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.
Wednesday, April 30 2025 19:30–21:00
The collective of the LesBiQueer Book Club cordially invites all TINFA people and their friends to the monthly meeting in the Living Room.
Friday, May 2 2025 10:00–15:00
The Living Room opens its doors every Friday to be used as a workspace, social meeting point and place to relax. There will be drinks, food, WLAN and much more - just come by!
Sunday, May 4 2025 16:00–20:00
The current Artist in Community, Firas Shamsan, invites you to join us for a unique cultural and artistic evening celebrating the traditional Qanbus instrument. The guest of honor for this event is the esteemed artist Mokrani Samir, who has dedicated his efforts to preserving this rich cultural heritage.
Wednesday, May 7 2025 18:00–20:00
The Living Room collective cordially invites all interested parties to get to know the new premises at Sulgenrain 23 and all future co-tenants and to exchange information about the planned use from July 2025.
Thursday, May 8 2025 19:00–22:00
A podium discussion with three anthropologists from Brazil, India and Paraguay, hosted by Payal Parakh. The panel will explore the impact of development on marginalised actors, communities and wildlife. How are communities resisting and developing alternatives? With Jyothy Karat, Facundo Rivarola, Larissa da Silva Araujo.
Friday, May 9 2025 10:00–15:00
For the last time, the Living Room at Moserstrasse is opening its doors to be used as a workspace, social meeting point and place to relax. There will be drinks, food, WiFi and much more – come along!
Saturday, May 10 2025 16:00–23:00
The Living Room collective invites for a last time at Moserstrasse where the idea of a public and postcolonial living room took shape over the last four years. Let’s celebrate the first chapter of Living Room’s history together in the spirit of the many encounters, discussions and creations that this place made possible. Program details will follow.
Monday, May 19 2025 18:30–20:30
Attention: Place to be confirmed!
Let’s meet again for our participatory oral history project in the making: Monthlywise, we want to share and collect untold stories about Asian biographies in Switzerland and Europe. Everyone with any links to this, is welcome to collaborate - as well as all languages are -, no matter if descendant or migrated. Looking forward to getting to know you!
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