Stories and Hopes of the Arrivals to Rhine-Main Archipelago

Leseraum feat. X3: Claiming spaces. Permission (not) needed

The X3 PopUpLab creates a temporary space for PostOst perspectives, exchange, and collective learning. The reading room, storytelling lab, and fishbowl discussion bring together decolonial knowledge, personal experiences, and questions about participation, social design, and living together.

The one-day X3 PopUpLab consists of four parts:

Starting at 10:00, the reading room opens as a curated temporary library featuring publications from and about PostOst, as well as on decolonial theories, literature, and activism. The space invites visitors to read, browse, and exchange ideas throughout the day.

From 12:00 to 14:00, the reading room comes alive with the storytelling lab “Voices from the Middle of Nowhere.” Together, we’ll share experiences with government agencies and public institutions, highlight barriers, and discuss (in)visibility, discrimination, participation, and spaces in the Rhine-Main region from PostOst perspectives. The focus is on everyday encounters with institutions, which are shared in nonviolent storytelling spaces and become a starting point for exchange and collective learning.

From 14:00 to 15:00, the Reading Room Book Browsing session invites you to reflect on what you’ve read, discover new and old publications, and deepen conversations.

At 15:00, the X3 LIVE PODCAST “Spaces, Social Design, and a Better Life” will follow. In an open “fishbowl” format, we will discuss democratic participation, social design, and the visibility of Post-Eastern perspectives in cultural-political discourses in the Rhine-Main region. Together with Dr. Alina Jašina-Schäfer (cultural anthropologist), Barbara Lersch (World Design Capital Frankfurt RheinMain 2026), and a member of the audience, we’ll ask: How are spaces designed? Who shapes them? And how can forms of coexistence based on solidarity emerge? Hosted by Ani Menua and Julia Boxler (Artistic Researchers, X3 PostOst Agency gUG).

From 17:00 to 18:00, the reading room will open one last time for browsing and reflection, inviting everyone to wind down the day together.

Anyone interested in the topic of PostOst and wishing to learn more about post-socialist migration contexts and history is warmly invited.

Admission is free, and the event will be held in German.

The X3 Kollektiv & X3 PostOst Agency gUG create spaces for critical post-migrant discourse through podcasts, talks, residencies, cultural consulting & mediation, focusing on the PostOst context.

X3 challenges dominant narratives, amplifies marginalized perspectives, and builds strategies for collective action. Over six years, it has developed a strong transdisciplinary network and helped establish PostOst perspectives in media, academia, and cultural institutions.