The Border Crossed Us | World refugee day
What if we could dream beyond borders, beyond displacement, beyond extraction?
Price includes workshop and community dinner
A powerful one-day experience of collective imagination, embodied storytelling, and radical futurism led by displaced communities.
Image by: Dylann Hendricks
As part of Refugee Welcome Week, The Border Crossed Us brings together immersive installations, movement workshops, performances, film, poetry and shared meals to ask: What kinds of futures can we build when we center care, community and resistance?
Program:
15:00 – 21:00
Visual Storytelling Installation, feat. Humanity On the Move
Explore speculative visions of climate displacement, war, and societal change through projected imagery, sound, and curated artworks.
16:00–18:00
Future‑Dreaming from the Global South: A Workshop
Extraction Economies & Climate Refuge: Future‑Dreaming from the Global South with Chautuileo Tranamil. A participatory session of movement, sound, and collective storytelling to dream just, caring future.
18:00–19:00
Community Dinner
Gather around a shared meal of authentic vegetarian Syrian dishes, lovingly prepared by Zina’s Kitchen. This shared meal offers a moment to connect, reflect, and nourish both body and spirit.
19:00–19:20
Performance: The Price of Bricks
A body‑based performance by Ahmad Mallah & Rebecca Lillich // Krüger.
This program is part of the Radical Imagination & Future-Building pathway to practice Radical Hope. Explore the full Refugee Welcome Week 2025 program and discover events happening across the Netherlands centering Radical Hope here.
Part of this program
Humanity on the Move Project
Climate change is becoming an increasingly urgent driver of displacement and migration. Humanity on the Move explores the impact of climate change on the liveability of our world and the possibilities of space and movement by presenting three scenarios that investigate different narratives of climate mobility. Lena Knappers and Bram van Ooijen lead this research into the future of climate-induced migration, offering speculative insights and visual storytelling rooted in urgency and imagination. This research will be featured as part of the immersive visual installation, inviting visitors to engage with speculative futures shaped by climate-induced migration.
No Critical Raw Materials without Critical Thinking
with Chautuileo Tranamil
If there will be another world to come, what do we want to bring along? In this session indigenous scholar and advocate Chautuileo Tranamil will lead us in exploring the power of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in relation to global resources exploitation. What is the impact of current narratives for climate change solutions on Indigenous Peoples and local communities from the Global South and how far are their knowledges recognized? We’ll explore how Indigenous cosmovisions integrate historical injustices and offer powerful principles for navigating today’s challenges—and envisioning tomorrow’s world.
The session includes the Interactive ritual The Power of Reciprocity. We invite you into a participatory ritual where we explore Indigenous principles through dialogue, reflection, and small acts of reciprocity. Together, we’ll co-create a space of mutual understanding and gratitude. This ritual guides us in integration the principle of reciprocity in our critical thinking.
Ahmad Mallah & Rebecca Lillich // Krüger
Ahmad Mallah & Rebecca Lillich // Krüger are an Amsterdam based performance duo utilizing singular objects through multiple mediums. Intersecting the personal and political, the duo performs open symbols to generate reflection, introspection and connection.
The Price of Bricks (2024) is a ritual performance; singular bricks are used to create a philosophical echo of borders, (dis)trust and risk. The work invites the audience to reflect on the agency and complexities of safety, how in building walls we limit ourselves while we all look up to the same sky. The performance debuted at Big Art 2024 and has been shown at Unfair (Amsterdam NL,) No Limits! Art Castle/Sexyland World (Amsterdam NL) and Kunstlinie (Almere NL) before traveling this year to Sismograf Festival (Olot, ES), Danzahara Festival (Zahara de los Atunes, ES) NDSM Fuse (Amsterdam NL,) Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam NL) and Oerol Festival (Terschelling NL.)
Performance + concept: Ahmad Mallah + Rebecca Lillich/Krüger
Sound: Lewis Daniel Knight
Costumes: Rebecca Lillich/Krüger
Community Dinner
Zina’s Kitchen brings the rich flavors and stories of the Syrian kitchen to the Netherlands. Founded by Zina Abboud, who grew up in Aleppo surrounded by the scents of spices from her father’s trade, cooking has always been a way to feel at home, even in times of upheaval. Her cookbook Mijn Syrische Keuken (My Syrian Kitchen) and her spice line celebrate the richness of Syrian cuisine. Through her latest initiative Roots, she creates opportunities for newcomers to co-create a future in the hospitality world.
