Exiled lives on the stage: Support networks and programs for artists at risk from Turkey in Germany.

This article analyses the support and self-care strategies of artists from Turkey who have left their country from considerable risk regarding their country's political and economic instability since 2013 and have relocated to Germany. It maps the support networks, programs and institutions as well as consider questions of sustainability and risk (self-) assessment. The study is based on interviews with Turkish and Kurdish artists in Germany and an analysis of the activities by the Maxim Gorki Theater, Apartment Projekt, bi'bak, Hafiza Merkezi Berlin, as well as support systems like artistic research fellowships, art residencies, artist networks and supportive theatres. The guiding questions of this study examine the longer-term orientation of the support of artists at risk. The findings show three deficiencies. Despite the variety of available support systems, artists who left Turkey experience difficulties integrating in the artistic labour market. The output-oriented, meritocratic basis on which programs select candidates often fail to help artists in a holistic way. The intergenerational disparity in the migrant communities create the infrastructures, solidarity discourses and networks for newly arriving artists, but also creates ideological tensions which limits inter-communitarian solidarity. Specific self-organized programs extend the solidarity to artists from other affected regions, which limits chances to support artists at risk from Turkey. There are generational disadvantages of newcomers in an overburdened, professionalized independent art scene that has struggled to break free from the social work and socio-cultural stigmas. The latter masks artists with a non-German background from positive discrimination initiatives. The study proposes improvement in support systems through a coordinated effort, encourages to relieve programs from a need for identity representation as an expectation or requirement, and advises a shift in support systems from output orientation towards enhancement of individuals through self-care, for greater autonomy and self-development in their art practices and new life.

A plear for commonality: disability history, discourses of rehabilitation, and the individual / Un alegato a favor de lo compartido: historia de la discapacidad, discursos de rehabilitación, y el individuo

Since the late twentieth century, disability history has grown out of its infancy. Scholars from a variety of backgrounds have increasingly become convinced of the value of looking at the past through the lens of disability. Many studies have focused on the constructed nature of disability and thus deliberately tried to deconstruct contemporary distinctions between able-bodied and disabled individuals. By positively revaluing the particular position of the individual with disabilities on the basis of historical narratives, an attempt was made to counter ongoing tendencies of discrimination and oppression. In this article, we would like to remind the reader of another approach which sometimes runs the danger of being snowed under, namely a historical venture that seeks to uncover commonalities: places where the distinctions between persons with and without disabilities are temporarily forgotten and/ or erased, moments when the boundaries between the self and the other are being reconfigured. In order to do so, we will draw on an influential discourse from the history of disability itself: the discourse of rehabilitation. Going back to the early twentieth century, we will present the work of French scientist Jules Mardochée Amar and two Belgian disabled soldiers from the First World War. Amar’s ideas on rehabilitation would prove influential for the actual practices of rehabilitation during and after the war. The two Belgian disabled soldiers were retrained in a professional institute for rehabilitation established by the Belgian government in the north of France. By juxtaposing Amar’s discourse with the experiences of the two Belgian soldiers, we will demonstrate how, besides the discursive individual of rehabilitation, one also can find moments when that individual is absorbed by a real and tangible commonality. As a consequence, everybody —whether able-bodied citizen or mutilated soldier— becomes part of a community of equals (AU)

Desde finales del siglo XX la historia de la discapacidad ha madurado. Investigadores de muy diversa formación se han convencido cada vez más del valor de mirar al pasado a través de la lente de la discapacidad. Numerosos trabajos se han centrado en el análisis de la naturaleza construida de la discapacidad y, en consecuencia, han intentado de manera deliberada deconstruir las distinciones actuales entre las personas sin discapacidades y las personas discapacitadas. Reevaluando positivamente la particular posición del individuo con discapacidades sobre la base de narrativas históricas, este artículo intenta mostrar las tendencias presentes de discriminación y opresión. Con este trabajo nos gustaría además recordar al lector otro tipo de aproximación que, en ocasiones, corre el peligro de quedar oculta, concretamente la tarea histórica que intenta desvelar lo que se comparte: lugares donde las distinciones entre las personas con o sin discapacidades son temporalmente olvidadas y / o borradas; momentos en los que las fronteras entre el yo y el otro son reconfiguradas. Para llevar esto a cabo, vamos a utilizar un discurso de gran influencia dentro de la historia de la discapacidad: el discurso de la rehabilitación. Retrocediendo hasta el comienzo del siglo XX, presentaremos el trabajo del científico francés Jules Mardochée Amar y de dos soldados belgas con discapacidad de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Las ideas de Amar sobre la rehabilitación influyeron en las prácticas de rehabilitación desarrolladas durante y después de la guerra. Los dos soldados belgas discapacitados fueron rehabilitados en un instituto para la rehabilitación profesional establecido por el gobierno Belga en el norte de Francia. Al yuxtaponer el discurso de Amar con las experiencias de los dos soldados belgas, demostraremos cómo, junto al discurso individual de rehabilitación, pueden encontrarse también momentos en los que el individuo es absorbido por una 'commonality'-un conjunto de características comunes- real y tangible. Como consecuencia de esto, todo el mundo - ya sean ciudadanos físicamente capaces o soldados mutilados- pasa a formar parte de una comunidad de iguales (AU)