Denitsa Ruseva - The Turkish community in Kreuzberg, Berlin

"Kreuzberg is a kind of biotope where different nationalities live, but the environment determines their lives, not their nationalities."

I decided to make a small research of the Turks in Kreuzberg, Berlin, because the story of the “Gastarbeiters” is very interesting for me. I know, that so much is written and spoken about them, that this is like a “cliche”, when we talk about integration and ethnic problems. But I don’t have my personal experience in this field and the problems with the Turks in my country are on different level.
In the 70’s Kreuzberg was an isolated corner, known as one of the poorest quarters in West Berlin, squeezed along a far circumference of the wall where ''guest workers'' from Turkey found places to live. This district is known as “Little Istanbul” for its large concentration of Turkish immigrants and their German-born families. After the fall of the wall Kreuzberg turned to one of Berlin's cultural centers in the middle of the reunified city. Now 40 years later this is an emblematic place for art, culture, contemporary art galleries and night life. The city-district has become known for its bohemian way of life. Today, you can walk through the neighborhood and spot trendy bars and outdoor cafes existing side by side with traditional Turkish bakeries and small shops. Walking on the cobblestone streets along historic apartment buildings gives you a little sense of what the area was like before World War II.
Since 2001 Kreuzberg is a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. It’ s interesting, that in 2006 31.6% of Kreuzberg's inhabitants did not have German citizenship. While the neighborhood thrives on its diverse culture and is still an attractive area for many, the district is also characterized by high levels of unemployment and some of the lowest average incomes in Berlin.
I have never been there, but I’m very interested what happens there nowadays. I’m full of questions: How does the symbiosis between the West and the Orient exist and what happens with this first generation of migrants? Are they still living there and how - as anachronism or as integrated part of this changing place? How visible they are and how much they want to be visible? Is the second/third generation of them part of this “modern art”/underground life or even made it happen?
At first sight I imagine my work as research of the inhabitants in one building. I plan it as dissection of the place with the photography as a main tool. Interior portraits with an interviews with this people or short description of their life.

For example – there is a famous punk club, or modern art gallery or Turks who sell döner kebap on the ground floor and on the next floors in strange harmony are living different types of people – students, Turks families, other migrants… Or, I could find a building where different generation of Turks are living together – everyone with his/her rituals in the everyday life. I imagine that some guys are “gangsta” hip-hoppers on the street, but because of their religion and patriarchal relations they respect the most the oldest man in the community. I see this on the movies, but this could be very different in the German reality. This second generation of the Turks immigrants grew up speaking German in school and Turkish at home. Life in two dimentions – the language determinates the behaviour models in and out of home.

The easier possibility is to make a study on a single lively street . This way the research is on a horizontal, not on vertical level. And the idea is the same – how the different generations and genders of the Turks live together with the others. I’m sure, that some of the old Turks live only in the territory of the neighborhood, where they develop local patriotism and identify themselves with this place, where they feel completely integrated.

It’s strange to write about something, you have never seen or places, you have never been. I don’t know how close my idea is to the reality in this Berlin neighborhood. But also it is difficult to make a profound observation of the topic, because of the short time of the project. For the above ideas I need time to gain the trust of these people. That’s why I decided to come a few days earlier and during the project to live in Kreuzberg and to feel the spirit of this emblematic place.

As a photographer I imagine my work more as visual research during the project, part of the collaboration with another answears-seeker… I know that we will work in small groups, so we could transform our ideas in something new.