My Mother, The Pieceworker Reserve your free seat here
On Labor Migration and Art History
Lecture by Dr. Gürsoy Doğtaş in English
Azade Köker, Die Akkordarbeiterin [The female pieceworker], Detail from the sculpture group Fließband [Assembly Line], 1987
Saturday, June 6, 2026
7 PM
When West Germany recruited “guest workers” between 1955 and 1973 within the framework of bilateral labor agreements, artists also came from the sending countries. Some travelled with a scholarship from their country of origin or through the DAAD. Others began as factory workers and at the same time enrolled at art schools in Düsseldorf, West Berlin, or Braunschweig. Still others made art parallel to shift work, beyond the art world’s symbolic and economic structures of recognition. Many of the works by these artists addressed the living and working conditions of migrant workers.
In his lecture, Gürsoy Doğtaş examines this under-explored chapter of art history and connects it to his own biography as the child of “guest workers” from Türkiye.
Following the lecture, the evening offers the opportunity to chat with researchers and students and to linger in the Cafébar Hedwig and on the terrace of DAS MINSK for a summery barbecue with music. From 8:30 PM Anele will DJ an atmospheric set on the terrace. The Cafébar Hedwig will remain open until 10PM on this evening.
This event is part of the summer school “Refugee Integration? Critical Reflections on Past and Present” and is organized in collaboration with the Chair of Global History at the University of Potsdam.
Parallel to Oscar Murillo’s exhibition, DAS MINSK is realizing a scholarly event program in collaboration with the University of Potsdam that reflects on the artistic questions raised in the exhibition in dialogue with both historical and current social debates on migration, integration, and collective spaces of experience. Through reading, discussion, and research, the exhibition becomes an open space for reflection in which art and scholarship productively meet.
The Summer School is organized in partnership with universities in Cagliari (Italy), Brno (Czech Republic), Pécs (Hungary), Paris Nanterre (France), Rennes (France), Jaume I (Spain), and South-Eastern Norway. Together, these institutions form the alliance The European Digital University (EDUC).