by Eve Rogers // Dec. 9, 2025
Maryam Palizban is a performer, scholar and cultural activist whose work moves seamlessly between art, research and political engagement. Born in Tehran and based in Berlin, she draws on the lived realities of exile and her deep study of ritual, performance and Shi’a traditions to explore how memory, the body and collective action intersect. Time and again, her work returns to the body as a site where resistance registers, where stories of survival and loss are embodied and where the first gestures of liberation emerge. For ‘3 Days to Liberation II,’ which she conceived and curates alongside an international circle of collaborators, she expands this exploration into a space that invites audiences to witness, reflect and ask: What does liberation mean when it is still in motion? How does it feel to carry freedom as a practice rather than a condition?
Returning to Volksbühne from December 12th to 14th, the festival builds on its first edition while shifting focus toward shared responsibility, collective memory and ongoing acts of resistance. Against a backdrop of state violence, repression and the continued echoes of Iran’s recent uprisings, the program brings together theater, dance, film, experimental sound and critical discussion to trace the currents of dissent, testimony and remembrance. The festival asks how resistance is staged, how political urgency becomes physical and how art can create spaces for collective imagination and action. Palizban approaches the project with the clarity and perspective of a member of the diaspora while remaining deeply tethered to her homeland, attentive to the ruptures of the present and the possibilities they unveil.
Maryam Palizban, portrait // Photo by Eleni Kougionis
Eve Rogers: You’ve worked for years at the intersection of performance, theory and political activism. How does ‘3 Days to Liberation’ build on your own artistic and intellectual journey?
Maryam Palizban: ‘3 Days to Liberation’ is the logical culmination of my work to date. My entire practice—whether in performance, theory or political activism—revolves around the intersection of body, power and resistance. This festival allows me to bring these three pillars together. It is not a simple curatorial job but a practical application of my theory. We investigate how art not only provides political commentary but can itself be a vehicle for liberation. The festival builds on the realization that the stage is a political space and deepens this idea by bringing together artists who live this practice.
Sepehr Atefi: ‘Women Who Said No | A Documentary Tribute to the Bahá’í Women Executed in 1983,’ film still // Courtesy of the artist
ER: Your personal experience of exile often informs your work. How did this vantage point shape the way you approached your role in the festival?
MP: My experience of exile has fundamentally shaped my perspective. Exile is not merely a state of absence but also a state of constant transformation and survival. This viewpoint led me, in my role, to conceive of the festival not just as a presentation of art but as a place of encounter and mutual empowerment—a temporary “diasporic home.” My goal was to make voices visible that are often marginalized and to represent the complexity of the “in-between,” the diaspora. This position of being between worlds allows for a unique critical distance that was essential for selecting the program items.
ER: The Iranian protest movement, particularly the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ uprising, remains a central reference in your thinking. How is this spirit reflected in the program?
MP: The ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement is not just a reference; it is the artistic and ethical compass of this festival. The program reflects this spirit through its fundamental interdisciplinarity. The movement has taught us that liberation must be inclusive, intersectional and profoundly bodily. We see this in the emphasis on voices that question patriarchal and authoritarian structures, and in the celebration of the subversive power of presence—whether in movement, film or discourse. The invited works trace the transition from immediate witnessing to the ongoing labor of memory. The festival merges theory, performance, film and activism into a holistic strategy of resistance.
Somayeh Rostampour and Fatemeh Karimi, book covers
ER: You often speak about the body as a site of resistance. How does the festival address or embody the politics of the body on stage?
MP: I see the body as the primary battlefield and simultaneously the ultimate archive of survival. This is a global reality: states and power structures everywhere attempt to control the body, whether through censorship, displacement or the extreme violence of execution and genocide. In the festival, we address this politics of the body as an act of reclamation and presence. We show that the body is not just a victim of these systems but a site of refusal. By bringing these bodies into the light—in film, on panels or in performance—we resist the bureaucratic and political attempts to erase them, making their physical truth undeniable against the mechanisms of power.
Farahnaz Sharifi: ‘My Stolen Planet,’ film still // Courtesy of the artist
ER: How do you see artistic expression shaping and sustaining movements of resistance?
MP: Artistic expression is an existential necessity for resistance, not a mere ornament. Its power begins by functioning as a counter-archive, preserving the stories, faces and affective truth of the struggle against authoritarian erasure and thereby actively constituting a memory of resistance. Art bypasses the rational structures of political language, entering a realm of shared feeling to enable the construction of collective resonance and the shared presence required to resist the normalization of violence. Crucially, the artistic act projects the lexical and aesthetic force of transformational imagination, providing the creative language necessary to translate the collective gesture of liberation into reality.
Constanza Macras/Dorky Park with Maryam Palizban: ‘ELECTRODOMESTICS,’ performance // Photo by Manuel Osterholt
ER: What do you hope audiences, especially those who may not be familiar with Iranian or diasporic contexts, take away from these three days?
MP: I hope the audience experiences these three days as a collective, temporary gesture, as a three-day performance. We have brought together voices, practices and stories that have connected across time and space to think, speak, feel and dream collectively about liberation. It is crucial that the audience recognizes that what is negotiated here is not a purely local concern but a transnational endeavor. We hope they leave with the understanding that liberation is an action that restarts in every breath, in every encounter, and that this breathing knowledge we share leads us into the responsibility of using our own imagination as a tool of resistance.
Festival Info
Volksbühne
‘3 Days to Liberation II: Between Oppression and Survival’
Festival: Dec. 12–14, 2025
volksbuehne.berlin
Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin, click here for map
