The Fragility and Richness of Being Alone

Loneliness and being alone are often understood as individual emotional states, yet they are deeply embedded in social, economic and cultural conditions. Experiences of isolation are brought by processes such as migration, urbanisation, precarious working conditions and changing forms of belonging. At the same time, being alone can also appear as a consciously chosen place – as a form of retreat or self-empowerment.“The Fragility and Richness of Being Alone” explores this spectrum and understands being alone as a multi-layered phenomenon: the invited speakers offer diverse perspectives on individual experiences as well as on the social, economic and digital structures that produce, enable or limit being alone. At the centre are questions of belonging, intimacy, social inequality, algorithmic governance – and the ambivalent potentials of withdrawal.The evening begins with Xiao Hai, a central figure in Chinese migrant worker poetry. Since the age of 15, he has worked in various major cities on assembly lines, on construction sites, in the catering industry and in delivery services. In a reading and a musical intervention of his own poems, joie de vivre and rebellion grapple with the harsh reality of his working life. Following this, Prof. Xiang Biao, director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, will respond to this artistic exploration in a discussion. As a social anthropologist specialising in migration, mobility, labour and transnationalism, he will then enter a discussion with the journalist and writer Khuê Phạm, the curator and researcher Kamila Naryesha and the publicist, author and cultural studies scholar Sarah Diehl. The event will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

approx. 120 mins.

Next date:

• Date Friday, 29/May/2026 20:00
• Venue HAU Hebbel am Ufer - HAU1
• Address Stresemannstraße 29 A, 10963 Berlin-Kreuzberg