Art of the “Guest Worker” Era – Family History as Art History

Monday, April 27, 2026, 7 p.m.
at the Museum Ludwig cinema
Admission is free. We kindly request that you register in advance. The event will be held in German.

Manifesta 16 Ruhr will take place from June 21 to October 4, 2026, in Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, and Bochum. In a region whose identity is significantly shaped by industrial labor and transnational migration, this edition is also dedicated to the question of how artistic practices make visible experiences of labor migration, belonging, and intergenerational memory.

The creative mediator for migration history in this edition of Manifesta is Gürsoy Doğtaş, who focuses on the role of the visual arts as a critical companion in his lecture. The starting point for his reflections is the so-called “guest worker” era, whose social, cultural, and affective traces, as well as memory politics, continue to have an impact today. Manifesta 16 thus ties in with the history of transformation in the Ruhr region—a region undergoing post-industrial change that is renegotiating which voices, memories, and narratives inscribe its present and future.

Dr. Gürsoy Doğtaş is curator, art historian, and creative mediator for Manifesta 16. He works at the intersection of migration history and intersectional queer history. In September 2026, the exhibition Kreuzberg, which he is curating together with Patrizia Dander, will open at the Gropius Bau in Berlin.

“Art in Context” is a lecture series of the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig and is generously made possible by Flossbach von Storch SE.

With the kind support of Dorint Hotel am Heumarkt Köln and Wein- und Sektgut Reverchon.

Click here to see our past events.