On the intertwining of migration and art

The editors warmly invite you to the launch of Entangled Histories of Art and Migration (Bristol: Intellect, 2024), taking place on November 2, 2024, at the University of the Arts (HfK) Bremen from 1:30 to 5 p.m., and at the GAK from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

In this publication, 32 international researchers, curators, and activists offer academic and artistic perspectives on the interplay between migration and art from a global viewpoint. The contributions explore how narratives of exiles, refugees, and asylum seekers intersect with art practices, activism, reception, and representation, examining the ways aesthetics are shaped by migration — and how migration shapes aesthetics in return. Both historical and contemporary case studies provide fresh insights into developing new or alternative theoretical approaches.

The book launch will be accompanied by a programme at HfK Bremen, beginning on November 2, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. with an introduction to the topic by editors Cathrine Bublatzky, Burcu Dogramaci, Kerstin Pinther, and Mona Schieren. Location: Am Speicher XI 8, large theory room 4.15.070. Admission is free.

From 2 to 2:45 p.m., Abd Tammaa’s video installation No title should frame this work will be on view. This piece moves within, beyond, and through the context of a second-grade classroom in Germany, focusing on a text from a children’s reading primer that attempts to constrain their imaginations. The installation unfolds as a dialogue between video work, syllable charts, and embroidered fabric. Location: Large theory room 4.15.070, admission free.
 

From 3 to 5 p.m., Cana Bilir-Meier, Bubu Mosiashvili, Hodan-Ali Farah and Fatma Ercan will lead the artistic walk “Steps through Stories” from Bremen's Überseestadt district through the Walle district towards Gröpelingen, where participants will listen, talk and write together. “In the artistic walk, we can explore the historical and transcultural interconnections of a place. The situationist wandering and the stroll-scientific walking becomes an artistic practice. It serves both as a method of exploration and as a means of creating a dialog with the urban landscape. An everyday movement is transformed into a process of discovery. This practice not only uncovers the hidden historical, political and poetic layers of cities and their neighborhoods, but also opens up spaces for collective experiences and interventions. The collective walk becomes an observation and exploration of our bodily relations.

The collective walk becomes an observation and investigation of our body movements and gestures in specific places. The format opens up a collaborative space for artists and participants in which the clear roles of host and guest are set in motion. In the Walk, the exchange on the topics of the book with artists, curators and scientists is to be initiated on site and further developed for the HfK.” (Mona Schieren, HfK Professor of Transcultural Art Studies and head of the “Walking Distance” research project)

The free event will be held in German. The number of participants on the walk is limited. Registration via gmosiashvili@hfk-bremen.de
 

The programme will culminate in a book presentation at the GAK, Teerhof 21, starting at 7 p.m., including a presentation of the films of one of the book contributors, Cana Bilir-Meier, plus an artist talk. Admission free.
 

Background: The book

“Entangled Histories of Art and Migration” is the result of several years of research by the interdisciplinary research network of the same name (funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, 2018-2022) and emerged from the working group ‘Kunstproduktion und Kunsttheorie im Zeichen Globaler Migration’ , which has been active since 2013. The network is dedicated to the interaction of migration, diaspora and globalization as a significant phenomenon of social transformation in the 20th and 21st centuries and in its role for art studies research and artistic production. In addition to the HfK Bremen, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Technical University of Darmstadt, the University of Cologne, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies Osnabrück and international partner institutions are involved in the research network.
 

Background: The editors and artist
 

Cana Bilir-Meier lives in Munich and Vienna. She works as a filmmaker, curator, artist and in art and cultural education projects. Her filmic, performative and text-based works operate at the interfaces between archive work, text production, historical research and contemporary media reflexivity or archaeology.
 

Cathrine Bublatzky is a senior lecturer and research associate at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Tübingen.

Burcu Dogramaci is Professor of 20th Century and Contemporary Art History at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and Director of the Käte-Hamburger-Kolleg “global dis:connect”.
 

Kerstin Pinther is curator for modern and contemporary art in a global context at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
 

Mona Schieren is Professor of Transcultural Art Studies at the University of the Arts Bremen and head of the artistic-scientific research project “Walking Distance”.
 

Mona Schieren is available for further information: Phone: 0173 80 727 80, e-mail: m.schieren@hfk-bremen.de