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MIGRANTENNALE – New Arts Festival in NRW 
Migration as aesthetics, Global Interconnections & South-South complicities 21.-24.08 August 2025 at Saalbau Witten
 

What is the festival?

The MIGRANTENNALE is a young arts festival – small in scale but with a big vision. It presents works by artists from the Global South who live and work in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Where does the festival take place?

The festival takes place at the Saalbau Witten and is a collaboration between the Kulturforum Witten and the independent arts scene – a joint commitment to contemporary, diverse and high-quality art.

What happens at the festival?

Over four days, from August 21 to 24, 2025, the festival will present a wide range of artistic works at Saalbau Witten – all free of charge. Visitors can experience media art, theatre, installations, dance, music, painting, and more.
The full program will be published in early August 2025 on this website.
 

An artistic residency for artists:
A central element of the festival is its residency program – the first of its kind in North Rhine-Westphalia to specifically invite artists from the Global South who are living here. From August 4 to 20, six selected artist groups will develop new works. Their focus is on language, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and the lasting impact of colonial history – topics that continue to resonate today.
The open call for the residency (which closed on February 27, 2025) received 45 applications from over 25 countries and 20 language communities. This demonstrates the vitality and strength of Global South perspectives – they are deeply embedded in the local arts scene and have become an essential part of contemporary art in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Selected Residency Projects for the Festival:
We’re excited to welcome six residency projects to the MIGRANTENNALE 2025 program:

“We Who Do Not Belong”, dance performance: SoKo Jena

“Voices of Freedom”, multisensory installation: Nadia Karimi, Liu Peimin, Shiva Siyahvashi, and Paklia Polat

“Arete Guasu – Fiesta Grande”, multilingual ritual performance: Pampayruna

“República del Excremento”, community theater experience: Samanta Pizarro Aliste, Adam Arhelger, and Omar Guadarrama (CIA La Perra Alegría)

“Orange, Red, Yellow”, interactive performance: Nooshin Seifi

“Pachamama”, mixed-media performance: Kamalanetra Hung and Felipe González Berrios


Guest Exhibition at the MIGRANTENNALE: KUNST GRENZENLOS
In addition to the residency program, the festival presents a new traveling exhibition by artists from the KUNST GRENZENLOS initiative of the Malteser Werke.
After its stop in Munich in July, the exhibition will travel to Witten as part of the MIGRANTENNALE. It will be on display in the foyer of the Saalbau Witten from August 21 to 27, before continuing on to Berlin in September 2025.

The Idea of “Migration as Aesthetics”:
At this festival, migration is not just a theme – it is a creative force, a source of renewal. It shifts perspectives, generates new artistic forms, and connects experiences. The works deal with borders, knowledge across generations and geographies, and with colonial histories that continue to shape the present.
Central to the program are also connections between regions of the Global South – such as between Latin America and Africa, or between West and East Asia.

Team / Artistic Direction:
The festival is led by Gabs Carneiro, Bianca Mendonça and Paulina Abufhele – artists who not only study migration, but live it and make it a core of their creative practice.
Their curatorial work brings together theory, lived experience, practice and mediation. The result is a program that shares knowledge, makes perspectives visible and creates new connections.

What We Stand For:
The MIGRANTENNALE is committed to being a safe and respectful space.
We want everyone to feel welcome – especially people who have experienced discrimination. We clearly state:
There is no place for racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Romani discrimination, ableism, queerphobia, sexism, classism, lookism, ageism or any other form of exclusion or violence. We are committed to protection and dignity for all – with particular attention to vulnerable communities.

Partners and Supporters:
The MIGRANTENNALE is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia through the Diversity Fund NRW, as well as by the City of Witten, Stadtwerke Witten, Sparkasse Witten and the Kulturforum Witten.
Special thanks go to our partners at KUNST GRENZENLOS / Malteser Werke for their exhibition and artistic contributions to the festival program.

Festival Contact: info@migrantennale.de

Accessibility Inquiries: kulturforum@stadt-witten.de