Views of the City – Outside Perspectives

The Stadtmuseum was formed in 1995 by merging several museums of local history and cultural history in East and West Berlin. Today, the museum association oversees the tasks and responsibilities of a state museum and central repository. "Berlin" is the central theme of the museum’s activities. Nowadays, the term “multicultural” applies to cities which are home to a large number of nationalities. In Berlin, for example, the Turkish community is the largest ethnic group. In many metropolitan cities, however, some ethnic groups remain strangers to one another despite being neighbours for generations. The Stadtmuseum in Berlin, therefore, would like to invite a Turkish curator to explore participative working models at the museum. A fellow from Istanbul will come to Berlin and speak with fine artists of Turkish descent living in Berlin about their particular interest in the city. Views of the city will serve as the basis for revealing new points of identification with their home town. At the same time, the fellow will work to incorporate the theme of immigration history into the collection of the museum. The fellowship aims to promote a mutual understanding of the chronicling of city history with a focus on current dialogue and the active involvement of a binational generation of artists.