Integrationskurs
HAND MADE ACORDEON VERSION
FANZINE VERSION
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Integrationskurs is a photographic project developed during the months I attended the integration course in Berlin. This course not only involves learning German intensively but also understanding what life in Germany is like, with the ultimate goal of successfully integrating into society.
What unexpectedly felt most out of my context—besides the language, which undoubtedly was—was attending classes with people from such remote places and with migration reasons so different, and in many cases, much harsher than mine.
During those months, I felt a certain fascination with being surrounded by people with whom, under almost no other circumstances, I would have had the chance to talk, laugh, dance, and even become friends. I deliberately romanticized my experience and my bond with my classmates, whom, not long before, I had only recognized as archetypes from the news: Ukrainians fleeing war, Afghans escaping the Taliban regime, Russians distancing themselves as much as possible from Putin, and so on.
I saw myself reflected in them, yet at the same time, I felt like a spectator. I transformed these vivid sensations into the creation of these portraits and interviews, which we produced with the first timid rays of Berlin’s spring sun, in the schoolyard, during the 15-minute breaks we had every morning.
