Beyond Earthmoving

Using Eray Çaylı's new book Earthmoving: Extractivism, War, and Visuality in Northern Kurdistan as a starting point, this event will examine these questions from the interconnected—and sometimes overlapping—perspectives of the colonialities of Macedonia, Kurdistan, and Armenia. Beyond Earthmoving brings together cultural producers, including artists, architects, curators, and theorists, who engage in collaborative work across these regions.

Aiming to foster solidarities across different contexts and between coercively disentangled geographies, this event welcomes anyone interested in the environmental politics of (de)coloniality and the role of culture in shaping socially and environmentally just futures, especially beyond more widely explored contexts like the Americas and Australasia. 

Full programme:

1 – 2:15 pm:   Introductory remarks and Earthmoving book launch with Eray Çaylı in conversation with Rosa Hêlin Burç : How does extractivism persist by harnessing contemporary ecological and humanitarian sensibilities, and in what ways might artistic practices—such as those addressing mid-2010s episode of war in Northern Kurdistan—open new pathways for challenging its colonial and racial-capitalist valuation logics?

2:30 – 4 pm: Film screening and discussion with Cengiz Tekin, Maria Matinyan, Hristina Ivanoska, and Theodossis Issaias  (Moderator: Eray Çaylı) : How might aesthetic representation challenge extractivism today especially in contexts whose interconnected colonialities remain underacknowledged and yet continue to shape environmental and social realities?

•  Empty Frames (2026, Theodossis Issaias and Aristotelis Maragkos), 3'
• Living Pits (2024, Erkan Özgen), 6'
• Welcome to Naturland (2022, Cengiz Tekin), 8'30''
• Longing for a Peaceful Sleep (2022, Maria Matinyan), 15'
• Document Missing: Performance no. 5 (Three Actions) (2017, Hristina Ivanoska), 5'45''
• Everything Is After Something (2004, Yane Calovski), 1'34''

4:15 – 6 pm: Roundtable and forum with Dicle Beştaş, Cengiz Tekin & Erkan Özgen (Loading), Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska (Press to Exit), Theo Issaias (Fatura), Maria Matinyan (G.Urban) (Moderator: Eray Çaylı) : What role might collectives organizing through cultural production play in challenging extractivism in contexts of the kind mentioned above?

Image: Still from Sedat Akdoğan’s video trilogy About Dry Land and Soft Clouds, 2021.