Care or Chaos?
Fri, 3 October – Sun, 5 October 2025
The annual programme Family Matters kicks off at the beginning of October with an exciting opening programme.
For three days, care, closeness, and family relationships take centre stage. Small gestures – big impact: Artistic interventions, performances, readings, and talks explore new ways of thinking about family – whether through a self-care workshop (In the Dreamhouse), dance-based interventions in the permanent exhibition, a cake buffet lavishly decorated with edible flowers, or African Street Games for the whole family.
Joining us are musician and author Christiane Rösinger, the Resident Music Collective, feminist writer Sophie Lewis, the film Im Prinzip Familie by director Daniel Abma, and many more.
In the workshop spaces, drop-ins invite visitors to participate, build personal treasure boxes, and explore hands-on. The picture book cinema brings touching stories to the screen – read aloud by familiar voices, accompanied by live music.
Two further theme days are planned for 2026, focusing on family secrets and alternative forms of cohabitation.
We all do care work – whether for others or ourselves. This day is about recognising and honouring that. Between readings and African Street Games in the large foyer, and the Floristaurant, an opulent cake buffet full of flowers, fruits, and fragrances, spaces of attentiveness emerge – for small gestures with a big impact.
The immersive installation In the Dream House by Anguezomo Bikoro offers moments of rest and reflection for those who are usually the ones giving – through short workshops and creative care offers. The installation is also open for quiet exploration throughout the day.
In the Ethnological Museum (2nd floor), Kristy Nataraja presents the dance performance Transpersonal – Beyond the Self on questions of gender and belonging: “How are we shaped, what do we carry forward, what do we change?” At the end, there will be time for questions and discussion with the performer.
The feminist author Sophie Lewis puts her theses on the future of care work and new concepts of kinship up for discussion and is joined by Logan February, who is currently Poet in Residence in the Humboldt Forum.
“In the beginning there was fire, then came the bourgeois family”, observes Christiane Rösinger. Together with her band, the Berlin-based musician, author, and keen chronicler of everyday life brings stories to the stage for all those who live family, love, community, and intimacy in their own way – and shows: here, no one has to be anything, but everyone can be everything!
On the second day, the perspective broadens: Who takes on care work in our society today – beyond the framework of the traditional family? How does the care system function in Germany? What do caregivers and those who depend on support need? And what might care look like in the future?
We start the day with the film Im Prinzip Familie. Between parental love, bureaucracy, and the youth welfare office, three educators give everything to create a home for children. Conversations and artistic contributions then turn to current developments in care, intergenerational contracts, and social transformation.
Three panel discussions offer the chance to explore care from different societal perspectives: those directly involved in youth welfare ask, “Who is actually helping whom?” This is followed by a debate on how care in old age can be reimagined, particularly within a migration society. Finally, Sophie Lewis and Ge Wang explore new paths beyond the nuclear family: here, calls for the “abolition of the family” as a critique of capitalism encounter Daoist and Buddhist approaches.
In the afternoon, visitors can experience powerful dance performances in the Ethnological Museum (2nd floor) with animation dancer Kristy Nataraja, as well as the participatory dance tour Dancing Generations with movement artist Yuko Matsuyama in the Asian Collections (3rd floor).
The Resident Music Collective, featuring 15 Berlin-based musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds, presents their new program Sonic Affinities.
To close the day, Christiane Rösinger returns to the stage with her humorous concert reading: “In the beginning there was fire, then came the bourgeois family” – for everyone who experiences family, love, community and closeness in their own unique way.
On Sunday, it’s all about the next generation: children, families, and everyone who lives, learns, and dreams with them.
Deutschlandfunk will be bringing its popular children’s podcast Kakadu live to the Humboldt Forum. In the Picture Book Cinema, books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Edith Schreiber-Wicke, Carola Holland, Satomi Ichikawa and others will be read. And in the workshops, the drop-in workshop Treasure box invites visitors to join in, create and discover – across generations, open and inclusive.
To conclude the weekend, the Resident Music Collective returns once more with a light-hearted, musical finale full of family stories from around the world – for audiences young and old.