Portraying War: A Reading with Ronya Othmann and Ela Pour
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| 5 EUR / reduced 3 EUR |
| Hall 5 in BERLIN GLOBAL, 1st floor |
| Doors open: 18:00 |
| 16 years and older |
| German |
| Belongs to: Dara Tûyê – درخت توت – The Mulberry Tree, BERLIN GLOBAL |
How can we speak about war – with images, with words? And how can experiences of violence and loss be conveyed?
The reading at BERLIN GLOBAL accompanies the Open Space exhibition “Dara Tûyê – درخت توت – The Mulberry Tree”, which brings together feminist voices on war and gardens and highlights solidarity networks among women reaching across geographical and political borders. The exhibition presents gardens as places of remembrance, healing and empowerment – but also of resistance against oppression and violence.
Against this backdrop, two artistic voices meet:
Ronya Othmann reads from her texts “Seventy‑Four” and “Return to Syria”, in which she writes about the war in Syria and the genocide of the Êzidî people. She traces the marks these events leave on people and landscapes. Her literature weaves together personal memories and political realities, opening direct and compelling insights.
Ela Pour brings a lyrical and visual perspective. In her autobiographical book project, created together with other tattoo artists, she explores the images that experiences of war and resistance evoke, and how these can be expressed artistically. Her work shows art as a form of affirmation and healing, making stories visible in new ways.
Boussa Thiam moderates the evening and invites both artists to reflect together on how war can be narrated – through literature and imagery.
Info: The event is held in German.
Participants
Ronya Othmann, born in Munich in 1993 to a German mother and a Kurdish‑Êzidi father, writes poetry, prose and essays, and works as a journalist. Her writing has received numerous awards, including the Open Mike Poetry Prize, the MDR Literature Prize and the Caroline Schlegel Prize for Essay Writing. For “The Summers”, her debut novel, she was awarded the Mara Cassens Prize in 2020; for her poetry collection “die verbrechen” (2021), she received the Orphil Debut Prize, the Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry (Förderpreis), and the Horst Bingel Prize in 2022. “Seventy‑Four”, her second novel, was nominated for the German Book Prize and honoured with the Düsseldorf Literature Prize, the SWR Best List Prize 2024, and the Erich Loest Prize 2025.
Ela Pour was born in Tehran in 1975. She spent her early years in England before returning to Iran. In 1989, war brought her to Germany, where she soon continued to pursue her passion for art and music, making them central forms of expression in her life. She studied costume and stage design at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art, graduating with a diploma. Her work as an artist and tattooist moves between memory and the present. Personal experiences are distilled into poetic images that reveal both vulnerability and resilience.
Boussa Thiam is a cultural journalist, presenter and voice-over artist. She presents the cultural programming on WDR COSMO and the pop‑culture magazine “Kompressor” for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Until 2021, she appeared on camera as a reporter for the “rbb Abendshow” and for several years headed the socio‑political discussion format “Urania Kontrovers”. As the host of the podcast “Gamechanger – How Digital Transformation is Changing Culture” (German Federal Cultural Foundation), she explores future‑oriented topics in the cultural sector.
Boussa Thiam regularly moderates events, including the Human Rights Night, women’s policy conferences such as the UN Women Conference, as well as the Entrepreneurs’ Day for Women in Business.
