SHE SHE POP / SANDBOX COLLECTIVE Wait to be Seated

In the organizer's words:

In WAIT TO BE SEATED, two feminist collectives from Bangalore and Berlin come together to examine the laws of hospitality. The diplomatic protocol - its embarrassing observance as well as deliberate transgression - serves as a template for an exchange in which we become each other's host or guest and thus a challenge, a promise, a burden.

"Atithi Devobhava" means "The guest is like a god" and is often said in India. "The door is open, dear guest, come in" is a famous phrase in Karnataka. We can't think of a similarly inviting saying in German. Beyond such grand gestures, there is a tightly woven web of rules and codes, especially in diplomatic and transnational contexts, in which hosts and guests can easily get tangled up. These rules are not written down comprehensively anywhere, they are contradictory and change depending on the person, place, time and context. And yet: a good hostess will never break any of them! Who do these unwritten laws protect and from what? What remains when we leave formality behind? What if gender, race and colonial history are also at the table? What are we allowed to ask of each other - and how do we say no?

WAIT TO BE SEATED creates a course of hospitality with a dining table, red carpet and dance floor in a remote nowhere. As two groups, we approach each other from opposite sides, carefully but relentlessly, meet in the middle and open up a new horizon.

The premiere will take place in Bangalore in December 2025 and will be followed by a tour in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands in spring 2026.