ITI ACADEMY LAB

The urge to protect human rights, culture, and art has rarely been as present as it is today. A polarised world, war, and conflicts are restricting artistic freedoms. The numbers of persecuted artists and activists, as well as artists in exile have increased dramatically. The ITI Academy LAB offers artists and cultural researchers a space to engage with collective strategies of resistance and to explore resilient working methods and structures in the face of repressive systems and authoritarian regimes.  

Stories of resistance from different regions and communities of the world are told and brought into correspondence with each other. For five days, individual artists will aesthetically and discursively explore the space that emerges between these stories and their respective praxises. 

How do these people take action against censorship, against the restriction of the diversity of artistic means of expression? How do artists manage to organize in repressive systems and continue to pursue projects without giving up or succumbing to exhaustion, self-censorship, and fear. How to carry on? To counter hate with empathy? What forms of collective organizations and synergies can resist oppression and the restriction of human rights? At the end of these “Artistic Research Days”, the experiences, processes, and reflections on these questions will be shared in a public event.  

LAB I_The creative journey of the Barbaric Female Poets

In LAB I (July 2024), Dora Yuemin Cheng and Sara Amini collaborated after meeting as mentors during the first ITI Academy. Together with Jaber Ramezan, they revisited stories of female resistance in China and Iran in the lecture performance “The creative journey of the Barbaric Female Poets.”

The project of the “barbaric female poets” began with an encounter and conversation between the Chinese playwright Dora Yuemin Cheng and the Iranian director Sara Amini during the ITI Academy Week at THEATER DER WELT 2023. They connected through a shared feminist perspective, tracing forms of collective resistance, and began searching together for poetic and theatrical expressions of it. Inspiration for this work came from the fictional article “A Letter from Prison in Tehran.” Written in Chinese, the article documented the experiences of young protesters in a Chinese prison while incorporating real people, places, and events from the Jin Jiyan Azadi women’s movement in Iran.

During the lecture performance, together with Jaber Ramezan, they reflected on the history of female resistance in China and Iran. Dora presented her documentation and personal observations of Iranian activists during her stay in Tehran in April 2024. The artists aimed to initiate a collective understanding and experience of resistance through their individual memories. This attempt was not limited to a specific geographical location or historical event, but instead sought to address the essence of resistance itself. Texts and materials developed during their research week were presented and subsequently discussed with the audience.

LAB II_A haven of joy and resistance

In LAB II (June 2025), Alex Díaz Loo and Gerald Odil Ronnie came together to explore strategies of resistance in the performing arts from the perspective of the LGBTQIA+ community. At the center of their research was the dissident, non-normative body and its role as both a powerful and sensitive tool in public space.

When Alex D. Loo and their drum ensembles Bomba Cuir and Yemayá organize artistic interventions for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights in public spaces in Arequipa and Lima (Peru), they are confronted with violence and threats of arrest. Through collective, joyful, and defiant music and dance, they resist both state and societal violence.

12,140 kilometers away, in Kampala (Uganda), queer people risk their lives if they dare to live freely in society. In response to oppression and hatred, Gerald Odil Ronnie and the queer artists’ collective Anti-Mass have created refuges of joy, love, and ecstasy.

In LAB II, Alex and Gerald place the dissident, non-normative body at the center of their artistic research as a powerful and sensitive instrument for political activism and resistance. They come together with Berlin-based artists, activists, musicians, drum ensembles, and community initiatives to exchange ideas and experiences.

At the end of LAB II, Alex and Gerald invite audiences to the Open LAB: texts, sounds, rhythms, and materials developed during the research week are presented. In dialogue with the audience, the two residents share insights into their artistic and activist practices.

LAB III_The living atlas of extraction

In LAB III, Lloyd Nyikadzino and Deepika Arwind addressed questions of identity and dimensions of exploitation, with the aim of strengthening local communities and initiating processes of change within their respective living and working environments. Their tools: community theatre and writing.

Lloyd Nyikadzino understands theatre as a bridge for dialogue and transformation. For him, the body carries memories, serves as a site of resistance, and acts as a catalyst for conversations about the self in a polarized world. His approach focuses on the potential of theatre to create spaces of resonance that connect communities and initiate social change.

Deepika Arwind continues to develop her idea of a “cartography of exploitation.” She examines how bodily experiences can make global crises visible and relates these investigations to one another. She is interested in how this “map” expands through exchange with audiences and communities. In this way, her work opens new perspectives on how art can build networks of solidarity and foster collective resilience.

LAB III ultimately becomes an open space in which artistic practices become tools for engagement, connection, and shared learning — and an invitation to develop new perspectives on resistance, identity, and community work. OPEN LAB III takes place as part of “THE POWER OF MUTUAL COOPERATION. Why We Cooperate.”