You don't look nothing alike

What happens when family structures become alliances and relationships develop beyond national borders? Dêrsim - a name that has disappeared from the map of Turkey but lives on in the memories of many. The region, once a place of refuge for Kurds and Alevis, was renamed Tunceli in 1935 in the course of state homogenisation processes. Forced resettlements, assimilation policies and the refusal of historical reappraisal characterise the memories of the Kurdish-Alevi community, including in the German diaspora. The exhibition deals with the destruction of homeland, memory and identity and interweaves individual memories with historical contexts in the form of video, sound and photography. For the stepfather, returning to the places of his childhood becomes, on the one hand, a search for a vanished past - a home that no longer exists. On the other hand, listening, looking and asking questions become a form of lived solidarity for the stepdaughter - in the past and in the present.