Mahalla Festival

06/06/2026

Reading during a conference at the . A really important event featuring the translations of three of her books to Turkish. Özdamar shared her observations of Berlin in the 1960th, her difficult partying from her Gamily leaving in the age of a High School student to become a worker in Germany. She had been active in the leftist circles in those years in Turkey and had been already a passionate theatre actress. She quickly entered the theatre scene in Germany as well. “Hausarzt wird Unrat” was a sentence she memorized from. A newspaper and would declare it when confronted with bullying behavior of Germans in public space. I remember that still in the 1980ths it wasn’t tolerated that anymore speaks loud on the street in any other language then German. For me Özdamar’s strongest side is her humor and the incredible neologism from Turkish she has contributed to German Literature. 🫶✨

25/05/2026

Tan Cemal Genç and Andaç Gürsoy , güçlü çizer ve müthiş tatlı insanlar. Deli 1991 senesinde bağımsız çizerler tarafından yayınlanmiş ilk mizah dergisiydi. Farklı bir tarz geliştirmeyi çabaladılar. Seneler geçtikçe o amaçtan uzaklaşmadılar. Yeni deli dergisi olağanüstü. Mizah ve sanatı lisanı birleştiren özel bir tarzı geliştirmekte. Güzel söyleyiş için 🙏✌️✨

10/05/2026

MOWE Berlin

10/05/2026

MOWE-Festival Berlin. 🫶👏✨ #

09/04/2026

On April 7th, 2026 diyalog presented the European Community Award to the artisans of the Büyük Valide Han in recognition of their collaboration with the artists of the Mahalla Festival – Midas Touch edition.

The European Community Awards Co-create & Comprehend is an annual competition, held by the MagiC Carpets platform and co-funded by Creative Europe.

https://mahalla.inenart.eu/2026/04/09/community-award/

26/03/2026

Open Call for emerging artists Residencies 2026 at Jam Factory Art Center

We invite artists to apply for a community art residency exploring how a sense of home can be rebuilt in the context of displacement caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine. Through gardening and working with land, cooking and shared meals, architecture and work with space and traditional crafts, everyday practices become tools for preserving memory, restoring connection, and forming new communities.

We are looking for artists working with socially engaged and site-specific approaches, open to collaborating with local residents and internally displaced people.

We expect artists to:
– be open to working with communities and sensitive social contexts;
– have an awareness of the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war;
– approach collaboration with care and responsibility (experience in Ukraine is a plus, but not required).

Who can apply:
Artists who are EU citizens, have the right to reside in the EU, or are from Creative Europe-eligible countries.

📅 Application deadline: 10 April 2026
📍 Lviv, Ukraine
💡 Artist fee, production budget, travel, and accommodation covered

More information www.magiccarpets.eu

26/03/2026

03/02/2026

Check out the Open Call from Wrocławski Instytut Kultury AIR Wro our parter in the frame of Magic Carpets

for artists in

residency in Wrocław aims to create a space for meeting, getting to know each other, and working together artistically, which can contribute to building a more open and inclusive city.

The stay with Wrocławski Instytut Kultury will be an opportunity for in-depth research and artistic work based on dialogue and co-creation with the local Korean community.

For more details and information please see: https://magiccarpets.eu/open-call-for-artistic-residency-in-wroclaw/

31/01/2026

G. Jaylan Araslan's "Life Philosophy" is a short film about exile. For the Mahalla Festival, Arsalan, together with Noor Ahmad Yurtdaş (Camera), prepared a personal reflection in the form of a poem—a language chosen not to seek recognition, but to endure. In these days of international ignorance, a voice you should listen to. IMS (International Media Support)

Photo: G. Jaylan Arsalan, Noor Ahmad Yurtdaş, Mathilde Melek An (Mahalla Festival, September 2025)   Life Philosophy I do not seek fame As long as you recognize me. The good see good, the wicked see wicked — Everyone perceives me according to their own worth. Life’s philosophy — how strange ...

23/01/2026

Mahalla Festival 2025 — Midas Touch ✨

📍 Büyük Valide Han

At Büyük Valide Han, gold became a question, not an answer.

Mahalla Festival 2025 unfolded between history and now — where craftsmanship met contemporary voices, and transformation revealed its contradictions.

The 2025 Mahalla Festival exhibition Midas Touch explored transformation, value, and the paradox of growth, inspired by the ancient myth of King Midas. The festival awakened the Han as a living, breathing space, where craftsmanship, history, and contemporary artistic narratives converged. Artists worked in direct dialogue with the architecture, its metalworking traditions, and the artisans of the surrounding community.

The concept, developed by Artistic Director Sabine Küper-Büsch, was realized by 21 participating artists, activating the Han as a space of encounter, reflection, and collective creation in the parallel program of the 18th Istanbul Bienali.

In partnership with IMS (International Media Support), Afghan artists, filmmakers, and writers contributed significantly to the festival. Many of them joined from great distances, reflecting Mahalla’s ongoing commitment to overcoming borders, restricted mobility, and unequal access to cultural participation. Their perspectives added vital layers of lived experience, resilience, and transnational dialogue to the exhibition.

Within the framework of the Magic Carpets Network, long-term Mahalla artist Mathilde Melek An curated community-oriented works by Ieva Kotryna Ski (Kaunas Biennial) and Tbel Abuseridze (Tbilisi Photo Festival).

In collaboration with Pilot Galeri, artists Emir Erkaya and Gözde “Mimiko” Türkkan further expanded the dialogue through their artistic contributions.



Participating Artists
Tbel Abuseridze (GE)
Şevket Akıncı (TR)
Jaylan G. Arsalan (AF/TR)
Mathilde Melek An (FR/TR)
Thomas Büsch (DE/TR)
Nora Byrne (US/TR)
Emir Erkaya (TR)
İlhami Tunç Gencer (TR)
Salma Haidari
Yalda Hussaini (AF)
Romuald Jandolo (FR)
Talin Gülen Schenk (TR)
Lida Hamid (AF)
Ieva Kotryna Ski (LT/FR)
Shahzad Mudasir (AF/CA)
Mansoora Rasa (AF)
Naser Sahebzada (AF)
Katharina Swoboda (AT)
Gözde “Mimiko” Türkkan (TR)
Noor Ahmad Yurtdaş (AF/TR)
Fatima Wojohat (US/AF)