Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Comparative Political Sciences and Political Systems of Eastern Europe

Since a few years, the neighborhoods of Aksaray in Istanbul and Neukölln in Berlin have become the site of small business activities by Syrian migrants. The results of a joint workshop will be displayed through an interactive map and a video.

The installation will present the results of a workshop that was jointly conducted with an interdisciplinary group of students from Humboldt-Universität, Freie Universität and Universität der Künste in Berlin with Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul. It continues the inquiry into the economic activities as well as socio-cultural and spatial practices of Syrian entrepreneurs in the neighborhoods of Neukölln and Aksaray. Shaped by various layers of migration and representing different forms of internal border regimes, both neighborhoods engender spaces of encounter between different groups and their everyday practices in particular ways.

Through video mappings, drawings, audio recordings, and other means, the installation presents different instances and grades of encounter in urban space. A total of five research projects portray the multiple ways in which Syrian newcomers to Berlin and Istanbul compensate for the loss of home through particular food practices and various techniques of spatial appropriation. Investigating the specific spaces of and hindrances to encounter, the projects look into the inter-communal perceptions and tensions among different groups. They examine the role of gossip and its potential for othering; detect visual resemblances between both neighborhoods; shed light on common coping strategies; and decipher the unwritten rules, linguistic barriers and other obstacles that shape the form and depth of encounter.

Workshop Participants:
Serena Abbondanza, Haya Alkheder, Ragad Avad, Mariame
Bentaibi, Katharina Bonengl, Nina Bühler, Finn Dittmer, Emma
El Kaladi, Rüya Erkan, Erasmus Famira-Parcsetich, Nikoleta
Gashi, Sofía Gohlke Butler, Erol Gorur, Marleen Hascher,
Maximilian Hauser, Leo Lüdemann, Marlene Mingramm,
Jan-Christopher Pien, Neslişah Kesici, Esra Nur Özçam, Vera
Pohl, Dian Sheng, Sean Underwood, Gizem Yağınlı, Busenur
Yahsi, Sinem Yıldız, Ezgi Yılmaz, Kübra Yılmaz, Emine Ecem
Yücesoy