Image and © Jalal Maghout
Days of Exile Schwerin & Festival for Ostracized Music
One of the main focuses of the Days of Exile Schwerin & Festival for Ostracized Music, which will take place for the first time from 8 to 14 November 2025, is to raise awareness of the fates of exiled and once “ostracized” artists and bring them out of anonymity. Concerts, guided tours, readings and discussions at central locations in Schwerin city centre invite visitors to engage in conversation about persecution, flight and exile in the past and present.
An initiative of the Körber Foundation in cooperation with the Mecklenburg State Theatre and the state capital Schwerin.
The events
Our cooperation partners
Mecklenburg State Theatre
The Mecklenburg State Theatre, with its six divisions, is based in Schwerin and Parchim. Each season, productions can be seen at the Großes Haus (currently in the theatre tent due to renovation work), the M*Halle, the Kulturmühle Parchim and at guest performances in the region. In addition to drama and musical theatre, the theatre also includes the Schwerin Ballet, the Low German Fritz Reuter Stage, the Mecklenburg State Orchestra Schwerin and the Young State Theatre Parchim.
State capital Schwerin
The state capital Schwerin is the political centre of the state, home to the state government and the state parliament. It has a rich cultural landscape and an invaluable heritage, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024. In addition to Germany’s third oldest orchestra, unique art collections and institutions established during the era of the Grand Dukes, Schwerin also has a wealth of traditional municipal cultural institutions, including the conservatory, which serves as the municipal music school.
The key visual by the artist Jalal Maghout
The key visual for the programme Days of Exile Schwerin & Festival for Ostracized Music was created by animation filmmaker Jalal Maghout. The Syrian artist began his career in 2010 with Creatures of Inexistence and gained international recognition in 2013 with Canvas on Mixed Media (Annecy, ARTE). After fleeing to Berlin, he created the animated documentary Suleima (DOK Leipzig 2014). In 2020, he presented “Up Here, with the White Gods” at the International Animation Film Festival Stuttgart (ITFS), followed by his multi-award-winning film “Have a Nice Dog!”, which screened at festivals worldwide and earned him the Grand Prix in Uppsala, qualifying him for the 2020 Oscars. In 2025, he received the Exile Visual Arts Award from the Körber Foundation.
Maghout’s work “Topography of the Inner” was created for his film “When I Was a Tree”. It shows a character on an inner journey who transforms between the outer world and emotional experience. Space and self merge into a spiritual landscape full of vulnerability, reflection and quiet tension – a moment of inner change.
Our cultural and media partners
The radio station NDR Kultur and the Schweriner Volkszeitung newspaper are accompanying the cooperation between Days of Exile Schwerin & Festival for Ostracized Music as cultural and media partners.