SLOT#1: Baking Books by @baran.caginli – tools and relics from the performative action symbolizing resistance to coercion and censorship were displayed in the window of our new space at Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 45, until March 4th 2025.
SLOT#1: Baking Books von @baran.caginli – Werkzeuge und Überbleibsel der symbolischen, performativen Aktion gegen Zwang und Zensur waren bis zum 4. März 2025 im Schaufenster unserer neuen Räume in der Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 45 zu sehen.
Baking Books is inspired by the story of Baran Caginli’s father. He was a member of a left-wing youth organisation and was imprisoned and tortured during the military coup in Turkey in September 1980 for his involvement in political actions. When his grandfather learned of his imprisonment, he travelled from a village near Kars, a city in the Kurdish region, to Istanbul to bring his son home. He took his son’s library of banned Marxist-Leninist books with him. On his return, he and his wife decided to burn them in a fireplace. Because the quantity of books was so large and the long burning in late summer was conspicuous, Caginli’s grandmother began to bake bread continuously for a week and distribute it free of charge to the whole village.
Baran Caginli’s loaves of bread – shaped like the faces of Lenin, Marx and Rosa Luxemburg – are also distributed to the public during the action as a symbolic act of remembrance that resistance to any violation of human rights, coercion and censorship is always necessary.
In a special way, the work in Berlin not only honours the historical significance of the place where it takes place, but also tells a very personal story about the effects of political commitment. It also refers to a little-known, almost forgotten statue of Rosa Luxemburg near the square and to the headquarters of the former German Communist Party, in the founding of which Rosa Luxemburg played an important role.
Baran Caginli (b. 1990, Istanbul) lives and works in Helsinki. His works, which illuminate universal, global themes, address the contradictions of state power relations and conflicts, military systems, but also systematic oppression, discrimination and identity. They often show people who are witnesses to forced migration or various losses. In media such as photography, sculpture, installation and archive material, Caginli often integrates artisanal techniques and uses them as a means of disguise to recontextualise the actual narrative and thus send subtle messages.
Mehr über den Künstler / more on the artist: www.barancaginli.com
Die Veranstaltung steht im Zusammenhang mit dem Netzwerkprojekt Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange (SpaceX), das durch das EU-Programm Horizon 2020 – MSCA gefördert wird. / The event is connected to the network project Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange (SpaceX), funded by the EU programme Horizon 2020 – MSCA.