OTHER
MONUMENTS
The "Other Monuments" project is an interactive audio walk and archive created with the contribution of marginalized groups and individuals.
Other Monuments project offers interactive walking routes where the city memory and history are brought to light. The routes spread throughout the selected city are based on historical stories as well as the personal memories of the underrepresented disabled, displaced, exiled and immigrant people living in different neighbourhoods. The project creates "personal monuments" by bringing the city memories of immigrants into public spaces, archives and protects the valuable stories of how the city is experienced by marginalised individuals and migrants. The content and location of these memories determines the direction of the walking path each season.
Offering the opportunity to experience the local neighbourhoods from the eyes of the unprivileged individuals, the project provides a temporary monument in the city for not only to historical figures, but also for underrepresented groups who faced with "otherness" and discrimination. After each season, all the contents collected from the participants becomes a part of the open-source permenant archive of "memories" for researchers to investigate local city histories and experiences of underrepresented groups.
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Photo: ©Jacopo La Forgia for Berlin Mondiale.
Diren Demir
Project Leader
direndemir.art
othermonuments.info@gmail.com
Berlin | Germany
Diren Demir (Istanbul, 1997) is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist and independent curator. Their work explores transformative solutions to the challenges posed by patriarchal and authoritarian regimes. Their installations and performances often engage with themes of revelation and the body-power relationship as a site of conflict. Diren focuses on transformational activism, participatory practices, and developing new models of resistance in their artworks. They incorporate queer themes, using their own body to challenge stereotypical gender roles and de-gender memories of place and the city by referencing LGBTIQ+ history in their articles, seminars, and workshops. In 2019, their compilation titled “A Night in June: A Biographical Analysis of the Stonewall Revolution” was published. In August 2022, their poetry and illustration book “Hail to the Fallen” was released. They have curated more than 30 guerrilla exhibitions on streets and in rural areas, prioritizing the accessibility of art, as well as in venues like Akbank Art and Gazhane Museum. Diren’s works and projects have been exhibited in various countries, including Estonia, Turkey, Serbia, the Netherlands, Germany, India, and the UK.
