daHEIM - glances into fugitive lives

The man wearing a hat

This man, wearing the hat, this man who can set the entire world on fire,
a kraken….

Everything will be destroyed along his starved and burning coastline,
childhood, birds and even dreams

This man truly reminds us of a mythical monster, starved and furious,
as extinct dinosaur, revived in the shape of something that has never been there before.

Serdar Yousif

 

 

A collaborative project by the Museum Europäischer Kulturen Berlin MEK, barbara caveng and KUNSTASYL

Is it about an exposition? No – a room was to be debated. A wave rolls through this room. A wave of sea and tears. Its water is salty, gnawing at the construct of culture. The wave’s movement is generated by those who upset us and our notions of humanity. We barricade ourselves not only along the European outer borders but defend all territory by means of language ability: Hence, we call them “refugees” rather than “human beings”, therewith executing their social exclusion and outlawing. Those who have barely escaped the dangerous sea, are threatening us. Hence – as soon as they reach the shore – we assign the exact same phenomena to them, that are commonly used when referring to the sea – the most dangerous and most powerful element (G.W.F. Hegel) – threatening the life of man: the wave becomes a “wave of refugees”, a “flow of refugees” bursting its banks and flooding national borders. Not even a denouncing “tsunami of refugees” is proscribed.

Within these boundaries, the MEK has made room for KunstAsyl and authorized us to act. Participation was not presented as an act but radically carried out. Space within the museum became a place to perform and transform. Differences were not set aside, they were permitted. Within the museum, Europe presents itself as competent.

Those, who started to (re-)construct their home within this space since March 2016, used to live in Albania or Afghanistan, in Kosovo or Pakistan. The remains of their houses are located in Syria, Iraq and in Bosnia. They survived bombs, dictatorship and terrorist outrages. Some escaped prisons, others set out to disrupt the vicious circle of poverty. Most of them had nothing left to loose but life itself.

Those people would map routes on the walls. Neither GPS nor compasses served their wandering souls as a guide. When the sky came tumbling down, north was no longer north. They had documented incidents, the horror of war and flight with their cell phones. In the museum, they would trace its essence by means of sanguine. Their inscriptions on the walls are no written records from the past but an expression of current memory. Parts of discharged bedsteads from emergence accommodation became constructional elements. Now, an upside down bed is rocking like a boat. Its slatted frame turns into the spine of a lost home: glances into fugitive lives.

“I never made a painting as a work of art, it’s all research,” Pablo Picasso is quoted (i.e. Frederick Baker, 2016). Within the museum, it was not canvas but space, that was to be researched - artistically, physically, socially, and historically. The process deprived itself of customary categorization. The mode of expression was granted._{barbara caveng | translated by Carina von Krosigk}

daHEIM: glances into fugitive lives

22.07.2016 to 02.07.2017
Tue - Fri  Tue 10:00 - 17:00
Sat & Sun 11:00 - 18:00
Monday closed

Museum Europäischer Kulturen Berlin, MEK
Arnimallee 25
14195 Berlin

A collaborative project by  the Museum Europäischer Kulturen Berlin MEK, barbara caveng and KUNSTASYL

Overall responsibility for the project
Elisabeth Tietmeyer, Direktorin des Museums Europäischer Kulturen MEK

Art direction / curatorial work

barbara caveng/ Aymen Montasser/ Dachil Sado

KUNSTASYL
Abd Elrahman Al Salti, Adil Khan, Agron Pjetergjokai, Ahsan Gul, Al Khaled Mohammad, Aleksandra Ferkovic, Ali Zaibak, Ali Alkhadib, Ali Abbass, Ali Akbar Rezai, Amer Muhamad, Amino Douah, Amir Muhammad, Anatol Jr. Marinesku, Anatol Sr. Marinesku, Arita Zeka, Assil Alkhadib, Assra Rezai, Atef Shuaib, Ayiza Jabeen, Ayub Muhammad, Bashkim Veliu, Bedrie Haziri, Bereket Kibrom, Brisilda Cani, Bruna Bega, Carina von Krosigk, Carolin Bernhofer, Denis Cani, Diwali Hasskan, Endrit Haziri, Ez Aldin Torkmani, Farhrije Hoxha, Faris Ghani, Fatima Soboh, Fatime Veliu, Fredie Cani, Fuad Sejdiu, Gazi Latifi, Hameed Safi, Hanin Soboh, Hasime Zeka, Hiba Talmasany, Hiba Abou Khashab, Housam Mounem, Hussein Rezai, Iman Ghanem, lna Sado, Jasin Murati, Kasim Biberovic, Khaled Mounem, Kumrije lsufi, Larissa Hermanns, latif Haziri, laura Sulaj, Marsilda Pjetergjokai, Marta Biberovic, Mawlud Hassen, Mazin Talmasany, Melise Biberovic, Milad Samavat, Milan Markov, Miriam Abbas, Mohamed Elsayed Mitwalli, Mohamed Ghazawi, Mohamed Firas Soboh, Mohammad Talmasany, Mohammad Hassen, Mohammad Nour, Mohammed Zaibak, Mohammed Alkhadib, Momina Amir, Moustafa Al Batsh, Musaab Alawad, Noart latifi, Nurnon Ashgar, Oldi Veliu, Omar Zaibak, Omer Veliu, Omer Murati, Osman Murati, Parissa Rezai, Pranvera Sulaj, Rafeh Barjas, Ramiza Muratovic, Rihana Kousar, Ruba Mensur, Ruschka Markov, Said Sabagh, Saloua Al Salty, Samuel Pjetergjokai, Sandrinetta Biberovic, Sarah Biberovic, Selma Murati, Serdar Yousif, Serxhio Sulaj, Shaban Haziri, Sham Mounem, Shkendije Murati, Silvan Pjetergjokai, Taghrid Alhska, Tasnim Zaibak, Tatjena Marinesku, Tena Biberovic, Therry Kornath, Tiara Bekirai, Till Rimmele, Tuana latifi, Valbona Cani, Valdrina Sejdiu, Valentina Sejdiu, Vanesa Muratovic, Vitore Pjetergjokai, Yasir Aabdelkadir, Yassin Bakr, Yousif Bhnam, Zajin Talmasany, Zineta Jusic, Zlatan Muratovic

Museum Europäischer Kulturen
Leontine Meijer-van Mensch, Dagmar Neuland-Kitzerow, Alina Helwig, Andrea Ferchland, Dussmann Service Deutschland GmbH

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Generaldirektion und Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.