“BEYOND THE VISIBLE: THE REFUGEE WHO TELLS THEMSELVES” PROJECT MIGRATION AND WHAT IS ENGRAVED IN MEMORY THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN

The “BEYOND THE VISIBLE: THE REFUGEE WHO TELLS THEMSELVES” project, a visual culture and representation project, was initiated in collaboration between Istanbul Aydin University’s Faculty of Communication, the Anadolu Education and Culture Foundation (AKEV), the Turkish Refugee Council (TMK), the Küçükçekmece Municipality, and the Ümit İnatçı Art Center on May 14, 2022. This special project, supported by the European Union (EU), focuses on refugee children of secondary school age and sheds light on the deep issue through their eyes.

Migration and the refugee crisis, which has turned into a global humanitarian crisis over the years and is becoming more devastating every day, come to the forefront once again with the “BEYOND THE VISIBLE: THE REFUGEE WHO TELLS THEMSELVES” project. Designed for students who have migrated or have been forced to migrate for various reasons and continue their lives within the borders of Turkey, the project seeks to understand how refugee children in the process of building their personalities perceive themselves, their families, and their surroundings in their new living conditions, as well as what their expectations are from social life.

This EU-supported project conveys real stories from the field in a creative platform. The project is based on the necessity of a visual representation-based study to create an observation field for examining interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, building empathy, understanding the other, integration, and adaptation issues. Within the project, consisting of informative, dialogic, and educational workshop activities, 25 refugee students between the ages of 13-17 participated in the training held at Istanbul Aydin University’s Faculty of Communication. In the first stage of the training provided by Prof. Dr. Ümit İnatçı (Ümit İnatçı Art Center) and Dr. Lecturer Nazlı Köksal (IAU), theoretical knowledge on visual representation and visual communication was presented to the students. The second stage of the training involved practical applications related to visual narrative through the analysis of selected photographs from around the world and Turkey.

Following the training, the students began documenting their daily lives through photography. The results of their work will be presented to the audience through a special exhibition and seminar. The works bearing the students’ signatures will be analyzed by visual communication experts and sociologists participating in the project during the seminar. Additionally, a book containing the students’ photographs and visual analysis texts will be published as part of the project.