Tavga Guttstadt

Preservation as a form of resistance. 

In her current work Tavga Guttstadt uses the process of fermentation as a metaphor for the preservation of Kurdish culture. It serves as a conceptual framework to understand the complexity of cultural preservation by analysing the link between adaptation and assimilation, and examines the way in which our environment influences our growth. 

The ongoing and ever-changing oppressive political atmosphere the Kurdish population is subject to required Kurdish culture to adapt in reaction. Similar like cooking recipes that often manage to maintain alive over hundreds of decades, Kurdish culture has primarily been preserved through oral history. The research is based on the biological process as well as the political situation. Thereby, fermentation is seen as an investment in regards to our future survival. The outcome of her research is an experimental documentary called Hinar. The work combines the visual narrative of pomegranate fermentation with thoughts and experiences from research interviews. In this work the pomegranate incorporates both - Kurdish culture as well as the complexity of identity itself. 

It emphasises the importance of art and cultural work as a form of resistance. As the creation of art and platforms of cultural work actively enhances the preservation of the Kurdish culture. Moreover, these create a space for mutual experiences and strengthens the sense of identity. Thus taking back agency in defining this shared knowledge, and creating counter parts to the negative experience inflected through the political atmosphere.