Bitter Things: Book Launch, Panel and Screening

bi’bak

Labor migration is worldwide creating new models of the transnational family, which despite geographical distances strives to maintain contact between the separated family members. BITTER THINGS retraces positions on the phenomenon of “transnational families” from the 1960s right up to present day perspectives.The book which has been published with the same title of the exhibition, brings together the academic and literary contributions, interviews, songtexts and images examining the topic from interdisciplinary views. The side program which will be held on the last days of the exhibition includes the book launch, a panel discussion and film screenings.

Saturday, June 30, 16:00 – Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Welcome and Introduction by Malve Lippmann and Can Sungu (artist-curators of the exhibition and founders of bi’bak), in English and Turkish
Lecture by Dr. Ayşe Akalın (Associate Professor of Sociology Istanbul Technical University), in English
Reading by Ok-Hee Jeong (Author and former left-behind child), in German with English subtitles
Panel discussion with Ayşe Akalın, Ok-Hee Jeong, Malve Lippmann, Moderator: Maike Suhr (Editor of the book Bitter Things), in English
Conclusion with snacks and drinks

Ayşe Akalın is an associate professor of sociology at Istanbul Technical University. In her research she focuses on gender and migration. Her PhD is about foreign domestic workers in Turkey.

Ok-Hee Jeong was born in South Korea and came to Germany when she was eight years old. She studied arts and Korean studies and currently works as a free journalist, filmmaker, and author in Berlin.

Malve Lippmann is the co-founder of bi’bak and artist- curator of the exhibition Bitter Things.

Sunday, July 1, 19:00 – Screening

After the screening there will be a Q&A with the directors moderated by Can Sungu in Turkish.

Hastabakıcı / Abigail (Soner Sert, Turkey, 2017, 17 min.) Original with EN/TR/RU subtitles
Anna, a Russian migrant in Turkey, is employed as a nurse for an old lady. She is highly dependent on the job to earn a living for her child back home. The film shows the situation of migrant domestic workers in Turkey.

Soner Sert studied at the Cinema and Television Department at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul and at the Film Design Department at Dokuz Eylül University in Izmir. Hastabakıcı / Abigail was awarded the Best Film Award in Kısa-Ca International Students Film Festival.

Waiting for August (Teodora Ana Mihai, Belgium, 2014, 88 min.) Original with EN subtitles
Georgiana will soon turn 15 and is taking care of her six younger siblings. The seven children are living together in Romania while their mother works in Italy. The oldest sister cooks, cleans and besides tries to find time for studying. In August the mother shall return. The children await that moment and every call and Skype session makes them wish for her presence even more.

Teodora Ana Mihai was born 1981 in Bucharest, Romania. During a period, in which the country was overshadowed by the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, her parents fled the country without their daughter, but one year later she was also brought to Belgium. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College in Upstate New York. Waiting for August was screened in numerous festivals and was awarded with several prizes.

bi’bak is a non-profit organization and project space based in Berlin, with a focus on transnational narratives, migration, global mobility and their aesthetic dimensions. bi’bak’s program examines diverse disciplines in art, science, and community development, including film screenings, exhibitions, workshops as well as music events and culinary excursions. The project Sıla Yolu – The Holiday Transit to Turkey and the Tales of the Highway was presented in Depo in 2017.

In Cooperation with Archive Berlin and DOMiD – Documentation Center and Museum of Migration in Germany, Cologne.
Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and Goethe Institut Istanbul.

 

Media

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