Denis Esakov

OPEN CALL Stories and Hopes of the Arrivals to Rhine-Main Archipelago as part of WDC 2026 — ENG ⠀ For the “Leseraum: The Metamorphosis of Arrivals and Hosts” we are inviting PERFORMANCE ARTISTS with experience in participatory practices that involve the audience in the performance itself. The mutual transformations of guests into residents, locals into neighbors, migrants into city dwellers—this is, once again, a living, changing society. Our openness toward one another, the ability to understand one another and to read for one another, and to jointly create the knowledge that will bring us closer together, form the foundation of the urban texture around which structures, streets, and squares grow. ⠀ Reading is a process of attentive perception—not just of text—but a method of recognition and openness. Reading is not limited to text; it is a more inclusive method. One can read images, emotions, the weather, expectations, and much more. ⠀ open-call pdf in the Links deadline: May 25, 2026 Text us via E-Mail: [email protected] Share ~ Repost ~ Participate __ DEU Für den “Leseraum: The Metamorphosis of Arrivals and Hosts” laden wir PERFORMANCE ARTISTS mit Erfahrung in partizipativen Praktiken, die das Publikum in die Performance selbst einbeziehen. Die gegenseitigen Übergänge von Gästen zu Bewohner: innen, von Einheimischen zu Nachbar: innen und von Migrant: innen zu Stadtbewohner: innen machen deutlich: Gesellschaft ist lebendig und befindet sich in stetigem Wandel. Diese Transformationen sind geprägt von Missverständnissen, Veränderungsträgheit und gegenseitigen Erwartungen. ⠀ Lesen wird hier als zentrale Praxis verstanden. Nicht als Entschlüsselung von Text, sondern als eine Form der Aufmerksamkeit: ein Lesen von Gesten, Räumen, Emotionen, Wetterlagen, Spannungen, nicht zuletzt gesellschaftlichen Konventionen. PDF zur Open Call in den Links Anmeldeschluss: 25. Mai 2026 Schreibe uns bitte eine E-Mail an: [email protected] Teilen ~ Weiterverbreiten ~ Teilnehmen Design: Rok Krajnc

when fire is a gift poem april 12, 2026

On the Politics of “Friendship of Peoples” Thursday, 23 April 2026, 7.30 pm Lecture performance and conversation with Manca Arnuš | de_colonialanguage In January 2026, @ma__rnus and @de_colonialanguage embarked on a three-month project to explore the concept of “Friendship of Peoples”. This seemingly benevolent catchphrase, coined and promulgated by the USSR, proved too good to be true. Essentially, it served as an anti-imperialist facade both in internal and external Soviet policy, but at its core, it was a myth, deeply rooted in the automythologies of the USSR and the utopian socialist project. The Friendship ideology permeated the textual, the visual, the architectural, the literal, the cultural, the public. It guaranteed equality between all fifteen socialist republics – but anchored in Moscow. It supported the rights of all ethnic minorities in the USSR – but in Russian. It championed the dissolution of the colonial empires and the newly emerged nation states in the “Global South” – but through the prism of an imperial and colonial logic. It gave – but it mostly took away. The exploration and dismantling of the myth of Soviet friendship was based on group readings, fieldwork, artistic and academic research, and the participatory practice of constructing a counter-monument to Friendship at the Open-Air Museum of Decoloniality on Alexanderplatz in March 2026, as the rhetoric of the Friendship of Peoples can be found manifested in different places in Berlin as well. Alexander’s Square features a Brunnen der Völkerfreundschaft (Friendship of Peoples Fountain), and, hidden among the Plattenbauten of Marzahn, there is a mosaic column dedicated to the Deutsch-Sowjetische Freundschaft (German-Soviet Friendship). The results of this collaborative work will be presented and discussed in the format of a lecture performance grounded in conflict. Who is friends with whom? The drama will unfold in several acts, combining textual, audio, and bodily imagery of ideological friendship, reconfiguring the verticality of transactional friendship into its upturned mode: decentralized horizontality. #politicsoffriendship #friendship #ideology #decolonialanguage #diffrakt

Seit Januar befinden wir uns in einer schwierigen Lage! Ein Haus mit 40 Familien wurde über Nacht ohne Angebot einer Ersatzunterkunft geräumt. Das ist nun schon seit über einem Monat so. Die Reparaturarbeiten ziehen sich endlos hin und führen zu einer Gentrifizierung. Viele NachbarInnen haben schon auf ihre Wohnungen verzichtet. Lasst uns gemeinsam die unmenschliche Politik der Vermieter stoppen! Landlord sind keine MenschenLord! Die Stadt ist für Menschen da, nicht für möblierte Luxuswohnungen! Unsere Forderungen: - Wir brauchen Wasser! (sofort!) - Wir brauchen Strom! (mindestens Baulicht für alle Gebäude!) - Wir brauchen Heizung! - Wir fordern einen verbindlichen und transparenten Zeitplan für die Reparaturarbeiten. Zeitplan für die Versammlung: 17:00 Uhr – Vorbereitung der Straße 18:00 Uhr – Beginn der Demonstration (vor Stargarder Str. 76 / Gethsemane-Kirche) 18:30 Uhr – Reden und Beiträge – Betroffene MieterInnen und NachbarInnen - Maria Bigos @maniekherbetko , Fraktionsvorsitzende der Linksfraktion BVV Pankow @linksfraktion_pankow @linkepankow - Julia Schneider MdB @juli.schnei , für Pankow im Bundestag, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen @gruenepankow @gruene_fraktion_pankow - Linda Vierecke @ linda4ecke, Mitglied des Abgeordnetenhauses von Berlin, SPD Fraktion @spdfraktionberlin - Initiative Pankow gegen Verdrängung @pankowgegenverdraengung – Alle, die ihre Ansichten und Meinungen teilen möchten (Liste wird aktualisiert, jede(r) ist willkommen) 20:00 Uhr – Nachbarschaftstreffen für alle mit Suppe und Performance-Installation der Künstlerin Marina Resende Santos @marinaresende.s In unserem Kiez gibt es bereits mehrere Häuser mit ähnlichen Problemen, daher sehen wir die Situation nicht nur als unser eigenes Problem, sondern als eine Situation, die die ganze Straße betrifft! Unterstützt eure NachbarInnen! Gemeinsam können wir die Entmenschlichung unserer Straße stoppen!

In this episode of Yurt Jurt, host Diana Kudaibergen speaks with Denis Esakov, a linguist and activist from Kyrgyzstan and a member of De_colonialanguage, a Berlin-based initiative working at the intersection of language, power, and decolonial practice. Credits for photo: @carinakhorkhordina

What happens when art steps outside the institution and into the street? In Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, The Open Air Museum of Decoloniality refuses walls, refuses hierarchy, refuses the idea that history belongs only to those who named the monuments. Instead, it offers something quieter and more radical: presence, participation, and shared authorship. This is not art asking to be observed. It is art asking to be answered. Through public prompts, collective making, and questions that unsettle comfort, the museum becomes a living site of memory — one shaped by those who show up, linger, speak, and listen. Decoloniality here is not aesthetic. It is relational. It is messy. It is alive. At Kailon, we believe stories like this matter because they show us what’s possible when creativity belongs to everyone — not just institutions, not just gatekeepers, not just the historically protected. Read the full article on KailonMag.com Support independent publishing. Support artists who imagine new ways of being together. By @trip.me.right on @de_colonialanguage

40 stories, 21 minutes 54 seconds recorded on December 29, 2025, 14:41 poem поэма 40 stories, 21 минута 54 секунды дата записи 29 Декабря 2025, 14:41

Today we are launching VOICES OTHERWISE for the first time. We celebrate the curiosity and generosity of the community: duration of presence and the generosity of togetherness nurture gardens that pollinate the thirst of those who seek. We are grateful for the collective reflections and discussions: thoughts, criticism, manifestos, documentation, and epistemological shifts in motion from colonial hopelessness to decolonial solidarity. This book was written by translocal people, all of whom are in different spaces and stages of migration. All of these people explore imperialist ideologies, histories, and practices (particularly Russian one, but not only) and together engage in the awareness and practice of decoloniality. Come support us all today at @missreadberlin Miss Read Talks: 🗓 December 12, 2025, 6:00 PM 📍 Gerichtstrasse 45, 13347 Berlin ✨ Free admission, no registration required 🗣 Event in English Marina Solntseva @solnzewa.marina and Saltanat Shoshanova @quotidian_pleasures will give us a keynote speech on the difference between decolonial and anti-Western conversations, which should not be confused. And then we will have resistance soup - shorpo - prepared by @artofadiba . See you tonight! texts: @quotidian_pleasures Saltanat Shoshanova @nikarkay Irina Denkmann Kreolex zentre: @vilka_viski Maria Vilkovisky and @ruthia_jen Ruthia Jenrbekova @viktoriiasaltar Viktoriia Şăltăr @sashakarpov.1 Alexandr Carpov @olgaalexandrvn Olga Mun Anastasia Kolas @jezishka Tatsiana Shchurko @istudy23 Anton Ikhsanov @anita.araujo.poem Anita Araujo @lou__ix Lou Patrouix @nikolai_nikogdai Kolya Nakshunov @solnzewa.marina Marina Solnzewa @denisesakov Denis Esakov design and pre-press: @sukhova_anya Sukhova Anya illustrations and photography: @gonserovskayaolesya Olesya Gonserovskaya @urgen_kruger Evgeniya Kurtina jula.suli Julia Sulikowska Denis Esakov editing and publishing labor: oi publishing, Denis Esakov printed by TOTEM book printing house @totem.com.pl Das Projekt wird aus Mitteln des Programms des Landes Berlin zur kulturellen Infrastrukturerhaltung und -entwicklung in den Bezirken (Bezirkskulturfonds) gefördert. @kulturmitte

You are cordially invited to the presentation of VOICES OTHERWISE by @de_colonialanguage this coming Friday! 🗓️ December 12, 2025, 6:00 PM 📍 Gerichtstrasse 45, 13347 Berlin 🗣️ Event in English Anti-Western position does not mean a Decolonial one Saltanat Shoshanova and Marina Solntseva will give a keynote presentation on why anti-Western rhetoric alone cannot be called decolonial and what is unique about decolonial aspirations on case studies of Soviet and Russian imperialisms. This presentation based on their article A Guide to Deconstructing and Resisting the Hijacking of Decolonial Struggles from the essay collection Voices Otherwise, which will be presented for the first time this evening. «Кыргыздын шорпосу 40 жылдан кийин ооз күйгүзөт» [Kyrgyzdyn shorposu 40 jyldan kiĭin ooz küĭgüzöt] “Kyrgyz soup still burns mouth after 40 years” Kyrgyz proverb For centuries, Western hegemony was a political, cultural, and ultimately economic condition that afflicted much of the world and was opposed by liberation movements such as the struggle for decolonization. One of the means of this hegemony was capitalist conditions. At the same time, anti-Western and anti-colonial rhetoric was appropriated by authoritarian and imperial actors to reinforce reactionary power structures of domination under the banners of anti-imperialism, anti-Westernism, and anti-capitalism. Afterwards, there will be time for questions and answers and open discussion. Then we will eat shorpo soup together and discuss the past year and plans for the future, continuing our lines of solidarity and working on OTHERARCHIVES. Come join us! We look forward to seeing you there! 🙌🏼 Images credits: 1. VOICES OTHERWISE by de_colonialanguage collective. 2. UN-FENCE handbook, street intervention by de_colonialanguage in Open Air Museum of Decoloniality, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, May 2024. 3. ПРАВДА [pravda] / in GOD we TRUST, installation by de_colonialanguage in the Open Air Museum of Decoloniality, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, May 2024. Images provided by Denis Esakov.

FORGOTTEN VOICES Tatar prisoners of war in the imperial strategies and colonial tactics of German and Russian Empires. A Carpet Pavilion with Tatars’Voices was constructed in the Open Air Museum of Decoloniality square (former Alexanderplatz). Inside the pavilion, the voices of Tatar prisoners can be heard. Outside, there is brief information about this unfolding story. Some people lined up to listen to the voices, some were afraid to go inside, and some entertained their little brothers by smoking a joint made inside of carpets. Leila Almazova played the kurai. @allapopp fed everyone Qabartma (traditional Tatar pastry). People warmly thanked us for the public story about the forgotten voices. This was Voices Otherwise’s last residency of the year. @allapopp brought Tatar voices from German archives to the square named after the Russian emperor, and then to the former food storage facility for German soldiers. This led to many conversations, and stories began to unfold more and more. If for the residencies it was a closing for this year, for the research it was an opening of further directions and a promise to continue the work. the history is unfolding now Text written by Denis Esakov @denisesakov and Anton Ikhsanov @istudy23 Read the full text on Syg.ma @syg.ma.editorial via the link in the Links ~~> Das Projekt wird aus Mitteln des Programms des Landes Berlin zur kulturellen Infrastrukturerhaltung und -entwicklung in den Bezirken (Bezirkskulturfonds) gefördert. @kulturmitte

This is an invitation to the presentation of a self-published collection of essays and join an open conversation with cooking session by Adiba (aka Saltanat Shoshanova) @artofadiba VOICES OTHERWISE duration of presence and the generosity of togetherness nurture gardens that pollinate the thirst of those who seeks Book of thoughts, criticism, manifestos, documentation, and epistemological shifts in motion from colonial hopelessness to decolonial solidarity. 🗓️ December 12, 2025, 6:00 PM 📍 Gerichtstrasse 45, 13347 Berlin ✨ Free admission, no registration required 🗣️ Event in English This is the second book about the Open Air Museum of Decoloniality at Alexandreplatz. It was launched in September 2023 by de_colonialanguage collective with the support of various communities, friends, enthusiasts, and artists. It began as research and protest, and we thought about grasping a space that belongs to ideas we’re considering controversial and urge for critical discussion (Russian imperialism, unbridled capitalism, total control). It is just a huge square without walls and with its own characteristics, but the operational activities of many culture practitioners have already contributed to this space are changing it. This book slowly reveals the experience of difficult conversations in difficult times of multiple wars. It is a search for a voice, for a tone of voice, for a space for a voice, for Other voices. Contributors to the book: Anita Araujo, Irina Denkmann, Denis Esakov, Anton Ikhsanov, Anastasia Kolas, Kreolex zentre, Olga Mun, Kolya Nakhshunov, Lou Patrouix, Tatsiana Shchurko, Saltanat Shoshanova, Marina Solntseva, and many others. Adiba is preparing a cooking ceremony especially for this evening. She is a writer and artist from Almaty, currently based in Berlin. Her work examines themes of belonging, trauma, death, and the intersection of memory and food-focused practices. @de_colonialanguage transfrontier art and research collective, operating by critical tongue studies and language feelings all the time in-between and otherwise. The book’s design was carefully and diligently developed and prepared for printing by @sukhova_anya Sukhova Anya.

Who is LautSprecher here? This work was created during the Roof Glitches dach-residency organised and hosted by @operationhimmelblick Operation Himmelblick, August 2025 The dragons of capitalism sway on Mühlstraße. Remains of trees in the forest of machines speak by numbers. Normality detected. Scream! And now once again, this time to the one who is loud without sound - the wind. Who is louder here? Dead trees still live on in the wind for some time. Work made out of polished loudspeakers (ger. Lautsprecher) from the shopping center parking lot, receipts from stores in the same shopping center, tape, glue and performers’ bodies. When the Dragon Loses its Tongue, It Dances