KOOPERATION UND THEMENKOMPLEX

Syncretism & Ambiguity      

ANNUAL TOPIC

SYNCRETISM & AMBIGUITY - BEYOND THE BINARY

With its theme for2026/2027 - SYNCRETISM & AMBIGUITY -, bridgeworks opens up a space for exploration that eludes the desire for clear-cut answers. Together with Circuito Liquen from Mexico, we embark on a search beyond binary logic – both in the discourse on identity and gender and in a closed understanding of national cultures. By recognizing these constructs as fluid spectra, we create space for identities beyond colonial and normative categorization. In an era marked by political polarization and digital echochambers, we do not see the collaboration between Mexican and German artists as building bridges between two fixed and clearly defined cultures. Rather, we understand it as a shared positioning in the simultaneity in which identities, histories, and futures are constantly intermingling. At the heart of our work are Syncretism and Ambiguity—two terms that we understand not a sabstract theory, but as lived, often fraught practice.
For us, syncretism is much more than the mere addition of cultural characteristics; it is the radical form of new creation under pressure. It feeds on the Mexican experience of an identity that has grown out of the ruins of colonialism, the resilience of indigenous cosmologies, and hypermodernity. When this wealth of experience encounters a Germany that is laboriously learning to rearrange its own polyphony as a post-migrant society, a field of tension with high energetic density emerges. We are searching for the “third,” for that aesthetic that only emerges when we exchange our fear of losing control for curiosity about the hybrid.
Ambiguity serves as our psychological and sociological compass. It is about broadening our perspective:how much uncertainty can we tolerate before we flee to the supposed security of national or ideological patterns? In art as in politics, the ability to allow contradictions to coexist without forcibly resolving them has become a matter of survival. We examine how collective narratives from the culture of remembrance in Germany to the discourses on mestizaje in México can be deconstructed to make room for a present that is no longer defined by demarcation but by interconnection.
However, our understanding of ambiguity is radically different from arbitrariness and imprecision. The architecture of violence and fascism is always a generalizing, obscuring, and imprecise language that erases nuances and dehumanizes the other. We focus on the opposite: a tender and at the same time precise articulation. For us, this precision is an act of empathy. We embark on a search for a common language that names differences without defining them and embraces differences instead of leveling them. By not ignoring what divides us, but using it as a starting point, we transform differences into qualities, into an invitation to honest encounter and artistic practice.
 
This process is inextricably linked to a critical revision of foreign cultural and educational policy. For us, truly fair cooperation means not only naming structural and economic asymmetries, but actively undermining them through our working methods. We practice a redistribution of definitional power. This means that we leave the classic donor-recipient hierarchy behind and renegotiate project management, budgetary authority, and the final aesthetic decision in a process of shared ownership. We decolonize not only the content presented, but also the infrastructure of cooperation itself. (fair collaboration)
 
We invite our audience and our partners to recognize the “knowledge” we have about each other and our “idea of the world” for what it has always been: a useful but incomplete construct, a subjective interpretation. The focus of our joint research in the coming period will be on the unfinished and the ever-changing. In upcoming productions, residencies, and discourses, we will understand syncretism and ambiguity as a philosophical necessity in order to remain capable of action in a fragmented world.
 

PARTNER ORGANISATION

CIRCUITO LIQUEN

Circuito Liquen is a transdisciplinary platform dedicated to the creation, research, and production of cultural goods in the areas of performing arts, installation, performance, and cultural management. Founded in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 2003, the organization celebrates 23 years of experience in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Germany, among others. Its language uses symbolic translation as the primary means of accessing experience and building democratic alternatives in the face of profound social transformations. It is directed by Mexican-Iranian performance artist and art curator Saeed Pezeshki, together with Miriam Castañeda. In addition to its current link with bridgeworks for ArtLab 2026, it has historically collaborated with institutions such as the Goethe-Institut, the Teatro Colón in Bogotá, the National Center for the Arts in Colombia, the Stockholm Dance Museum, and festivals on five continents. For the ArtLab 2026 project, Circuito Liquen acts as the strategic partner in Mexico, facilitating a space for exchange. 

NETWORK & FUNDERS