Amira, 15 years Berlin-Charlottenburg, 2002. Photographer: Nihad-Nino Pusija

Entertainment – children’s Carnival of World Culture in Görlitzer Park. Berlin, 2002. Photographer: Rais Khalilov

Photographic Impressions (July to November 2002)

The exhibition invites us to reflect on this question through the work of eight photographers who have migrated to Berlin, but are still closely connected to the culture of their lands of origin.

Who are the foreigners amongst us? Individual societies are never static. They are changed by innovation and the encounter between different cultures, mentalities and local communities. Developments and contacts of this kind create new constellations, but can at the same time lead to lines of demarcation and to conflict.
Our society as well is the result of cultural contacts – the microcosm Berlin is an eloquent example of this. This city has been a cultural patchwork for many centuries, strongly influenced by migrants from the surrounding area and from farther afield. Today more than 200 ethnic and religious minorities with a total population of about 440,000 people of non-German origin live in Berlin. That is 13 % of the total population. Many of them arrived in the 1960s as so-called guest workers; their children have grown up in the city and are not migrants but citizens of Berlin. But do they feel that Berlin is also their home?

The exhibition invites us to reflect on this question through the work of eight photographers who have migrated to Berlin, but are still closely connected to the culture of their lands of origin. With the themes they have chosen and the ideas they have contributed to the design of the exhibition, they show different facets of a multi-cultural, intercultural Berlin. With their photographs and their personal comments, they present impressions of public and private life, posing the question: “how do we see ourselves and how do we see others”?

The exhibition is accompanied by a portfolio with the title “Heimat Berlin? Fotografische Impressionen”, which is available at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen. Like all the texts in exhibition the book is written in German and English.

The Community Centre run by Workers’ Welfare brings together young and old residents under the motto: Multi coloured Kreuzberg cleans its home. Berlin-Kreuzberg, 2002. Photographer: Metin Yilmaz.	Rose, Tabita and Ophelia. Berlin, 2002.	White bread. Berlin, 2002. Photographer: Cristina Piza.

Sergej commutes between the Ukraine and Berlin. Berlin, 2002. Photographer: Frank Löhmer.	Untitled. Berlin-Neukölln, 2001. Photographer: Alejandro Dhers.	Shrine in the fast food bar ‘Little Hanoi’. Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, 2002. Photographer: Dong-Ha Cho

All photos: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin -Preußischer Kulturbesitz