exhibition

For Aslı Dinç and Zeynep Okyay, the main importance of their participatory work is to collect information on the future from people of diverse backgrounds, including migrants, with the possibility that migration contains unique information and that perhaps in the future everyone will be displaced. The duo, who have been working together since 2018, is concerned with visions of the future of people in large cities that arise from current dreams concerns, and fears. Their particular interest lies in districts with a diverse resident* structure.

In Berlin they worked in the Nollendorfkiez, in Neukölln and in Kreuzberg. They interviewed artists, sociologists, architects, and curators. The results of the interviews will be made available in a podcast. In addition, they conducted workshops with new Berliners in the selected districts. Among participants, there were locals as well as newcomers that have been in Berlin for less than ten years. The workshops began with the question of dreams, fears, hopes, and the resulting ideas about the future. Participants were divided into two groups. One group embodied the present, the other the future. In the interaction, the participants developed characters in the form of role-playing. Dinç and Okyay processed the resulting audio recordings into a sound installation that can be heard in the exhibition space. In the future, the participants often imagined themselves as transhuman, animal, or hybrid creatures living in underwater worlds. Using artificial intelligence, the duo had visualizations of the developed characters produced on playing cards, which are also presented.

Borrowing from science fiction role-playing games, for example, one participant imagined herself in the future with characteristics of an earthquake-resistant Madonna. The future characters on the cards can be played with; moreover, the figures can be exchanged and collected according to needs. The third work of the artist duo consists of a collection of anonymously expressed wishes for the future. In bars, museums, and bookstores, they placed boxes with the question, "What would you take into the future?" The result of this broad survey can also be studied in the exhibition.