Spirits and demons enjoy maximal freedom of movement. They do not need residence permits; they are not stopped by passport controls. The barrier that prevents a ghost from crossing the borders between different countries – or times – has yet to be built. In the realm of the supernatural, globalization is the norm. So it seems worthwhile to take a closer look at all those beings that have travelled wide and come to us from other traditions. Like the Yōkai. The word is a catch-all term for all kinds of creatures and figures who have their origins in Chinese and Japanese mythology. They are often translated as “demons” or “supernatural spirits“, but that does not capture the essence. So let us call them by their proper name: Yōkai. And let’s try to get to know them a little better. Because like jinn, monsters and zombies, the Yōkai have been among us for a long time. In video games, mangas, animes and horror flicks. Anyone who remembers the No-Face from Chihiro’s Journey to the Magic Land or the scurrying soot sprites has already encountered creatures that are deeply rooted in the yōkai cosmos. Cute or terrifying, they are fluid in their form and endowed with special powers building a republic, in which the natural and the supernatural come together in ways that invites us to fundamentally rethink this distinction.

The event will take place in English.

Dr. Fabian Bernhardt is a philosopher and author. He is a research associate at the Collaborative Research Centre Affective Societies at Freie Universität Berlin, a regular contributor to Philosophie Magazin and other journals, and a founding member of the Affect and Colonialism Web Lab. His research focuses on how societies deal with painful pasts, as well as questions of guilt, injustice, and violence. Following a 2014 monograph on the concept of forgiveness, his second book Rache. Über einen blinden Fleck der Moderne (Revenge: On a Blind Spot of Modernity, Matthes & Seitz, 2021) was awarded a non-fiction book prize.

Penny Yiou Peng is a theatre scholar and performance artist. She earned her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin with a dissertation on posthumanist transformations in performance art. Under the name oxi pëng, she experiments with sensory forms that dissolve the boundaries between dream images, soundscapes, poetry, psychedelia, and human and non-human bodies. As a performer, she has appeared on international stages such as Kampnagel (Hamburg), performensk (Minsk), Rupert Residency (Vilnius), and the Institute of Contemporary Art (London). Her artistic texts have been published in Spike Art Magazine, Ars Electronica Festival, Performance Research, and the Journal of Body, Space & Technology.