El FARO San Juan
Felisha Carenage and the Moko Jumbies Earl Ward Jr. and Tekel Sylvan

On this day, 9 years ago, the SS El Faro, a US-flagged cargo ship, was lost at sea after entering the eyewall of Hurricane Joaquin on her way from Jacksonville, Florida to Puerto Rico. On the sea floor of the Bahamas, she joined dozens of known merchant vessels carrying cargoes that fuel the tyranny of empire even in the present day (molasses, sugar, lumber, military tings, cotton, whiskey, rum, madeira, Disney plush toys, Coca-Cola syrup, Nescafé instant coffee, etc.)

Another commodity that haunts the overheating Caribbean Sea is the Labour which is dependent on such cargo – in terms of production as well as consumption. The bodies of the El Faro‘s 33-person crew rest among centuries of irretrievable loved-ones, mostly disposable people whose complexity and humanity is a threat to our entitlement to peace, pleasure and leisure.

My port-city / violent-island-girl projects have been pressuring me closer towards the wreck of the SS El Faro. Within the frame of the Dekoloniale Festival & Akademie 2024, together with 3 incredibly talented collaborators, I’m using the naval architecture of this 40-year old ship to do some wrecking work in the effed-up architecture and infrastructure of Berlin Mitte and Wedding. Haunting back the Atlantic Ocean and the exploitative interests that continue to thrive along the same damn shipping routes.

Tribunal-Mountain

Wirya Budaghi

With Susan Aziz, Wefa Bodaghi and Nasser Teymourpour, Curated by Baris Seyitvan
30.11.–15.12.2024

BARAZANI BERLIN | Spreeufer 6 | 10178 Berlin
Opening: SAT, 30.11.24 from 17:00 | Opening hours: / SUN, 01.12.24 / FR, 06.12.24 / SAT, 07.12.24 / SUN, 08.12.24 / FR, 13.12.24 / SAT, 14.12.24 / SUN, 15.12.24 each from 17:00-20:00 | BARAZANI Dinner Table (RSVP) SU, 15.12.24, 17:00

Feelings such as mourning and pain are more in collective responsibility in many societies. Through the empathetic words of hundreds of people, for example in Kurdistan, your pain is shared, and you find yourself in a space with emotional support. Participation in mourning is seen as a human responsibility and is a tradition. Thus pain, instead of being as an individual problem, becomes a collective, social process. Due to the large extent of sharing pain in space, this tradition becomes dangerous for a regime in a political context. 

The tradition of mourning can be transformed into political activism if, for example, it serves to clarify unjust murders, executions, and torture. Enlightenment can mobilize grieving and aching bodies to resist injustice. That is why the regime in Kurdistan-Iran has made this tradition impossible. But for example, in Germany, there are no such collective traditions of mourning and pain in the majority of society. Pain is seldom socially, because it remains very individual and is regarded as a personal difficulty, issue, and problem. The body, which here suffers from pain in its individual or social existence, is not only affected by pain but also suffers from the fact that there is no space for expressing pain and grief.

Wirya Budaghi’s artistic research (Supported by the BK 2023 Senate Department for Culture and Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt), about how mourning can be transformed into political activism in Kurdistan, drawing historic images, photos and archives of collective movements, resilience, and activism in Kurdistan/Iran. In resonance with the Kurdish mourning tradition and the recent Jina (Mahsa) Amini revolution.