Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 4th floor.

Free admission.

The Anatolian Women’s Choir Seyyare (meaning “itinerant” or “in motion” in Turkish) was formed from a spontaneous act of collective singing during the funeral of Filiz Taşkın (1944–2024). Among the first Turkish women to arrive in West Berlin as a so-called Gastarbeiterin, Taşkın devoted her life to workers’, women’s, and migrant rights. The choir was founded and is led by singer Sema Moritz (* 1956).

Performing in more than 10 languages, the choir presents centuries-old song traditions from Anatolia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the broader Southwest Asian region. Bringing together women with experiences of migration and exile, Seyyare’s repertoire reflects a wide range of oral cultures shaped by movement, memory, and shared histories.

In residency at KW during the Kyiv Biennial, the 20-singer choir is regularly gathering for collective practice. An open rehearsal, presented during one of KW’s admission free evenings with longer opening hours Free Thursday, offers audiences a glimpse into the choir’s creative process. Following the residency, a new work, commissioned and presented by Pop-Kultur Festival, will premiere on 29.08.26 at Kulturbrauerei.

TBC
Pop Kultur Festival