How should we address the increase in armed aggression and the mounting, disastrous consequences of the climate crisis? How can we tackle these issues at the structural level and across national borders? How can an emancipatory politics center on the struggles of the impoverished, dispossessed, and exploited – that is, those who are most affected by militarism and environmental disasters, yet often neglected by peace and climate movements?

At the BG conference “Pluriverse of Peace” researchers, artists, and activists from over 25 countries sought answers.

View the documentation: audios, videos, photos, and workshop projects. You can also scroll through the program below to access recordings of individual program items.

Concept note

Emancipatory movements in Europe and beyond have either lost momentum or are facing unprecedented repression. Meanwhile, private sector elites (and their political allies) have taken off their white gloves, pursuing profit, power, and prestige in ways that are increasingly barbaric. Given the current situation, in which short-term progress seems more out of reach than ever, it is time to explore the root causes of our dire predicament and what it will take to create a radically better world for everyone. To this end, the BG’s “Pluriverse of Peace” conference focuses on the (im-)possibilities of peace and environmental politics.

“The endless accumulation of capital” (Wallerstein) through market-driven mass production, financialization, etc. has depleted resources and polluted the planet. This has made ecosystems more vulnerable and unstable, which also affects markets and economies. Competition for resources and control of supply chains leads to territorial conflicts. War has become an increasingly common means of defending ‘national economies.’ Meanwhile, the resource-intensive rise of the global war regime creates a disastrous ecological footprint that exacerbates environmental collapse. At this juncture, various forms of environmental warfare are emerging, involving the use of extreme weather, pollution, or terraforming as weapons.

To break this vicious cycle, it is necessary to ask and discuss the deeper questions about the polycrisis and rethink strategies and alliances to articulate our shared desire for liberation and just transition. Tackling the structural dimension, the conference addresses the class interests behind the resurgence of militarism and the increasingly reactionary responses to the climate crisis. For those who would like to explore the topic before the conference, the “Pluriverse of Peace” text series, which has been published on BG | berlinergazette.de since early 2025, provides different viewpoints and initial food for thought.

Keynotes

Date: Thursday, October 16 · 2 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location: ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Christinenstraße 18-19, Haus 8, 10119 Berlin

2:00 p.m.: Welcome speech · Claudia Peppel (ICI Berlin)

2:05 p.m.: Introduction · Magdalena Taube + Krystian Woznicki (BG | berlinergazette.de) · Audio · Video

2:15 p.m.: Performance Lecture · Eco-Wars on Nomads: The Making of ‘Hostile Environments’ in Mongolia · Shuree Sarantuya (media artist, activist, and researcher, Ulaanbaatar/Cologne) · Audio · Video

2:45 p.m.: Talk · Elemental Warfare: How Russia Weaponizes Environmental Destruction in Ukraine · Svitlana Matviyenko (media theorist and activist, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) · Audio · Video

3:15 p.m.: Wrapping up

3:30 p.m.: Coffee Break

4:00 p.m.: Talk · What Are War and the Environmental Crisis to Capitalism? · Debora Darabi (physician and political educator, Charité-University Hospital Berlin) · Audio · Video

4:30 p.m.: Talk · ‘ReArmEurope’: Saving Capitalism, Abandoning Life · Enikő Vincze (social theorist and activist, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca) · Audio · Video

5:00 p.m.: Wrapping up

5:15 p.m.: Coffee Break

5:45 p.m.: Talk · Beyond Collaps: Rethinking Emancipatory Politics in the Age of Global War and Climate Crisis · Raúl Sánchez Cedillo (philosopher and activist, Fundación de los Comunes/Universidad Nómada, Madrid) · Audio · Video

6:15 p.m.: Talk · Proliferating Transitions: New Beginnings at the End of the World As We Know It · Sandro Mezzadra (political theorist, Università di Bologna) · Audio · Video

6:45 p.m.: Wrapping up

7:00 p.m.: Reception

Conditions of War, Fairytale About Love, fixDisputedCities, Total Metrics, Factory of the Map, Minimum Wage May Be Denied

Multimedia Intervention: eeefff · Audio · Video

Date: Friday, October 17 · 7 p.m.
Location: ZK/U, Siemensstraße 27, 10551 Berlin

This intervention by the artist collective eeefff explored how war, ecological collapse, and colonial infrastructures infiltrate daily life through invisibilized systems.

Cyberwarfare, digital mapping, algorithmic assistants, and coded instructions quietly reshape reality, embedding militarization into homes, bodies, and imaginations. Extractivist fairytales, productivity regimes, and even hidden comments in code reveal how violence becomes normalized and stabilized at the infrastructural level.

Moving images based on recently leaked Yandex code – a window into the extractivist machinery of geographies and intimacies – trace how Russia’s colonialism is extending through algorithmic systems and technological platforms. Sound, projection, and embodied action reveal how digital architectures reproduce the logic of control, territorial domination, and resource extraction, creating digital fascism, which fuses imperial violence with technological standardization.

Make Love, Not War

Planeta Lounge: Pepe Dayaw · Audio

Date: Saturday, October 18 · 7 p.m.
Location: ZK/U, Siemensstraße 27, 10551 Berlin

Step into inner space, where people can explore and reflect on their feelings. The wars and environmental crises happening outside our walls also happen inside, manifesting as grief, anguish, and fear – emotions that often foster isolation and a sense of disconnection.

Pepe Dayaw performed an original ambient ‘live set,’ inviting participants to rest and ponder their connection to human and other-than-human life on this planet. They blended musical styles, spoken words, and live and recorded sounds, including local colors, exotic motors, and nomadic journeys. Here, for a brief moment, we can listen and move within the spaces between us.

24 Hour Hackathon

The “Pluriverse of Peace” conference offered five workshops, each with a 24-hour program: “General Will: Designing a campaign based on data from the Peoples Climate Vote”, “Defunding Life? Mapping anti-austerity struggles in relation to environmental and anti-war movements”, “Endless War on Earth? Developing a multi-level strategy toolkit for short, medium and long-term action”, “Mining is War: Mapping movements in the Balkans against extractivism as warfare”, “World Game: Designing a game for (potential) activists to explore commonalities and bridge differences”.

These workshops brought together scholars, activists, and cultural workers from over 25 countries to explore the common ground between climate justice and peace movements. Now check out the resulting “Pluriverse of Peace” workshop projects.

The “Pluriverse of Peace” conference was organized by BG | berlinergazette.de and funded by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education/bpb and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

The event was a cooperation with ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Satellit, and ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics. Outreach partners are Ambasada, Dietz Berlin, Harun Farocki Institut, Hopscotch Reading Room, Kuda.org, Supermarkt, UnAuf, and Undisciplined Environments.

This website features texts and photos by BG, artworks by Colnate Group, and eeefff. License: CC by NC 4.0. For imprint and privacy policy see below.

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