Dazwischensein 9 - Künstleringespräch mit Cana Bilir-Meier und Simon Biallowons

In the organizer's words:

We cordially invite you to the artist talk!

The conversation between Cana Bilir-Meier and Simon Biallowons is about questioning normality and entrenched structures. Cana Bilir-Meier's work connects personal and collective memories by using family archive material and opening up new perspectives on communities and relationships. She shows how stories and cultural heritage can be passed on through rituals, dance, music and body movements. Her family's history of migration and the Turkish play Düşler Ülkesi also play a central role. The dialog also addresses how to deal with past injuries, reconciliation and state violence, as in the film 'The Life of Yaya Jabbi'.

Cana Bilir-Meier (*1986 in Munich) lives and works in Munich and Vienna. She studied art and digital media as well as film and art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at Sabancı University in Istanbul. She works as a filmmaker and artist as well as in art and cultural education projects. Her filmic, performative and text-based works operate at the interfaces between archive work, text production, historical research, contemporary media reflexivity and archaeology. She is co-founder of the initiative in memory of Semra Ertan and co-editor of the poetry collection 'Mein Name ist Ausländer - Benim Adım Yabancı'. In 2021, she was a substitute professor for art education at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich.

Talk partner: Simon Biallowons (*1984) is a trained philosopher, journalist and author. He has worked as a reporter all over the world and his books primarily deal with philosophical and religious-spiritual topics. He worked as a correspondent in Rome, lived in the Middle East and reported as a reporter for various media in many countries. Biallowons is the author of several bestsellers and is currently managing director and chief editor of Herder Verlag.

To the exhibition Dazwischensein 9.