Seçil Yaylalı

Quartier für Vielflieger/Nests for frequent Flyers

by Association Open Embassy (Anne Deschka & Secil Yaylali) 

2010, Berlin

wood equipments, wood, glue, paint

supported by Quartiersmanagement Zentrum Kreuzberg/Oranienstraße, Familiengarten, Gartenstudio, Kotti-shop, and FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum

 

In Turkey and neighbouring countries, birdhouses enjoy a century-long tradition; over time, tiny and highly decorated houses for birds have become a typical architectural feature of the facades of public buildings in the region. Birdhouses are meant to protect birds from predators and adverse weather conditions while in the city; during winters, they often shelter migratory birds, which local people welcome.

Quartier für Vielflieger/Nests for Frequent Flyers took place as a public participatory project in the district of Kottbusser Tor-Kreuzberg, Berlin, where many people live and share themselves experiences of arrival and departure, as well as the feeling of depending on the locals’ hospitality. Although migrants represent a wide part of the neighbourhood population, they tend to live separately and gather in groups according to their nationality; newcomers frequently experience unsafety and loneliness, feeling isolated from society and other migrants.

The project invited local and international residents to build birdhouses, which would later be installed around the district as a symbol of care and solidarity.

In collaboration with different professionals, Anne Deschka and Secil Yaylali organized a program of several open workshops around Kreuzberg, which helped them to engage with people and involve them as participants of the project.

Afterwards, different artists held a series of one-week birdhouse-building labs at the independent art space Kotti-Shop to design, build, and decorate the shelters that would later be installed on the walls of the gigantic residential block Zentrum Kreuzberg, overlooking the main square of Kottbusser Tor, and on the top of FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, the district museum.

 

Workshops program: 

origami with Yumi Tanabe (Gartenstudio, Kreuzberg)

Ornithological-artistic excursion (Kreuzberg)

ebru - Turkish aquarelle with Anil Avci  (Familiengarten and Kotti-shop, Kreuzberg)

participatory drawing with Stefan Endewart and Anette Knol (Kotti-Shop, Kreuzberg)  

The other Sound Isa Andreu & Paul Paulun (Kotti-Shop, Kreuzberg)  

+ About birdhouses - lecture with Gülhan Böngöl (Kotti-Shop)

 

Secil Yaylali and John Dunn, Emma Williams and Tim Greaves, and Thekla Rickert and Dagmar Lesiak held the birdhouse-building labs.

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