House of Hopes

It's October 7, 1989: The 40th anniversary of the GDR is celebrated with a military parade on Karl-Marx-Allee. Meanwhile, representatives of all the theatres in East Berlin are gathering at the side foyer of the Volksbühne. A month later, this gathering has grown into one of the largest demonstrations in the history of Germany, bringing together almost one million people. Hopes for more participation and economic independence are certainly not only palpable in Berlin at the end of the 1980s. The last Soviet troops are pulling out of Afghanistan. In China, tens of thousands of students are taking to the streets. In Namibia, the country's first free elections are being held. And in South Korea, the process of coming to terms with 26 years of military dictatorship has just begun. Across the globe, there is a new sense of hope that majorities could have the power to make their governments see reason. 'House of Hopes' invites audiences on a tour in search of this pioneering spirit, a tour which starts in the box-office foyer and leads via staircases and foyers through the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz bringing us into present days. The building's architecture is the setting for ten autobiographical accounts from countries across the globe. These stories are full of hope, telling of the Esperanza during the campaign against the Pinochet dictatorship, the Speranță for freedom following the execution of the Ceaușescus, recalling the Nadzieja of the trade union movement in Poland, and expressing Omid for a less cruel Iranian state after the death of Khamenei. 'House of Hopes' extends the lines of watershed moments in 1989 forward into the present – into a time when the unifying power of hope is both in high demand and up for debate: Should we wait and see while we hope, or should we make things happen?