Theater installation: 50’, 2015 

Text/ Director: Adnan Softić
With: Sachiko Hara, Arijana Suljić, Adnan Softić,
Ilhana Verem
Video: Nina Softić
Sound work: Nika Breithaupt
Archive material: Marily Stroux
Trainee: Julius Segeler, Edis Sipal, Elisa Beyer,
Saskia Santen
Supported by: Kulturbehörde Hamburg, Krassfestival, Kampnagel Hamburg

''Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” - Chinua Achebe 

Refugees on the water. That’s a motif which became representative for an image of the borders of Europe. The uncrossable national borders, which were crossing Europe just two decades ago and became a symbol for the state tyranny, didn’t disappear but migrated to the less visible external borders of Europe. They wandered into the sea.

Another, less known image of refugees on the water are the so called refugee ships: mobile housing units that can be easily used when required, dismantled without leaving a trace or easily relocated. In the 90’s there were several refugee ships in Hamburg. In 2015, exterritorial spaces are still a preferred solution for housing refugees.


Artist Adnan Softić, who lived on such an accommodation ship, creates along with found footage, while collaborating with other contemporary witnesses, a theatre installation, which examines the motif of refugees on the water and their search for solid ground.

In intense communication with with the then inhabitants of the Bibby Challenge, as well as with a Roma girl currently threatened with deportation, Softić conceives multimedia scenic forms of expression that range from film, photography, testimonies and acting to biographical narratives. The result is a poetic collection of documents, bridging in an emotional and factual way between then and now, offering a very special view into a piece of Hamburgs history.