Constitutional Commitment, Anti‑Fascism, and Solidarity in Contemporary Artistic Research
🗓️ Thursday, 25 June — 9:30am
- 10:10am
(40 mins)
Presenters
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Abstract
Constitutional Commitment, Anti‑Fascism and Solidarity in Transnational Youth Artistic Research
“Darius & Shahmaran – Ritual, Knowledge and Resistance” is a transnational youth exchange between Germany and Türkiye that uses the Kurdish‑Anatolian Shahmaran narrative and the figure of Darius to explore democracy as a historically and culturally contested practice. The project examines how ritual operates ambivalently as an instrument of state legitimation and as a medium of cultural resistance, linking Kurdish experiences of repression and survival in places such as Dersim, Mardin and Diyarbakır with Roma histories of exclusion, knowledge transmission and cultural self‑assertion.
RomaTrial e.V. contributes long‑term experience in minority rights education, international youth work and participatory artistic formats, embedding the Berlin phase in existing political education infrastructures and collaborations with local partners. Young people from both contexts work collectively on questions of democracy, cultural rights, international law and memory politics, and use performance, film and installation to develop situated readings of ritual as political practice and to articulate counter‑narratives to dominant European self‑images.
The project strengthens critical thinking, intercultural competence and democratic agency, while proposing minority knowledges as epistemic resources for a European democracy education attentive to power, violence and resistance. Against this backdrop, the contribution asks to what extent artistic research with and from minoritised positions can materially unsettle the aesthetic regimes of constitutional democracy, rather than being recoded as a culturally valuable but ultimately cosmetic supplement to existing institutional orders.
“Darius & Shahmaran – Ritual, Knowledge and Resistance” is a transnational youth exchange between Germany and Türkiye that uses the Kurdish‑Anatolian Shahmaran narrative and the figure of Darius to explore democracy as a historically and culturally contested practice. The project examines how ritual operates ambivalently as an instrument of state legitimation and as a medium of cultural resistance, linking Kurdish experiences of repression and survival in places such as Dersim, Mardin and Diyarbakır with Roma histories of exclusion, knowledge transmission and cultural self‑assertion.
RomaTrial e.V. contributes long‑term experience in minority rights education, international youth work and participatory artistic formats, embedding the Berlin phase in existing political education infrastructures and collaborations with local partners. Young people from both contexts work collectively on questions of democracy, cultural rights, international law and memory politics, and use performance, film and installation to develop situated readings of ritual as political practice and to articulate counter‑narratives to dominant European self‑images.
The project strengthens critical thinking, intercultural competence and democratic agency, while proposing minority knowledges as epistemic resources for a European democracy education attentive to power, violence and resistance. Against this backdrop, the contribution asks to what extent artistic research with and from minoritised positions can materially unsettle the aesthetic regimes of constitutional democracy, rather than being recoded as a culturally valuable but ultimately cosmetic supplement to existing institutional orders.
Biography
Hamze Bytyçi is an artist, curator and cultural worker with a Master’s degree in Art in Context from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). He has directed the association RomaTrial e.V. since 2012, promoting visibility, self-representation and participation of Roma and Sinti through artistic, activist and educational projects. He initiated and leads the International Roma Film Festival AKE DIKHEA? in Berlin and co-founded and co-curated the 1st and 2nd Roma Biennale, creating platforms against discrimination and for diversity. Since September 2022, he has curated the programme of the Green Salon at Volksbühne, fostering participatory, intersectional cultural work that links artistic practice with social activism.
The Children’s Biennial Group led by Ender Açar develops participatory art projects with and for young people, positioning children as co-authors of artistic processes rather than passive audiences. Its work operates at the intersection of curation, education and community practice, often in collaboration with schools, museums and neighbourhood initiatives. Through workshops, site-specific installations and long-term artistic research, the group creates spaces in which children can experiment with visual and performative languages, articulate their own perspectives and critically question social realities and power structures.
The Children’s Biennial Group led by Ender Açar develops participatory art projects with and for young people, positioning children as co-authors of artistic processes rather than passive audiences. Its work operates at the intersection of curation, education and community practice, often in collaboration with schools, museums and neighbourhood initiatives. Through workshops, site-specific installations and long-term artistic research, the group creates spaces in which children can experiment with visual and performative languages, articulate their own perspectives and critically question social realities and power structures.