Ilja Jakovlev

The exhibition "BERLINER" is dedicated to the complex and multifaceted problem of immigrants from the Middle East in Europe. Do we fully understand the reasons why they came here? Do we feel the consequences? The last two months before the new year I lived in Berlin, which strangely surprised me with its oriental atmosphere, no matter how absurd it sounds. Signs in Arabic, Muslim quarters, minarets, fruit markets, huge Islamist communities - this is all Berlin today. In my exhibition, I convey my feelings and impressions of what I see through research, which I spent interacting with local representatives of migration from the Middle East.
Someone calls it an occupation, someone (like most Germans in Berlin) decides that this advantage in cultural exchange and national diversity only beautifies the city. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the East has already strongly influenced not only Berlin, but the whole of Europe. Just like in the 15th and 16th centuries, when after the occupation of the Spanish lands by the Arabs, chemistry and geometry, new trends in architecture, a huge number of new words appeared. The new era we live in can be defined as migration, from which definitions such as identity, homeland, culture take on new meanings.
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Text: Ilja Jakovlev
Curator: Ilja Jakovlev