Tribunal-Mountain

Exhibition, Performance and Archives of Collective Movements

With Wefa Bodaghi- Nasser Teymourpour,
Curated by Baris Seyitvan


Photos by Thabo Thindi

Feelings such as mourning and pain are more in collective responsibility in many societies. Through the empathetic words of hundreds of people, for example in Kurdistan, your pain is shared, and you find yourself in a space with emotional support. Participation in mourning is seen as a human responsibility and is a tradition. Thus pain, instead of being as an individual problem, becomes a collective, social process. Due to the large extent of sharing pain in space, this tradition becomes dangerous for a regime in a political context. The tradition of mourning can be transformed into political activism if, for example, it serves to clarify unjust murders, executions, and torture. Enlightenment can mobilize grieving and aching bodies to resist injustice. That is why the regime in Kurdistan-Iran has made this tradition impossible. But for example In Germany, there are no such collective traditions of mourning and pain in the majority of society. Pain is seldom socially, because it remains very individual and is regarded as a personal difficulty, issue and problem. The body, which here suffers from pain in its individual or social existence, is not only affected by pain but also suffers from the fact that there is no space for expressing pain and grief.

Wirya Budaghi’s artistic research (Supported by the BK 2023 Senate Department for Culture and Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt), about how mourning can be transformed into political activism in Kurdistan, drawing historic images, photos and archives of collective movements, resilience and activism in Kurdistan/Iran. In resonance with the Kurdish mourning tradition and the recent Jina (Mahsa) Amini revolution.