PRESENTATION: Connecting Roots-Collective Stories, Individual Identities

In the exhibition “Connecting Roots: Collective Stories, Individual Identities”, ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen commemorates the 20th anniversary of the CrossCulture Programme (CCP), a flagship initiative fostering intercultural dialogue and global exchange. This milestone exhibition offers a compelling exploration of memory in its many forms—ranging from diasporic remembrance shaped by displacement and migration, to collective historical narratives that define communities, to intimate personal journeys of healing and self-discovery.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: ifa Archive

Bringing together a rich mosaic of voices, artistic practices, and lived experiences, the exhibition “Connecting Roots: Collective Stories, Individual Identities” invites audiences to explore the intricate relationship between memory and identity—how our roots shape who we are and how shared remembrance can transcend borders. Organized by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen to mark two decades of the CrossCulture Programme (CCP), this landmark exhibition features 15 artists from 10 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Morocco, and Tunisia. Seven of the participating artists are former CCP fellows, reflecting the programme’s enduring impact on global artistic exchange and intercultural collaboration. Through photography, video, sound art, performance, installations, and participatory workshops, the exhibition delves into themes of memory and belonging, collective healing, environmental fragility, and visions of the future. The artworks ask vital questions: How can individuals, each with distinct cultural and personal histories, come together to form communities that embrace difference? How can memory be a tool for connection, transformation, and healing? Art becomes a language of transcultural dialogue—one that intertwines personal narratives with broader societal histories and collective consciousness. Each work in the exhibition carries a unique perspective, giving space to memory as it is embedded in family stories, told through the voices of women, or experienced as a process of healing and future-making. Highlights from the exhibition include “Beyond the Scars”, an emotionally powerful installation by Bangladeshi artist Monon Muntaka, which examines trauma and healing through the lens of women’s experiences. In “Before It’s Gone”, Moroccan photographer M’hammed Kilito documents the resilience and vulnerability of North Africa’s endangered oases, highlighting the environmental dimension of cultural memory. Bangladeshi artist Aneek Mustafa Anwar presents “Photographs Not Taken”, a reflective visual project that captures his personal experience of diaspora and longing. Palestinian artist Izz Aljabari contemplates metaphysical and earthly realms in his poetic video work “On Memory and the Weight of Being”, while Tunisian artist Souad Mani contributes “Memories of the Present”, a lyrical video narrative blending poetic imagery with themes of memory, displacement, and time. The exhibition extends beyond the gallery walls into the city of Stuttgart with a dynamic programme of talks, performances, guided tours, and workshops on the opening and closing weekends (31 July–3 August & 19–21 September 2025). Events take place at the ifa Gallery Stuttgart, in municipal cultural spaces, and throughout public urban settings—bridging art and community, memory and place. A programme highlight is Egyptian artist Yara Mekawei’s immersive project “Sonic Map”, featuring the participatory sound walk “Stuttgart 21: A Sonic Manifesto”. Mekawei reimagines the city’s layered history, industrial pulse, and multicultural rhythms through sonic cartography. Her work invites participants to listen deeply, uncover hidden stories, and critically engage with Stuttgart’s evolving identity. Bolivian artist Jorge Ernesto Barrón contributes the documentary theatre piece “NULO”, which interweaves personal and political memory. The play draws from Bolivia’s turbulent history—the 2019 crisis, the 1980–81 García Meza dictatorship, and Barrón’s own family’s exile in Mexico—offering a haunting yet intimate portrait of resistance and remembrance. Interactive workshops further enrich the experience: in “The Tapestry of Becoming”, Kashmiri-Pakistani artist Zahra Amber guides participants through textile-based storytelling, weaving threads of memory into shared fabric. Meanwhile, the communal project Roots Kitchen brings people together to cook and converse, as artists share cherished family recipes and the stories embedded within them—culinary memory as a medium of cultural continuity and exchange. “Connecting Roots: Collective Stories, Individual Identities” celebrates the power of art to connect, question, and heal. It is both a tribute to the transformative potential of the CrossCulture Programme and an open invitation to engage with the many ways in which memory lives, breathes, and binds us across time and place.

Participating Artists: Aneek Mustafa Anwar, Farah Khelil, Izz Aljabari, Jorge Ernesto Barrón, M’hammed Killito, Mohamed Thara, Monon Muntaka, Qafar Rzayev, Said Al Haddaji, Sameh Al Tawil, Souad Mani, Yara Mekawei, Yassine Alaoui Ismaili aka Yoriyas, Zahra Amber

Photo: Mohamed Thara. An egg, the white is gone but the yellow remains, Video Installation, © ADAGP, Paris 2024

Info: Curators: Elham Khattab and Omar Chennafi, ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Charlottenplatz 17, Stuttgart, Germany, Duration: 1/8-21/9/2025, Days & Hours: Wed-sun 12:00-18:00, www.ifa.de/