The first episode of Pickle Bar Podcast introduces Zavier Wingham’s lecture “A Brief History of the African Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey”. The podcast is the first in a series exploring various articulations of Black identity in Central Asia, Caucasus and Eastern Europe as an attempt to complicate the Atlanticist notion of race most of us are familiar with. 

The lecture was held on 5th March 2021 in the framework of the extended program for the exhibition “1 Million Roses for Angela Davis” at the Albertinum (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) with the kind support of Goethe-Institut New York. 

Zavier Wingham is a PhD candidate in the joint program for History and Middle East and Islamic Studies at New York University and currently a PhD fellow at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. He is also an editor at Ajam Media Collective.

Audio production by Audiokombinat, Berlin.

Zavier Wingham: A Brief History of the African Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey

Drawing on the daoist philosophy of xing (性) (nature/sexuality), hexie (和谐) (harmony) and tianren heyi (天人合) (the unity between the human world and the non-human world), the lecture Metamorphosis of A Butterfly: Queer Art and Activism in Contemporary China by Dr. Hongwei Bao looks at queer art beyond Western queer theory, modern gay identity, from indigenous and ancient perspectives and addressing questions of sexuality, urban migration and LGBT communities in recent years in China.

The podcast is part of our summer series KNOT KNOW exploring craft’s potential for building solidarity and queering beliefs across Central Asia and China. Each month, a specific work will be presented at Pickle Bar–a paper cut-out, an ikat, or Muslim Chinese calligraphy–as a gnostic thumbnail, a point of departure for lectures, screenings, podcasts–online as well as in real brine. 

The program is supported by Bezirkskulturfonds by the department of Art and Culture of the Bezirksamts Mitte von Berlin. The podcast has been produced with the help of Berlinology.

Dr. Hongwei Bao: Metamorphosis of A Butterfly: Queer Art and Activism in Contemporary China

„Wo kommst du her?“ - „Nein wirklich, wo kommst du ursprünglich her?“ - „Wo kommen deine Eltern her?“
[Antwort]
„Ohhh exotisch!!“ - „Kenn ich nicht…“ - „Ah, dachte du wärst aus [anderes Land mit größtenteils dunkelhaariger Bevölkerung]!“

Jeder*jedem sollten diese Konversationen bekannt vorkommen - ob als diejenige Person, die die Fragen stellt oder diejenige, die sie ständig beantworten muss. Oder beides. 
Migrant*innen werden tagtäglich mit Situationen konfrontiert, in denen andere oder auch sie selbst ihre [kulturelle] Identität hinterfragen. Die Schwestern Ana und Mari Mekineli, deren Eltern aus Georgien stammen, nehmen die Zuhörer*innen in einem Gespräch, was sie schon oft geführt haben, in ihre Vergangenheit mit und befassen sich mit dem Thema Identität[skrise].

Dieser Podcast entsteht in Verbindung zu Slavs und Tatars Projekt Aşbildung in Kooperation mit der Kunsthalle Osnabrück, gefördert durch die Sievert Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kultur und die Freunde der Kunsthalle. Aşbildung erweitert das Osnabrücker Döner Restaurant Toros um einen kontemplativen Moment und unterstreicht die Wichtigkeit, die Verdauung von geistiger und körperlicher Nahrung als Einheit zu betrachten.

This podcast is produced in connection with Slavs and Tatars' project Aşbildung in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, supported by the Sievert Foundation for Science and Culture and the Friends of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück.

Ana & Mari Mekineli: Growing up Migra (DE)

Sve su to vještice

Hana Ćurak and Tijan Sila: Tijan is a punk-rocker

Pickle Bar is Slavs and Tatars’ latest initiative to extend their Eurasian platform to the greater public outside the confines of the traditional institution. Situated steps away from the collective’s studio and recently-launched mentorship & residency program in Berlin’s Moabit district, Pickle Bar invites other artists, thinkers, writers, and researchers to explore the limits of ideologies and the edges of belief systems within a Slavic take on the apéritivo bar. Due to CV-19, Pickle Bar will be operating remotely with a series of on-line events until further notice.

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