Hierarchies of Solidarity

With சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) and مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal)

Photo சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah): Lilian Scarlet Löwenbrück, photo مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal): 张满玉 (Prissilya Junewin)

சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) and مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal) talk about their recent publication Hierarchiesof Solidarity, which was published by Wirklichkeit Books.

As part of the public programme accompanying the exhibition DAS GLÜCK IST NICHT IMMER LUSTIG by Rirkrit Tiravanija, the Gropius Bau invites you to a monthly series of Long Evenings. In addition to this talk, there will be a lecture performance by Theresa Weber as well as a performance by Nazanin Noori and Andrea Belfi.

How does solidarity emerge? When are political alliances formed beyond differences and why do certain struggles seem to garner more solidarity than others? What constitutes solidarity work and what contradictions, interests and strategies shape it?

In their new volume, Hierarchies of Solidarity, சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) and مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal) jointly reflect on a practice that, as an act against oppression, manifests itself in both seemingly small everyday gestures and global political contexts.

சிிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) is a researcher and essayist based in Berlin. Having studied political geography, they now work on the subjects of statelessness, mobilities and anticolonial resistance with a special focus on infrastructures, logistics and building cultures. வரதராஜா is embedded within the Eelam Tamil liberation movement and has worked for various human and asylum rights organisations in London and Berlin over the years. Their non fiction book an alle orte, die hinter uns liegen (to all places that lie behind us) was published by Hanser Verlag in September 2022.

مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal) is an artist, researcher and curator who lives in Hamburg. She is a co-founder of the collective AVAH (Afghan Visual Arts and History) and the research project CCC (Curating Through Conflict with Care). In her work, which encompasses both artistic and discursive formats, she is concerned with beauty, ugliness, shame and power. Hilal studied Islamic Studies with a focus on gender, decolonial studies and Cultural Studies in Hamburg, Berlin and London. Her debut novel Hässlichkeit (Ugliness) was published by Hanser Verlag in September 2023.