#2 Bi-cultural artists in Germany and in France: "I don't like the word Multicultural"

Nezaket Ekici - Performance Atropos, 2006

„For me personally it is most important to show that we don’t just absorb German culture and forget the Turkish. I make use – even in my work – of both cultures to create something new from them. If you simply adapt a culture, you lose your identity“: The Turkish-German artist Nezaket Ekici resumes in this sentence the particularities of being a bicultural artist in Germany. In an interview given to the Goethe Institute in Berlin, she evokes what she feels about her origins, her work and her current life as an artist in Germany. 

We will precisely see in this second blog how bi-cultural artists speak about the fact of being Turkish artists in Germany, and we will try to compare their visions and thoughts with the ones of artists with Migrations Hintergrund in France.

Turkish artists in Germany – Multikulti, multicultural, international?

Nezaket Ekici - Personal Map, 2012

Nezaket Ekici

"I don’t like the word multicultural at all. The word is just used far too often and always has this aftertaste of “foreigner.” I think we’ve long passed that stage. In my opinion, a word such as “international” is a better description for it. Multi-Kulti – that always sounds so folkloristic. Of course, folkloristic elements are important, but we can’t remain stuck on them. The mission of contemporary art is to work with these elements, but to create something brand new from them“: Nezaket Ekici does not consider herself as multicultural, or at least does not like this "label". 

She just shows her double culture through her work, without making it the main point of her art. On the contrary, this aspect is always implicit. For example in her installation Eye for Eye hold in Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin in 2010, she invited people of the audience to go on stage with her and to look her into the eyes, for several minutes. The image of the eyes were then projected onto big screens in the museum. "What happens if you have to look into the eyes of a stranger?“ This is the question the Turkish artist asked through this installation...

Theater - Beyond stereotypes

Shermin Langhoff

"Until recently, stereotypes dominated the image of migration and migrants’ experiences on stage. Consequently, actors of Turkish origin often received offers to play cliché roles, such as the oppressed woman wearing a headscarf“ (Humanity in Action): Shermin Langhoff is a Turkish-German stage director who will soon take the direction of the very famous Maxim-Gorki Theater in Berlin. 

For her as for Nezaket Ekici, it is important to appear as someone else than an immigrant through arts. In an interview she gave to the New York Times, she is saying: „A migrant theater scene has emerged only recently. With increased self-confidence, these migrants and post-migrants have launched a new generation of German theater, which tackles topics of migration or post-migration respectively, but in a way that avoids stereotypes. Instead, these artists intend to draw a transcultural, “classless” image of migrants without labels—an image of identity that reaches “beyond belonging“ (The New York Times)

The work of a last Turkish artist in Germany is very telling about the position of immigration through arts.

Television - "I'm always afraid someone will come along and say: 'O.K., little Turk, you've had your fun. Now here's the door.'" 

 

Kaya Yanar

Kaya Yanar is a Turkish artist who has his own television show in Germany. Unlike the other artists we spoke about above, he constructs each of his shows and performances about his double culture. He also uses his Turkish nationality to criticize some aspects of the Turkish society: ‘In one episode he wore a headscarf for a satire of a Madonna video and danced in front of a Turkish rather than an American flag. 

He knew Turkish-Germans were watching him by the number of complaints he received about desecration of the headscarf’ (The New York Times). Nevertheless, he confesses that it can’t avoid being seen as a Turkish, and not as a regular TV presenter, with this now famous sentence: ''I'm always afraid someone will come along and say: 'O.K., little Turk, you've had your fun. Now here's the door.' ''

France - Immigration as main topic for artists with Migrations Hintergrund

 

Rachid Taha

First of all, unlike Germany, it is difficult to find a very well-known French-Arab artist in France who does not essentially deal with topics related to immigration. When typing “French-arab artist” in google.fr, most of the famous French-Arab artists are to be found in the music field.  

Rachid Taha is one of the most famous Arab-French singers. In all his songs, he deals with his Algerian origins or with topics related to the integration of immigrants in France. And every rap, rai or hip-hop singer does the same. As if they had not yet reached the status of bi-cultural German artists, who now begin to explore other topics than the ones of immigration and integration …

Conclusion 

Even in Germany, position of artists differ when dealing about their relationships to their origins and its expression though their arts. But on the whole, they try to stand out as artists as such, and not as migrant, getting rid of all the cliches that come along with this image. On the contrary, in France, it is still rare to find artists with Migrations Hintergrund who do not deal essentially with this subject in their artistic forms of expression.