Bridging the Gaps, Connecting the Dots: Deconfining’s Final Conference in Chemnitz
Deconfining project has fostered artistic residencies, co-productions, and critical dialogue, all while navigating an increasingly complex global landscape shaped by mobility restrictions, geopolitical tensions, and structural inequalities. The conference in Chemnitz offered a vital moment to reflect, exchange, and move forward.
After four years of artistic collaboration, research and exchange between Africa and Europe, the Deconfining project reached its final chapter at the Hartmannfabrik in Chemnitz, Germany, as part of Theater der Welt 2026 on 26–27 June 2026. The conference brought together artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, policymakers and project partners to reflect on four years of work exploring how cultural cooperation between Africa and Europe could become more equitable, sustainable and genuinely collaborative. Since its launch, Deconfining connected artists and cultural organisations across continents through artistic residencies, co-productions, research and dialogue. The project examined not only the possibilities created through international cultural cooperation, but also the structural barriers that can make such cooperation difficult.
The final conference provided an opportunity to reflect on what had been developed throughout the project and, importantly, to consider what could come next. Although the project formally came to an end, the relationships developed between artists, organisations and cultural practitioners across Africa and Europe continued to provide a foundation for future collaboration. The research, tools and artistic practices developed through Deconfining also offered resources that could continue to circulate and inspire new conversations. “Bridging the Gaps. Connecting the Dots.” was therefore not simply a conclusion. It was an opportunity to reflect on what had been built together — and to consider where those connections could lead next.