Melike Kara's Cologne Exhibition Explores Kurdish Identity Through Personal and Cultural Symbols

Melike Kara's exhibition 'Speaking in Tongues' at Jan Kaps in Cologne from 14 December to 10 February 2019 interrogates concepts of home and heritage. Born in Germany to a Kurdish Alevi family displaced from Turkey, Kara presents cross-media works addressing cultural memory. The video 'Emine' (2018) depicts her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's and is the last speaker of Zazaki, a language from eastern Turkey. This loss threatens the family's Kurdish identity. Another work, 'fal (a) bakmak' ('reading coffee grounds'), features about 300 mocha cups embedded in a wall grid, referencing her grandmother's tasseomancy practice and bridging contemporary art with traditional Kurdish rites. Paintings like 'Munzur (like she shapes us)' include a fat goat symbolizing antiquated Kurdish rituals, including goat slaughter that traumatized Kara. Two paired paintings contrast styles: 'Tiefe Schluchten langer Schnee' ('deep canyon, long snow') shows figures and goats in expressive oil pastel, while 'Haci Bektaş Veli' (Hadschi Bektasch Wali) portrays a 13th-century Alevi spiritual leader with animals, reflecting Kara's heritage. The figures in her paintings resemble Noh theatre masks, appearing uniform to outsiders but nuanced to those familiar with their codes. The exhibition highlights how minority communities and the artworld both operate with inscrutable codes to outsiders.