Arts Of The Working Class Logo

MUSIK UND PROTEST GEGEN PROPAGANDA AM KOTTI

Almanya Türküleri und ani de tranziție.

  • Jun 30 2022
  • Melissa Canbaz, Mihaela Chiriac, Caroline Ngorobi
    Melissa Canbaz schreibt über Musik und Kunst und kuratiert. Gemeinsam mit Mihaela Chiriac ist sie Mitbegründerin von STATIONS. Sie lebt in Berlin.

    Mihaela Chiriac writes and curates, amongst others at the project space STATIONS, Berlin, which she runs with Melissa Canbaz.

    Caroline Ngorobi is a theater producer and performer, founder of Jukwaa
    Arts in Mombasa, Kenya.

MELISSA CANBAZ

Das Reflektieren über kulturelle Praxen, Methoden und vor allem das Betrachten der Kontexte, in denen sie eingebettet sind, lief für mich häufig über Musik und ihre Tradierungen. Zuletzt konzentrierte ich meine Recherche auf die Transformationen der anatolischen Volksmusik und wie sie durch die Arbeitsmigration von Türk*innen nach Deutschland geprägt wurde; sogenannte Almanya Türküleri (,,türkische Lieder aus Deutschland”). Bereits Mitte der 1960er fand das Gefühl der Heimatlosigkeit türkischer Arbeitsmigrant*innen in Deutschland musikalischen Ausdruck. Gesungen wurden über die Sehnsucht nach Heimat und die Gedanken an die Rückkehr, die Arbeitsbedingungen und die Situation im Exil. Besonders spürbar wird dies in dem Lied Almanya acı vatan (,,Deutschland bitteres Vaterland”), das seit vielen Jahren eine besondere Bedeutung unter den türkischen Arbeitsmigrant*innen in Deutschland hat. 

Die Interpretation dieses Liedes von dem Opernsänger und Saz-Spieler Ruhi Su erinnert mich immer wieder daran, dass die Migrationsgeschichte meiner eigenen Familie sehr stark mit ,,gurbet”, also dem Gefühl der Heimatsehnsucht, verknüpft ist. Ruhi Su und seine Gesangspartnerin Sümeyra Çakır haben mit ihrer Musik sowohl in der Türkei als auch in Deutschland Räume geschaffen, in denen insbesondere das gemeinsame Musizieren im Chor (Dostlar Korosu/Dostlar Chor) als Instrument menschlicher Solidarisierung und Heilung verwurzelt war. Die Mehrstimmigkeit ist Ausdruck von Gemeinsamkeit und einer verbindenden politischen Haltung, die auch zum Sinnbild für den Stadtraum um das Kottbusser Tor in Berlin geworden ist. 

Die sicherheitsorientierte Stadtverwaltung der Berliner SPD und ihre fragwürdigen Pläne, am Kotti im Wohnkomplex ,,Zentrum-Kreuzberg” eine Polizeiwache zu errichten, sind nicht unbedingt willkommen. Um gegen die sogenannte Versicherheitlichung des Gemeinwesens zu demonstrieren, organisieren verschiedene Nachbarschaftsinitiativen Protestkundgebungen, die von zahlreichen Musiker*innen begleitet werden. Meine Freundin und Kollegin Mihaela und ich stehen oft auf dem Balkon vor unserem Projektraum STATIONS (der sich ebenfalls im „NKZ“– ehem. Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum befindet) und überlegen, wie wir uns mit unserem Programm solidarisch zeigen können. Wie sich unsere „kuratorische“ Praxis um soziale Momente erweitern ließe. So entstehen nicht selten Synergien, wie etwa an jenem Sonntag im April: Unten auf der Adalbertstraße vor den Toren des Kreuzberg Merkezi singt ein Chor, dessen Repertoire aus dem sozialistisch-revolutionär geprägten Spektrum stammt. Zeitgleich begleitet bei uns im Raum Emrah Gökmen, Musiker und Gründer des Chors Kız Meslek Korosu, die Lesung von Gedichten aus dem Exil auf seiner Saz. Diese Veranstaltung in Kooperation mit dem Label Zehra Music und dem Dağyeli Verlag fand anlässlich der Wiederveröffentlichung der Platte Hommage to Nâzım Hikmet von Tülay German und François Rabbath statt. In drei verschiedenen Sprachen. Mehrstimmigkeit solidarisiert.


MIHAELA CHIRIAC

Polyphony generates solidarity. As someone born in Romania in the eighties I’ve had firsthand experience, albeit brief, of its reverse –– the propagandistic exploitation of children’s voices in service of the “Beloved Leader” of their country. A couple of decades later, many of those very same children, myself included, would leave their country behind. Their ties to it are not broken, but they are fraught with the misgivings of a yet unresolved past. By the early to mid-nineties the leveled choirs of propaganda had turned into cacophony. I am one of those Romanians who weren’t forced to leave but still did, around the time when “Europe” finally allowed us “in”, recognized us as a part of it. (Strangely enough, growing up I never thought that we were elsewhere than in Europe.) I left the country in 2003 to get a higher education, and, for many years, visiting my family back in Romania, I would ride on buses that carried migrant workers from all over its regions — parents, for instance, who were leaving their young children behind because they had to, necessity forced them to. Speaking of gurbet and its translation into music, I am not particularly aware of contemporary Romanian migratory songs, aside, perhaps, from some manele. Maybe the lack of such songs is, among other reasons, also due to the fact that a first wave of emigration in the beginning of the nineties had already indicated that achieving cohesion, in or outside a country that by 1989 had become unbearable to most of its people because of its dictatorial regime, would be a long shot. One of the protest songs from 1991 offering a surprisingly accurate depiction of those tumultuous years of transition –– ani de tranziție –– is “Exercițiu” by folk-rock songwriter Valeriu Sterian. I could imagine it being sung today, at Kotti, and us listening to it from the balcony of our project space STATIONS. 

Generație, Aspirație
Interdicție, Demonstrație
Revoluție, Figurație
Emanație, Aberație
Informație, Deformație
Opoziție, Conspirație
Instituție, Separație
Prostituție, Decorație
Declarație, Perorație
Legislație, Lamentație
Retribuție, Imitație
Satisfacție, Beție
Ocupație, Populație
Consignație, Saturație
Emigrație, Circulație
Constituție, Rație
Compensație, Alocație
Subnutriție, Implicație
Explicație, Complicație
Educație, Malformație
Restricție, Miliție
Protecție, Poliție
Pretenție, Corecție
Atenție, Detenție
Producție, Reducție
Construcție, Obstrucție
Seducție, Deducție
Vocație, Hoție
Democrație, Intenție
Tehnocrație, Direcție
Birocrație, Infecție
Bogăție, Frecție

When we formed STATIONS a few years ago, we aimed to build a program with consideration for our surroundings, hoping to foster a shared experience, proximity, togetherness. It became clear to Melissa and I that the space we were lucky enough to rent next to Café Kotti is a platform we’d like to use for more than just strictly exhibiting artwork, and that things make more sense when artistic practices and theoretical pursuits from various disciplines are connected with lived life. Our own backgrounds taught us this. Our neighborhood, with good and bad, is itself exemplary. What crystallized during the time we spent together at STATIONS is the importance of empathy and encounters. Music facilitates both. In this sense I am –– we are –– against propaganda, and for propagation –– of empathy and encounters, among others. One such recent encounter is the one with the Kenyan theater producer Caroline Ngorobi, who founded and runs Jukwaa Arts, a creative greenhouse based in Mombasa that uses performing and visual arts to voice social issues. We invite Caroline to have the last word. 

CAROLINE NGOROBI

When music plays, the community stops and listens. The coastal people love music. At Jukwaa Arts, we often fuse music in our work to propagate information on social issues affecting our community. Music helps us break the ice when voicing taboo topics. With music, we are able to break down complex subjects into easily palatable bits of information. When we put key information in songs, people remember it easier and children sing along –– it’s memorable and impactful.

//

Banner: Cover der Platte El Kapıları von Ruhi Su mit Sümeyra & Dostlar Korosu, 1977 (Cover painting by Orhan Taylan)
Courtesy the artist & İmece Plakları
*

This Contribution was released with the support of Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, Bundesverband Soziokultur, Neustarthilfe, Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.

 

Cookies

+

To improve our website for you, please allow a cookie from Google Analytics to be set.

Basic cookies that are necessary for the correct function of the website are always set.

The cookie settings can be changed at any time on the Date Privacy page.