Weltoffenes Berlin-Stipendium 2023 Fellowship “Weltoffenes Berlin” 2023

Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, this year’s fellowship will be given to Kurdish artist Susan Azizi. It is the aim of the fellowship to integrate artists from conflict areas into the cultural structures of Berlin in a way that opens up a long-term perspective for them.

As a bearer of cultural identity, clothing expresses resistance to social and political oppression. Authoritarian regimes consequently often use dress codes as a reprisal against minorities – as is the case in Kurdistan. In her artistic research for the nGbK fellowship Weltoffenes Berlin, the artist Susan Azizi, who comes from the Iranian part of Kurdistan and lives in exile in Berlin, examines symbols, materials, forms, and meanings of Kurdish women’s clothing and, through her artistic practice, attempts to convey and defend them against being made invisible.