Zwischenraum TRANSIT, part 2: Flucht, Segregation und Widerstände
Current and historical stopping points for people in transit between Barcelona, Berlin, Marseille, and Port Bou
Location: Klassenzimmer der Zukunft, Place Internationale, Maxie-Wander-Straße 79, 12619 Berlin
Organised by: Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin
Contributions: Selma Alaabed, Mustafa Alborighef, Abdullah Alkhatib, Marija Baksa, Manuel Haist, Jerome Mard, Toni Maurer, Lerato Mkwanazi, Rayan Mussallam Al Masri, Leonie Odelga-Tschernev, Gonca Saglam, Lea Sahli, Jana Sebald, Marc-Alexander Skott, Laura Wagner und Simon Wilz – Students of ASH Berlin.
Die Präsentation und das Programm sind Teil einer Kooperation zwischen der station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf und dem Pilotprojekt Zwischenräume. Belebung von Campus und Stadtteil im Projekt Campus Transferale – Transfer_Hub der Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin.
Klassenzimmer der Zukunft und Place Internationale sind Projekte der AG station urbaner kulturen (Juan Camilo Alfonso, Jochen Becker, Eva Hertzsch, Margarete Kiss, Constanze Musterer, Adam Page, Ralf Wedekind)
„Und die Gemeinschaft der europäischen Völker zerbrach, als – und weil – sie den Ausschluss und die Verfolgung seines schwächsten Mitglieds zuließ” (Hannah Arendt 1943, We Refugees).
In November 2023, we, students and teachers from the Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin, with different past experiences of borders and limitations in our lives, crossed the border between France and Spain. Our walking route took us along a former smuggler’s path from the French border town of Banyuls-sur-Mer over the Pyrenees to the Spanish border town of Port Bou. In 1940, many people used this route to flee from the Nazi state: Jews, Communists, LGBTIQ people, Romani, deserters, and many others persecuted by the Nazi regime. Those who had managed to leave Germany in good time now had to flee again following the occupation of France. Not long before, in 1939, Spanish Republicans had used the same route in the other direction to enter France, fleeing General Franco’s army. Since 2009, this path, that previously bore the name of Lisa and Hans Fittko, who accompanied escaping refugees on this route, has been an official hiking route signed “Chemin Walter Benjamin” in French and “Ruta Walter Benjamin” on the Spanish side. As a Jew, Communist, and intellectual, the writer and philosopher Walter Benjamin, too, was persecuted by the National Socialists. Today, people fleeing war, exploitation, and a lack of prospects in various countries who end up on Europe’s outer borders use this same route in their attempts to reach central and northern Europe.
This border crossing is just one of three stops on our study trip (Marseille, Port Bou, Barcelona) as part of the four-semester project seminar “Current protest movements and their forms of media expression” in the Social Work bachelors course at the Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin. The seminar deals with movements and forms of protest for a world without borders, against neocolonial exploitation, and for climate justice. The theme of our study trip was: Flight, segregation, and resistance. Current and historical stopping points for people in transit between Barcelona, Berlin, Marseille, and Port Bou.
Curated by Andrea Plöger (professor, ASH), Elène Misbach (research assistant, ASH), Eva Hertzsch & Adam Page (artists and research assistants, ASH, members of the station urbaner kulturen work group).
Part of the project seminar “Current protest movements and their forms of media expression: movements and forms of protest for a world without borders, against neocolonial exploitation, and for climate justice.”
The study trip was accompanied by Viviana Uriona (filmmaker and lecturer, College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro), Djif Djimeli (filmmaker and actor) and Aya Schamoni (photographer; lecturer, ASH).
PROGRAMME
Flucht, Segregation und Widerstände: Eröffnung
Tue, 4.6.24, 5.00–7.00 pm
Opening of the presentation Zwischenraum TRANSIT, Teil 2: Flucht, Segregation und Widerstände with students of Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences
›Widerstände: Standing together‹
Panel discussion with Rachel Ravid (professor Oranim College, Haifa and cooperation partner of ASU and director of the Galilee Dreamers), Samuel Schidem (educator, lecturer and executive director of Rozana International), Arnon Shaked (General Students Committee ASU) and Rayan Mussallam Al Masri (General Students Committee ASU, BIPoC Department). Moderation: Britta Loschke
Draußen vor der Stadt – vom Quartier Nord (Marseille) bis nach Hellersdorf (Berlin). Fragen an die Soziale Arbeit als Profession
Thu, 6.6.24, 5.00–7.00 pm
Talk and screening on segregation and exclusion in Marseille and Berlin with Christian Jakob (taz journalist and author of the book ‘Die Bleibenden’) and Selma Alaabed (journalist and ASH student)
Das Recht auf Bewegungsfreiheit: von Afrique-Europe-Interact bis zu Top Manta
13.6.24, 5.00–7.00 pm
Talk and screenings of ‘Top Manta’ (Barcelona 2023, 5 minutes, English) by Manuel Haist, Jerome Mard, Lerato Mkwanazi and Leonie Odelga-Tschernev and of ‘Die vergessenen Migrant:innen’ (Mali, 50 minutes, French / Bambara with German subtitles) by Djif Djimeli, followed by Q & A with the filmmakers.
In cooperation with hörsaalkino ash
Residents’ advisory board meeting and finissage
Thu, 27.6.24, 5.00–7.00 pm