Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite
Göksu Kunak
Göksu Kunak’s Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite engages with themes of displacement, visibility, and social belonging in the context of migration. The title refers to the film of the same name by Tunç Başaran (1989) and the novella by Feride Çiçekoğlu (1986), which tells the story of Barış, a boy living in a women’s prison.
For Kunak, this story becomes a layered metaphor for migrant realities, self-determination, and resistance against social and political limitations. Kunak’s interdisciplinary, research-based, performative practice brings together art, history, and social policy. It addresses migration from Turkey to Germany and its impact on current social and political questions. Two 3D-printed sculptures are suspended freely in front of a large wall featuring a video projection and drawings by the artist. The installation draws on photographs from the DOMiD archive documenting gestures made by workers in Turkey in the 1960s. Between 1961 and 1972, these workers were subjected in Istanbul to humiliating medical examinations by German doctors, which were decisive in determining their “fitness for work” and therefore their chance of starting a new life in Germany. The gestures refer to the emotional and physical experiences of the workers.
A white embroidered curtain, similar to those commonly used in homes in Turkey, covers parts of the exterior at silent green. It points to the tension between visibility and invisibility, remembrance and repression — experiences central to migrant life stories. The curtain becomes a metaphor for social exclusion and the feeling of alienation, which are also key themes in Başaran’s film.
Kunak’s performative and installative works create spaces for a nuanced engagement with identity, belonging, and political oppression. They challenge normative paradigms and open up a platform for the complex and often contradictory experiences of migrant realities.