INTERACT conversations #11

04 December 2025, 12:00 – 14:00

Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 55, Hörsaal A

with Luna Ali (Sea Watch e.V.)

How can solidarity be practiced when borders are enforced not only through walls and camps, but also through surveillance technologies, deterrence policies, and aerial visibility? What does it mean to witness violence from above—and how can witnessing itself become an act of resistance?

In this eleventh edition of our INTERACT Conversations series, we speak with Luna Ali—author, performer, and crew member of Sea-Watch’s Airborne Team—about the infrastructures that make solidarity possible across borders and through the air.

Since 2017, Sea Watch has operated two civil reconnaissance planes over the Central Mediterranean under the name Seabird. These missions aim to detect boats in distress, coordinate rescue operations, and document human rights violations at sea, particularly those committed by the so-called Libyan Coast Guard. In parallel, they challenge the EU’s complicity in pushback operations and the criminalization of migration.

Drawing on her experience in transnational activist networks and in performance spaces, Luna Ali reflects on the material and symbolic dimensions of airborne solidarity. The conversation will explore how infrastructures—technical, political, and affective—sustain practices of witnessing, intervention, and care. It also asks how those engaging in this work navigate the emotional, ethical, and political tensions of watching from a distance, and what it means to stand in solidarity with people on the move in increasingly hostile environments.

Time and Place: Thursday, 4. December 2025, 12:15 bis 13:45 Uhr; Freie Universität Berlin, Garystrasse 55, Lecture Hall A

Organisation: Dr. Jannis Julien Grimm (INTERACT, FU Berlin).

The event will be held in English. After the conversation, there will be time for questions from the audience.