#SPEAKUPML

Nil Yal­ter’s works emerge from cur­rent po­lit­i­cal si­t­u­a­tions: the sen­tenc­ing to death of a Turk­ish ac­tivist, dai­ly life in a wo­m­en’s pri­son, or the liv­ing con­di­tions of il­lit­er­ate “guest work­ers.” Lan­guage plays an im­por­tant role for the artist, along with her cul­tu­r­al in­flu­ences from the Mid­dle East, Turkey, and West­ern Eu­rope. The ex­hi­bi­tion ti­tle Ex­ile Is a Hard Job comes from an im­por­tant work for Nil Yal­ter by the Turk­ish po­et Nâzım Hik­met.

We are look­ing for spo­ken-word artists who want to gain an au­di­ence for their per­spec­tive on Nil Yal­ter’s themes of mi­gra­tion, femi­n­ism, and re­pres­sion. We in­vite you to come to Cologne on May 4, 2019. Ac­com­panied by cu­ra­tor Ri­ta Ker­st­ing, you will take a tour of the Nil Yal­ter ex­hi­bi­tion. Fol­low­ing a meal with the group, you can dis­cuss your thoughts on what you have seen. Then we ask you to put them in­to writ­ten form.

Each win­n­er will re­ceive a €250 stipend and a trav­el al­lowance to come to the Mu­se­um Lud­wig. We will al­so post your texts on our so­cial me­dia chan­nels af­ter­ward. Any spo­ken-word artist who is ac­tive on so­cial me­dia or a blg and who deals with the top­ics of mi­gra­tion, femi­n­ism, and re­pres­sion. It doesn’t mat­ter how well known you are; the fo­cus will be on your mes­sage. 

Dead­line for sub­mis­sions was April 7, 2019.