About
The House of World Cultures is dedicated to the search for strategies for a better coexistence in and with this world. It is a house where cultures of hospitality and conviviality are cultivated, nurtured, and passed on. It is a physical and emotional space that gives everyone the opportunity to breathe at their own pace—to breathe and to let breathe. A house where respect for all living and non-living beings is central and shapes our understanding of cultures. In its name, the HKW emphasizes the concept of "world." This understanding of world encompasses a multitude of cultures, systems of knowledge, sociopolitics, spiritualities, and ways of being. Such a plurality of "worlds" is reflected in a perspective that appreciates how mutable and process-oriented the worlds are that we have shaped in the past and continue to shape. "World" is not a noun, but a verb: to create worlds, to de-world, to re-world. Berlin offers a home to citizens from all over the world and from 170 nations. These people and their communities are fundamental to the HKW's direction – not only as thematic focus and audience, but also as fellow travelers and co-creators of the program. It is based on migrant-centric forms of knowledge and the sheer abundance of stories and lived realities that constitute our worlds today. The task before us is to make the HKW a house of diversity and encounters. Cultures are lived and experienced here, not presented as "other" or merely exhibited. In times when a wide variety of human-perpetrated injustices are testing and questioning, if not negating, humanity worldwide, the HKW embraces the emancipatory maxim of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804): Tout Moun Se Moun . It describes the spirit in which we want to work. It states that every human being is a human being, that we are all equal before the law, and that no human life is more important than another. Tout Moun Se Moun also encompasses respect for the worlds of animals, plants, fungi, and single- and multicellular organisms, as well as non-living species, which equally have a right to their spaces and to coexistence in our world. At the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), there is no room for hate speech or violence of any kind. There is no room for ableism, ageism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, queerphobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, and the like. The HKW strives to be a place where love, respect, and generosity are practiced daily.
