Discipline: Cultural Theory + Journalism
Art, Memory Work, and State Violence – Panel Discussion with Banu Karaca, Stellan Veloce & Tunay Önder
On January 13, 2026, the panel discussion Art, Memory Work, and State Violence took place at Depo in Istanbul, featuring Tarabya Cultural Academy fellows Stellan Veloce and Tunay Önder alongside cultural studies scholar Banu Karaca. The event brought together perspectives from academia and artistic practice to reflect on the interrelations between art, political memory, and state violence in Germany and Türkiye.
The discussion was anchored in Karaca’s book The National Frame: Art and State Violence in Turkey and Germany (2021), which examines, through numerous examples from Berlin and Istanbul, the close entanglement of modern and contemporary art with nation-state power structures. For the two fellows, the book served as an important impulse to critically reflect on their own experiences during their stay in Istanbul.
Historical as well as contemporary cases of censorship, repression, and political interference in cultural production were addressed. Drawing on concrete examples, the participants discussed how power relations determine which voices gain visibility and which remain marginalized.
The conversation was complemented by a musical performance by Stellan Veloce inspired by Karaca’s work and a literary contribution by Tunay Önder, which deepened the thematic questions on an artistic level.
The panel opened up a nuanced exchange on agency, institutional dependencies, and resistant practices within the art and cultural scenes of both countries, highlighting how closely artistic production is intertwined with social and political frameworks.
Birsen Kahraman
Birsen Kahraman is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and author. She is also involved in psychotherapeutic training and professional policy. She studied psychology, journalism, and cultural studies at the University of Hamburg and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She received her doctorate in 2006 at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich with a dissertation on cultural and power sensitivity in the therapeutic relationship. Before setting up her own practice, she worked for various psychosocial care institutions such as the Rechts der Isar hospital clinic in Munich, the department of migrant psychological services at the Worker’s Welfare Association (AWO) in Munich, Refugio München, and the Eichstätt Catholic University. She continues to work at numerous state-accredited psychotherapy training institutions.
Kahraman specializes in the practice and teaching of anti-racist and context-sensitive psychotherapy, with an emphasis on (structural) discrimination and violence, transgenerational trauma, migration, and displacement. As an elected member of the German Chamber of Psychotherapists since 2017, she advocates for the identification and removal of barriers in patient care and for equal opportunities in access to psychotherapeutic education and professions.
Birsen Kahraman is in residence at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from November 2025 to January 2026.
Birsen Kahraman is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and author. She is also involved in psychotherapeutic training and professional policy. She studied psychology, journalism, and cultural studies at the University of Hamburg and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She received her doctorate in 2006 at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich with a dissertation on cultural and power sensitivity in the therapeutic relationship. Before setting up her own practice, she worked for various psychosocial care institutions such as the Rechts der Isar hospital clinic in Munich, the department of migrant psychological services at the Worker’s Welfare Association (AWO) in Munich, Refugio München, and the Eichstätt Catholic University. She continues to work at numerous state-accredited psychotherapy training institutions.
Kahraman specializes in the practice and teaching of anti-racist and context-sensitive psychotherapy, with an emphasis on (structural) discrimination and violence, transgenerational trauma, migration, and displacement. As an elected member of the German Chamber of Psychotherapists since 2017, she advocates for the identification and removal of barriers in patient care and for equal opportunities in access to psychotherapeutic education and professions.
Birsen Kahraman is in residence at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from November 2025 to January 2026.
