exp. 3: Affect Archives
Sinthujan Varatharajah, Osías Yanov. 22 February - 25 July 2020. 3rd part of the three sequential moments unfolding from Sept. 2019 to July 2020, 11th Berlin Biennale space at ExRotaprint complex.
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Sinthujan Varatharajah (center) and visitors from the Tamil community in Berlin.
In the second photo, the visitor draws her parents' route from their arrival at Schoenefeld Airport in East Berlin to West Berlin on the map.
The researcher, essayist, and political geographer Sinthujan Varatharajah looks critically into the aftermath of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms and riots in Sri Lanka—and the wars and genocide that followed. These led hundreds of thousands of Tamils into exile. For those who emigrated to Europe, divided Berlin was their personal entry point.
At the time, the Berlin Wall played a littleknown role as a permeable gateway, a transit point used as a loophole of survival for many then “Third World” refugees. A special agreement between East and West Germany enabled refugees to enter through East Germany to settle in the West. In the 1980s, the political cracks in the walls of partitioned Germany became a lifeline of survival for the Tamil.
© Photos: Haupt & Binder, universes.art
Text: Berlin Biennale
Sinthujan Varatharajah, Osías Yanov. 22 February - 25 July 2020. 3rd part of the three sequential moments unfolding from Sept. 2019 to July 2020, 11th Berlin Biennale space at ExRotaprint complex.