They Say I'm Dead
Workshop and Performances
27 & 28 MAY 2026
ZK/U BerlinSiemensstr. 27, 10551, Berlin, Germany
What if those meant to disappear were to reappear? As Freud suggests, those considered educated no longer seem to officially believe that the dead can become visible as spirits or ghosts. Yet They Say I'm Dead understands the ghostly appearance of those who vanished without name not as a supernatural phenomenon, but as the way unresolved violence and memory continue to unsettle the present. Like the Peace Statue Ari—returned to our side after the city's order for her removal—the memories and voices of those sacrificed outside history, and which those who wish her gone have come to fear, will always return like ghosts to disturb the present. Invoking these specters through sound, trace, ritual, and food, this project seeks to capture how structures of power, past and present, have expelled and marginalized certain individuals and histories. And it confirms that what has been concealed remains alive—present, and endlessly at work within our lives. Over two months, as part of the Ari in Transit project, four artists and one curator have followed these invisible presences through performance, sound, food, and research—and on May 27 and 28, they open that process to the public.
Yeni Ma is the curator of this project They Say I'm Dead. Departing from the haunting presences that return through Ari, she has led an ongoing discussion with the artists around Avery Gordon's Ghostly Matters—tracing the ways invisible beings continue to press upon the present.
An event by ZK/U in cooperation with Körber-Stiftung.
