Fiesta de Día de Muertos

The Mexican Festival of the Dead is a colourful folk festival where, according to ancient Mexican beliefs, the living and the dead meet again to celebrate with each other – with music, dance and delicious food.

The ofrenda, a colourfully decorated altar with photos and gifts for the deceased, serves as a central place of remembrance and at the same time as an invitation to the dead to attend the festival. Family, friends, acquaintances and like-minded people meet there. It becomes a symbol of common remembrance. Next to the Ofrenda, skeletons made of papier-mâché, skulls made of sugar, the orange-coloured death flower Cempazuchil, sweet bread for the dead, colourful garlands and freshly painted gravestones announce the great event.

The festival at the Humboldt Forum focuses on the connection between death and life. It builds a bridge between this world and the hereafter, combines mourning and joy, individual remembrance and socially critical messages.

On the occasion of the exhibition in_finite. Living with Death, the Mexican Festival of the Dead will be celebrated at the Humboldt Forum. Together with the association Calaca e.V., which is the artistic director of the festival, we invite the dead and the living to the Humboldt Forum.

Calaca e. V. sees itself as an interdisciplinary meeting place for intercultural exchange and encounter in Berlin, integrating members of all ages. This is reflected in its board, which is made up of women with different backgrounds, histories and professions. Through a process of knowledge transfer and transformation “Passing on the Fire” in 2023, a new board was formed. The three young women from the fields of anthropology (Florence Rojas Keyser), theatre (Josefina Valdovinos) and art (Celia Ibáñez Lamuño) want to continue the work of the association that started in 1995, whose aim is to share, disseminate and put into practice as a collective our values of solidarity, justice and respect for diversity in Berlin from a Latin American perspective. The implementation of the Mexican Festival of the Dead in Berlin has been the central concern of the association since its foundation.

Calaca e. V. se concibe a sí misma como un espacio interdisciplinar abierto al intercambio y el encuentro intercultural en Berlín que integra a miembros de todas edades. Ello se refleja en su junta directiva, compuesta por mujeres, con diferentes orígenes, historias y profesiones. A través de un proceso de traspaso de conocimiento y transformación „La entrega del fuego“ en el año 2023, se ha conformado una nueva junta directiva. Desde la antropología (Florence Rojas Keyser), el teatro (Josefina Valdovinos) y el arte (Celia Ibáñez Lamuño) estas tres jóvenes se propusieron continuar la tarea que la asociación inició en 1995 cuyo objetivo como colectivo es compartir, difundir y poner en práctica nuestros valores de solidaridad, justicia y respeto a la diversidad en Berlín desde una perspectiva latinoamericana. La realización de la fiesta de Día de los Muertos en Berlin ha sido un objetivo central desde la fundación de la asociación.

Celia Ibáñez Lamuño, Florence Rojas Keyser

Celia Ibáñez Lamuño, Jorge Baldeón, Mauricio Vivas

Ilona Maennchen, Birgit Ginkel und das Team der Blumenwerkstatt, Maite Lamuño, Petra Guercke, Patricia Martínez, Irma Sandoval, Ángeles Llorca, Malena Meneses Gelpi, Elise und Amada Toimil

Bertram Hanssum, Ruben Nitsche, Jonnathan González, Victoria Schwenzer, Anett Szabó, Caroline Behr, Björn Bergek, and many more