Joined by Ramona Gomez ( instagram.com/divaindistress ), urban ecologist and visual artist, to discuss the intriguing histories both personal and political of pigeons in Berlin and their accompanying migrants human and nonhuman.
Foraging art vs found art; haunted urban architecture; ancient dovecotes and early pigeon-human relationships; Pigeon Architecture: The DoveCotes of Turkey; the history of pigeons in urban settings; Turkish immigration in Berlin; human/animal symbiosis in architecture and practice; the necessity of beauty; undervaluing color; why pigeons matter; anti-pigeon sentiment and disdain for humanity; Aviaries in the Attic - haunted memories of World War pigeons and the Golden Cobblestone on the front steps; Pigeon Vigil - A performance Piece - May 2022; Forgotten Receitals - An attic Show - October 2024; Studying Pigeons from the Perspective of Neukölln; anti-palestinine laws in contemporary Germany and the infringement upon free speech; pigeon extermination from Limburg an Der Lahn; Silencing Migrant, Arab, and Middle Eastern Voices
further reading:
Animal Practices, Ethnicity, and Community: The Turkish Pigeon Handlers of Berlin Carol Jerolmack, 2007
Dovecotes in Kayabag Village: An Assessment of landscape and architectural Characteristics , Ulku Incerkose, 2020
German Turks and their Quest for Mobility Ayse Simsek-Caglar 1994
Turkish Berlin: Integration Policy and Urban Space Annika Marlen Hinze, 2013
Sometimes it feels like something went wrong and that’s why we’re here, that we’re in some kind of cosmic cage or simulated psy-op. We become in the face of simulations and psy-ops, and from wrongness spring. syncretism is for the honorable and dishonorable alike.
In thought and in body, no one, not two, in sky and seed sewn, we dream up shadows to love through and hold their calloused hands, shaping change in the nether pool from breath to breath and coming up again and again seeking vistas of freedom. We embody a haunted perspective and witness the chaos from above.
Learn from the labyrinths in breathing mountains.
How do you look and where are you looking?
Note when you’re stuck, put sugar on your tradition-pills, and record before breaking. How’s that feel to rot with glee--to decay with me?
Like the process of radioactive decay in unstable atoms, degeneration yields a more sustainable nature.