Göksu Kunak Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite

With Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite, Göksu Kunak will present a performative intervention that spans the public space outside the building, the facade installation, and the interior of the Kestner Gesellschaft. Kunak’s performance engages with the diaspora from Turkey in Hanover, drawing on elements from sound, urban choreography, and symbolism to reflect on social structures of adaptation, control, and visibility.

The proximity of the Kestner Gesellschaft to numerous Turkish community centers, shops, and meeting places serves as a starting point for an investigation into belonging, experiences of migration, and social community within the urban space. Kunak addresses the politics of time, hybrid textual forms, and the performative shaping of contemporary lifestyles that fluctuate between cultural attributions and individual agency. The exhibition’s title refers to the film Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite (Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar, 1989) and the novella of the same title (1986) by Feride Çiçekoğlu.

Göksu Kunak presents the new, site-specific performance Don’t Let Them Shoot the Kite at 8 pm on April 25, 2025, as part of the exhibition opening.

Together with singer Saadet Türköz and Saz musicians from the Verein Can Arkadaş, Kunak creates a futuristic world in which tradition and subculture converge.

The performance begins with an introduction by Göksu Kunak on Goseriedeplatz in front of the Kestner Gesellschaft. This introduction reflects on the historically charged context of migration, the current political tensions, and Europe’s relationship with the so-called “Middle East.” The themes explored include socio-political questions such as self-Orientalization, individual conditioning, and binary, heteronormative patterns of thought.

Curator: Alexander Wilmschen
Assistant Curator: Emilia Radmacher