Red Thread

The project Red Thread, supported by the Istanbul-based non-profit cultural institution Anadolu Kültür, is an active network. It serves as a platform for artists, curators, social scientists, and cultural operators from the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, and beyond to exchange of knowledge and collaborate. Since 2009 three online issues of the magazine were published in Turkish and English language, each of them with different social and cultural focuses. The fourth issue has been developed in the context of the 3. Berliner Herbstsalon and will consist of three separate, but mutually interacting dossiers.
The first one departs from Judith Butler’s expanded use of the term »dispossession« which does not only refer to the loss of property and entitlements, but also losses in relation to one’s body, identity, memory, rights and freedom. Butler also reminds us that a state of dispossession is also the moment in which political subjectivity starts to be built.
At the same time, this shift opens up space for others join processes of articulating of dissent and political demand. The second dossier of the journal gives examples of these cases of acts of »solidarity«.
The third and final part of the project relates directly to the conceptual framework of the 3. Berliner Herbstsalon. It collects material about the contemporary and historical sources behind the concept of »disintegration« – a call for creative disjunctions, not from the society itself, but from the majoritarian, reactionary and repressive interpretations on collective identity. A call for joining the ranks of radical diversity. The issue will be comprised of contributions from writers, thinkers and activists such as Marina Gržinić, Rastko Močnik, Natalie Bayer, Rasha Salti, Emina Bužinkić, Şeyda Özden and Guillaume Paoli.