Living Room is a community center in Bern’s Breitenrain neighborhood. The space enables dialogue between artists, activists and community members to create a unique space where connections can be built and unheard stories can be told. Living Room uses community building, art, expression, healing and participation to address current issues around racism and other forms of exclusion. It’s a place for all of us but especially for those of us who may not have access to other spaces. It’s a place where we can feel at home, just like in our living room, a place where we can feel free.
Living Room has an atelier, library and workspace. We sustain multiple projects: Manioca People’s School, Atelier D’Ici, Artists-in-Community, Diaspora University, Living Archiv, and Anticafé.
Friday, February 21 2025 18:00
This film adaptation of a novel by Mykhailo Kocjubynskijs is a classic of (Ukrainian) cinema. Directed by (naturally Ukrainian) Sergei Paradžanov, the film is a Romeo and Juliet story that conveys many elements of Hutsul culture while also developing its own magical-realistic film language.
Saturday, February 22 2025 18:15–20:00
New participatory oral history project – let’s share and collect untold stories about Asian biographies in Switzerland and Europe. No matter if migrant or descendant, everyone is welcome to join us. All languages encouraged. Looking forward to meeting you!
Monday, February 24 2025 19:00–20:00
February 24th, the wedding anniversary of photographer Olga Subotina, marks the beginning of a new life for her family in two respects. The photo exhibition shows all the photos of the family's escape from Kyiv to Bern for the first time and also concludes the current "Turbulence Project" in the Living Room. Vernissage and finissage with performance, music and aperitif.
Wednesday, February 26 2025 19:30–21:00
The LesBiQueer Book Club collective cordially invites all TINFA people and their friends to the monthly meeting in the Living Room. Until then, we will be reading "Muskeln aus Plastik" by Selma Kay Matter.
D'Ici is a digital, multimedia studio in which inputs and interventions are produced by users of the Living Room. Stories, analyses, experiences and visions from a polyphonic Switzerland, a polyphonic Bern are developed.
To these ends, a studio will be set up as laboratory with software and hardware, home studio equipment, cameras and lighting - a multimedia home base for the creative, participatory, anti-racist spirit. In the studio, the group meets regularly with art and culture professionals, activists and researchers to work on current issues. After the research and production, the results, opinions and stories are disseminated via social media (e.g. Youtube, Instagram and Facebook).
EVERY WEDNESDAY FROM 6PM TO 10PM. Other dates sporadically.
The diaspora is a multi-voiced community with a lot of knowledge about Switzerland, about migration and racism, about politics, community and art.
Open on Fridays from 10 am to 3 pm.
Every Friday, the Living Room is open as a work space, social meeting place and to linger, without focusing on consumption.
The Living Room offers an artist-in-community program: In it, local and international BIPOC artists or collectives enter into an honest conversation with the Living Room, with communities and the neighborhood.
Self-organized and liberatory learning and community empowerment. Existing or newly formed groups define for themselves issues they wish to address and meet regularly to gather their knowledge, discuss and, if desired, take public action.
Each meeting can include large and small group discussions, presentation of related theory, art, poetry, theater and music. The goal is for participants to build relationships with each other, develop an awareness of structural oppression in Switzerland, and work through options for collaborative action.
The Living Archive is a place for everyone, a place of learning, unlearning and encounter. A public archive that collects intersectional, decolonial, and power-critical media in various languages, selected and written primarily by Black people and people of color. A place for discussion and self-reflection, in order to bring new perspectives to local resistance. The Living Archive consists of analog and digital media.
Collective Members:
Dragana Draca, Eva de Souza, Izabel Barros, Malana Rogers-Bursen, Mardoché Kabengele, Marianne Naeff, Nicolle Bussien, Rohit Jain, Said Adrus, Timo Righetti, Timothy Perry Bwengye, Youness Bitite