Immersive Art: Rethinking exhibition making

There is an increase in exhibitions, which explore the opportunities technology has to offer, in recent years. This raised interesting questions surrounding the relevance of the traditional art museum experience and curating.

One could assume that exhibitions in the 'West' often aim at representing “reality”. Henrietta Lidchi argues that arranging objects a certain way creates a myth by neutralizing the motivation of the curators. Therefore, the producers of exhibitions hold symbolical power (Lidchi, 2013, p.183).   

What happens if we don’t assume that an exhibition wants to display “reality”? What if it promises the

visitor the contrary of an objective truth but offers an individual, unique experience of objects? Where once there was an artefact which would refer to a distant culture in an authentic way or a representation of reality, there is now the re-presentation which is not claiming to refer to something “real” or authentic explicitly. It rather suggests leaving space for imagination and interpretation.   This is what Wolfgang Kemp would call “the blank”, referring to literature theory, he means that “[…] works of art are unfinished in themselves in order to be finished by the beholder […]”. (Kemp, 1998: 188) In theory the idea about relocating the focus on the audience away from the author or the creator has already been established with ideas of Friedrich Hegel after 18th century aesthetics, moving away from considering art as self-explanatory (ibid.: 184). 

Immersive exhibitions put the audience into focus by creating immersive experiences, hence atmospheres which trigger sensory reactions. The artwork and the beholder no longer meet on equal terms, but the relation turns into an asymmetrical equation, circling around the viewer and his or her emotions.  This requires curators and exhibition-makers to rethink art spaces in terms meaning-making. Speaking to the visitor in a different way through the use of new technologies means to take on new responsibilities. Although immersive experiences in the art world are still rare, curators and cultural workers will need to make space for technological tools.

Sources:

Kemp, W. (1998). The Work of Art and Its Beholder: The Methodology of the Aesthetic of Reception. The subjects of art history : historical objects in contemporary perspectives. M. A. Cheetham. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 180-196. 

Lidchi, H. (1997). The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting other Cultures. Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices. S. Hall. London, Sage Publications Ltd.: 151-223. 

Is it justified to warn people from traveling to Turkey?

Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu invites German citizens since 11th of June to cross borders, this is good news for many. Turkey is the third most favorite holiday destination for Germans and many have family members, friends and partners in Turkey. However Germany sticks to its travel warning for Turkey, is this really justified?

Of course, one immediately thinks of pandemics as good reason to be careful. Especially because

there are so many who wait to safely travel to Istanbul or Turkish coasts, it seems reasonable to prolong a travel warning. Additionally, the number of infected people rose significantly in Turkey in the last weeks since measurements regarding COVID have been seized and people can go to restaurants again for example. Turkey, just as any other 'third country', is still under Germany's travel ban. 

Italy and France on the other hand, that are not 'third countries' but contract partners are open for German citizens to spend their holiday there. Although pandemics hit both countries much harder than Turkey and the disease seems to spread again in parts of Italy, Heiko Maas declared those countries as safe. His actions seem to be paradox in recent times - thinking about his visit to Israel early June during lockdown. Even though Israels politics call for diplomatic action, a foreign minister  as an individual should act in line with his or her political decisions that concern a wider public.

Further it is surprising that the foreign ministry changed its text on the website referring not only to pandemics regarding the warning but also political circumstances. They point at the fact that many German citizens have been taken into custody arbitrarily because of assumed connections with terroristic groups and emphasize the risk for journalists who express themselves freely. This criticism is certainly justified but it should have been articulated in another place and made more clear much earlier. In my opinion, mixing health issues with a critique of another countries politics is not reasonable. 

One should think how it is perceived by Turkish and German citizens who wish to visit loved ones, but can't while others are allowed to take their families on a holiday to lie on the beach in Italy or Croatia.

No 'guestworkers' anymore - struggles for people form Turkey in Germany

Asli just moved to Berlin and auditions for a voice for the archeological museum in Berlin. After she finished her test she meets another applicant in the waiting room who tells her, that they probably want someone who recently migrated from Turkey and can speak 'proper' Turkish. Eren Aksu's short-film was screened at the Oberhausen short-film festival in May 2020 and captures the fraction and tension between newly arrived Turks and German-Turks who grew up in Germany and are part of the third or even fourth generation of the Turkish diaspora.

What are the struggles expats or immigrants from Turkey have to face nowadays? How do they feel when they are confronted with anti-muslim racism - a great paradox, because many young Turks who come to Germany in the last years are not muslim, but raised in a secular environment.

Nowadays the Turk is no longer the 'guestworker' but the 'muslim'. Especially since Thilo Sarrazin wrote his controversial book about muslim immigrants the discourse about islam as a culture and muslims spread in society and politics. Things were possible to articulate in political speech that were considered as racist before.

If someone from Turkey comes to Germany today, this person will be confronted with a newly developed form of racism against migrants in general and Turkish people in particular, because they form the largest group of people who are phenotypically different. I will explore this issue further in my work, because it is important to have a differentiated analysis of this situation and the society we live in to avoid racist and right-wing discourses in the futture.

Why is not everyone hip and arty in Berlin?

Not everyone can be part of the intimate circle of Berlin's hip artist scene. That is the impression many have while exploring contemporary art in Germany's capital. But is Berlin's art scene as exclusionary as it seems or does it just present itself as such. What kind of evidence is there actually?

To establish networks is necessary for independent visual artist to form a personal brand and to be able to exhibit one's work. But is is easy for non-locals to access Berlin's art scene?
First, I want to clarify that with non-locals I don't mean specifically non-Germans but anyone who decided to come to Berlin as a creator and did not grow into this dynamic, ever-changing cultural landscape. Many networks for creative producers are formed during some kind of artistic education at one of Berlin's prestigious art schools or through residencies for example. As interviews from my previous research in this field have shown, it is hard to enter those networks as an outsider - especially coming from another country. However,  Berlin's artists seem to be open and supporting as multimedia artist Veronika Dräxler confirms who recently moved from Bavaria to Berlin.

Of course, coming from another country makes it more difficult to find access. One reason is language, but this is just a minor issue, since in Berlin it is quite easy to get along with English or even Turkish or Kurdish (My studies focus on cultural dynamics between Istanbul and Berlin). A bigger problem is the fact that you can't be an insider if your always have to deal with being an outsider. How would you pay your rent, university fees etc. if you are unable to obtain a visa and how is it possible to mingle with any scene and be productive as an artist if your mind is busy with bureaucracy and finance? Additionally being the 'Other' seems to be quite trendy in multicultural, diverse Berlin.

It is a vicious circle, in German: a 'Teufelskreis', as an artist with another nationality you seem to be rewarded for being different and dealing with your political, national or biological difference in your work pays off quite well. In the past many visual artists from Turkey exhibited at group shows in Berlin which carried titles like ‘Istanbul Next Wave’, relating a series of exhibitions taking place in Berlin between 2009 and 2010, ‘Fokus Istanbul’ (engl.: ‘Focus Istanbul’)  in 2005 or ‘Berlin. Istanbul. Vice. Versa’ in  2004 for example. Those exhibitions were criticized by participating artists and curators for stigmatizing the Turkish-German community (Wolbert 2011). Barabara Wolbert states, “exhibitions no longer depicted the Turks in Germany; they now represented them.” (Wolbert 2011: 17-18). Those exhibitions, curated by 'Germans' created a set of expectations towards the artists, a picture of how contemporary art from Turkey should look like in Berlin. The artists answered those expectations, first by taking part in the exhibition and then by criticizing how their works were framed. 

Towards an artist who is speaking the German language and has already established oneself as an artist within the country before coming to Berlin, this framing does not apply. German artists don't have to deal with stereotyping but still it is hard to work in the capital because finding a studio or work space is not easy. This mirrors the tense housing market of the city, which also forced the closure of many smaller art spaces in the past, where one could make contacts. Veronika tells me that for her, the easiest way to meet other like-minded people was to join workshops and go to art spaces/bars where you can easily start a conversation. Therefore, if you put yourself out there and manage to handle German bureaucracy and the housing market, Berlin proves to be quite open to creative newcomers.

Reference: 

Wolbert, B. (2011). "Istanbul Next Wave and Other Turkish Art Exhibits: From Governance of Culture to Governance through Culture." Transit 1(1): 250-260.

Istanbul: News from the neighborhood

Turkey has been in the news for announcing curfew on short notice and instrumentalizing the pandemic situation for political campaigning. But how do people deal with the situation in their everyday lives? I am in contact with friends who live there or who traveled home to their families although they reside in Berlin. This blog entry is going to be a personal one to give an impression of how people in their twenties and thirties perceive the current situation in the metropole.

Istanbul is vibrant, pulsating and crowded, but due to quarantine and partial curfew people rather stay at home if they don't have to go out.  Of course some still have to go to work, therefore public transportation is still used by some. However people over 65 and under 20 are forced to stay at home completely. Death numbers are quite low (Turkey: 2,706 compared to Germany: 5,877*) and although the Turkish Gouvernement takes a secular approach to face the crisis (e.g. by closing mosques and banning funerals for those who died because of the desease) Turkish citizens don't oppose those measurements.

Families and friends of mine seem to be quite careful too, they don't go running at the seaside anymore, they wear their masks and don't bother going out. Work is done remotely and like in Germany teaching is done online now. When a new curfew is coming and someone is lucky enough to have a balcony they buy meat to make a barbecue. Many are not that lucky to live in spacious apartments though. One of my friends lives in a small place and the owner of the house decided to do some construction work on the house. Every day they start to work early until late - it is hard to imagine what kind of feeling of being captured it creates when you have to withstand noise in your own four walls.

Last week it was the day of National Sovereignity and Children's day, a public holiday commemorating the foundation of the Great National Assembly of Turkey on 23rd of April 2020. Atatürk devoted the day to all children in the world. People usually celebrate the day and children have ceremonies at schools, sometimes they even gather in a stadium for making the day a festive event. This year the street of my friend united by clapping from their balconies and painting posters (see foto).

Another example for the handling of Covid-19 is the funny idea to make fast-food, which looks like the virus (see foto). For me the way  German media reports about the situation in Turkey seems to be often one-sided, emphasizing failing politics and I rarely see articles about situations of humanity and the effect the virus has on lifestyles. A burger in corona-form? I can not imagine many people here having enough humor to come up with something like that.






*Berliner Morgenpost. 2020. Coronavirus: Interaktive Karte Zeigt Aktuelle Zahl Der Corona-Infektionen In Deutschland, Europa Und Weltweit. [online] Available at: <https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/corona-virus-karte-infektionen-deutschland-weltweit/> [Accessed 26 April 2020].

Artists struggle for survival - a statement

Without having any jobs in prospect, creative professionals don't have any expenses. Because of that many freelance artists do no have costs to cover at the time being and can not request money from governmental emergency aid fonds in most German federal states.

Instead many applications for financial support remain without an answer or artists are referred to ask for basic income. Artists who rely on themselves and pay many things from their own pocket, such as their rent for their home which is their working space at the same time, are not considered in governmental supporting programs during pandemics.

However every federal state decides by itself who is eligible to receive money. Berlin, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia for example contributed to the payment of living expenses of artists, but the financial resources were exhausted in the beginning of April. Hamburg then set up a new aid program which guarantees freelancers and small companies an amount of at least 2,500 Euros emergency aid. Baden-Württemberg shows that there is another way to secure the existence of freelance creatives, there, artists get a fictitious wage of 1180 Euros. The conference of economic ministers now asked the government to take action and take care of supporting independent cultural work.

Luckily many artists are not only creative in their domain but in life in general and find ways to earn small amounts to secure themselves independently. Considering the symbolic value of any art form produced, which also gets us through these times, there should be a better support system for artists.

Why we all want to watch the 'Other'

Why do I find it interesting or relevant to do research on today's Turkish diaspora? In general, I am curious towards behavior of different human beings. When I imagine nowadays what I would like to do most, I think to myself how nice it would be to just sit in a café and watch people, to just "wander with no purpose". If you can't leave the house, what do you do to watch people? Just check out the rising numbers of people streaming disaster movies à la Roland Emmerich. Many are interested in watching how other people deal with catastrophes and strange situations. But there is also deeper level that motivates us to watch others or why I am a 'professional watcher', an ethnographer: to find out about ourselves.

For perceiving the other as the 'Other' (with capital 'O' to mark that I am not supporting any form of 'othering' but somehow I have to use it to formulate my arguments), he or she has to be quite close to me. So close, that I understand this person as part of my environment. Only then, the stranger is strangely not so strange anymore. In psychoanalysis one identifies with the stranger as one's specular image, therefore the 'Other' becomes a mental surface for one's own projection (Rommelspacher 2002: 9).

Although the relation between oneself and the 'Other' is so intimate, the picture of the foreigner or the migrant often is quite stigmatized in Germany. Those exclusionary attitudes developed with xenophobic politics in Germany prior 2000 and prove to be quite persistent. No matter how many people support refugees and practice tolerance, there are strong discriminating voices and right-wing groups today, continuing the exclusionary politics from the late twentieth century. Back then, xenophobic debates led to a change of the basic law in 1992 through the conservative coalition of CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Party/Christian Social Union) and FDP (Free Democratic Party). This limited opportunities for asylum seekers significantly (§26a German Asylum Law). Until today Germany has the lowest rate of giving citizenship to immigrants in Europe and a double citizenship is not available for most (ibid: 154).

Since today's media, society and - unfortunately to smaller extend - politics, try to raise attention towards the growing dangers of right-wing and nationalistic forces, the steps taken in 1992 seem shocking from a contemporary perspective. However, those exclusionary political structures did not change much. If one does not have the German citizenship, one is excluded from many freedoms for 'Germans', like the freedom of assembly or free choice of a profession (ibid: 160).

It is no surprise that it is hard to identify with 'German' structures for people with a different passport, since they don't even have equal basic rights. The pandemic will deepen those divides, because many Turkish-Germans don't receive the same support as 'legal' Germans do. The leftist news platform 'taz.gazete' tells about the case of a man who does not have the chance to choose his job freely and therefore I is forced to work "informally". As a result he does not receive governmental financial support in the pandemic (Paydaş 2020).

My initial question was, why I am interested in researching about the Turkish-German community. Well, one the one side I am just curious and on the other, I think it will teach me a lot about the society I live in and it's history and last but not least about myself.

Rommelspacher, B. (2002). Anerkennung und Ausgrenzung: Deutschland als multikulturelle Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main, Campus Verlag.

Paydaş, E. (2020). Prekariat in Zeiten von Corona. taz.gazete. Berlin.