Vortrag, Podiumsdiskussion | Berlin | 21.02.2023, 18:00 | öffentlich
Mercator Talk on the portrait series exhibition “I am not a victim, I am a survivor”
This Mercator Talk is the first of an event series which the Mercator Foundation is organising to commemorate the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion against Ukraine.
INVITATION
A year ago, Russia extended the war of aggression it has been waging against Ukraine since 2014 into a full-scale invasion of the entire country. Ever since, news has been reaching us of torture, destruction and unbearable suffering. Whereas the public debate in Germany has been focusing on arms deliveries and energy shortages, the personal fates of people in Ukraine and of those more than 17 million people who have now fled their homeland have often been taking a back seat. Especially women and members of the LGTBQIA+ community and other marginalized groups are paid scant attention in media reporting.
Oleksandra Bienert (CineMova e.V.), a human rights activist and photographer, wants her portrait series “I am not a victim. I am a survivor” to give a voice to precisely these marginalized groups. Shortly after their arrival, she interviewed and photographed 18 women who had fled from Ukraine to Germany. She focuses on the identities of the women behind the refugee stories: on their careers, their dreams, their goals. Rather than being reduced to the role of victim, the women themselves choose which narrative to tell the public.
In cooperation with “CineMova – Ukrainian Film Community in Berlin e.V.”, we warmly invite you to the exhibition vernissage at the Mercator Center Berlin. During a Mercator Talk, Katarina Niewiedzial, Commissioner of the Berlin Senate for Integration and Migration, will join Professor Tamara Martsenyuk, a sociologist and one of the women portrayed in the series, Christiana Adeniyi, an engineer and member of the initiative “BIPoC Ukraine and friends in Germany”, and Alyona Kukhar, Institutional Development Manager of the Ukrainian Institute, who has meanwhile returned to Ukraine, in discussing the situation facing women refugees in Berlin and the current political challenges.
The Mercator Talk will be in English and chaired by Inna Nelles, co-founder of the Journalism Laboratory and the German-Ukrainian Bureau.
PROGRAM
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Chaired talk, followed by discussion
7:30 pm
Vernissage with light refreshments
REGISTRATION
Please sign down here until February 18th.
EVENT LOCATION
ProjektZentrum Berlin
der Stiftung Mercator
Neue Promenade 6
10178 Berlin
Mehr dazu auf der Webseite von Mercator Stiftung.
