such as Munich‘s Kammerspiele theatre or the Berlin Humboldthain Club, to stage performative adaptations of Jewish worlds.

The artistic productions, conceived and realized by largely Jewish artists, make Jewish (everyday) worlds accessible to a broad Jewish and non-Jewish audience, and thus strengthen the visibility of Jewish positions in a cultural context. The invited artists from a wide range of disciplines travel either from Israel for individual events or they are already based in Germany.

House of Diaspora focuses on the diversity of Jewish life in the German Diaspora and makes it possible to pass on Jewish knowledge, interpretations, and cultures that is largely unknown to Germain mainstream culture.

Previous productions focus on the holidays of Purim, Sukkot, and Shavuot. Each of these significant Jewish holidays conveys a unique narrative. Yet they share one thing: a focus on solidarity and emancipation. These values are at the core of House of Diaspora. Queer, spiritual, religious, cultural, and secular Judaism find their place here. Life is celebrated, alliances are formed, and new empowering networks can be opened up both for participants and the audiences involved.