“La palabre” refers to the social practice of public discourse, gathering, and collective conflict resolution found in many countries across the African continent. The themes of each UNEXPECTED LESSONS edition are further explored and discussed through conversations, artistic interventions, and reading sessions. Guests are invited to spend time in the LA PALABRE Space, to pause, listen, participate, browse the library, drink tea, or simply linger.
LA PALABRE is a successful format evolved by Isabel Raabe and Celina Baljeet Basra in the context of the artistic research project TALKING OBJECTS LAB.
UNEXPECTED LESSONS 1 – Opening
The series UNEXPECTED LESSONS – Knowledges of Body and Sound kicks off with an opening programme from May 24 to 27, 2026, centred around the solo performance “Somewhere at the Beginning” by Germaine Acogny.
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
May 25, 6-8:30 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
hn.lyonga and Melanie Garland presented their research project Neighboring Ecotones: An Intersectional Conversation Between Two Neighbors in Berlin, which explored the concept of intersectionality through a more‑than‑human lens, focusing on water–land relations — ecotones — within urban space. Through a multisensorial format comprising an audio walk and a dialogical essay, Melanie and hn.lyonga reflected on their global South situatedness as female, queer, disabled, non‑white, non‑German subjects living in Berlin — and as neighbours to one another.
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
May 26, 6-8:30 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
Angela Guerreiro presented her research project 1952 | Archive in Motion: Between the Neighbourhood and the Museum, a co‑creation project that drew on the photographic archive of Portuguese anthropological missions in Africa from the 1940s and 1950s. The project aimed to encourage critical reflection on the colonial past and its repercussions in the present. In dialogue with Angela, Arantxa Ciafrino also presented part of her research. Arantxa had recently defended her doctoral thesis in Sociomuseology, titled The Decolonial Potential of Dance and Performance in European Museums: A Sociomuseological Perspective, at Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon. Her research examined how practices in performance and dance can become means through which museums reflect on their ways of engaging with memory, knowledge, and power, while also addressing the risks of their instrumentalization by these institutions.
UNEXPECTED LESSONS 3 – Rethinking Dance in Academia
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
September 11, 2–9 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
jee chan will share their video work bendungan from 2025. In this video, jee chan explores how memory and knowledge are expressed not only through personal recollection but also through social and physical environments, including bodies and water scapes. Through choreographed movements, extended still shots, oral histories, and spatial interventions, they reveal memory as a layered, embodied process deeply connected to its surroundings.
Tsai Cheng-jung and her collective unfold what it means, and what it costs, to live as a yellow woman in a white‑dominant society. They trace the connections between Ornamentalism, their personal life stories, and embodied practices. In her presentation, Tsai will share her ongoing research and invite participants to map their own traces of negotiation, shaped by migration experiences and their proximity to Whiteness.
UNEXPECTED LESSONS 4 – Decolonizing the Body in Dance
LA PALABRE Space – Tea, Reading & Resting Room
September 12, 2–9 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
On this day, the group Coole Kinder will be invited — a dance project led by Susanne Grau, Juana del Mar, and Evgenia Chetvertkova. The project experiments with physical forms of expression and examines the relationship between dance and environment. A central aspect of the work is creating space for children to observe one another, to explore different roles within the creative process, and to articulate their impressions and emotions.
UNEXPECTED LESSONS 6 – Healing Practices and Body Memory
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
January 16, 5–7 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
With Claudix Vanesix.
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
January 17, 5–7 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
With Raísa Inocêncio.
UNEXPECTED LESSONS 7 – Knowledge Systems in Music
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
Feburary 20, 5–7 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
With Nadine Nzambisa and Bùi Việt Hoa Jin.
LA PALABRE Space — Tea, Reading & Resting Room
Feburary 21, 5–7 p.m.
KUBUS, Radialsystem, Berlin
The series UNEXPECTED LESSONS — Knowledges of Body and Sound is funded by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin. In cooperation with the Betty Center for Movement Research in Dance Studies at LMU Munich.