KIRIK* is a research-based, participatory and critical initiative for people and topics in the cracks. 

By choosing KIRIK as the name of our initiative, we embrace and reclaim multiple meanings of this versatile word in Turkish such as crack, broken, hue, hybrid, fault, strange, queer and bent. 

Our initiative comes as a response to the shrinking of individual, cultural and political spheres in Turkey in the past decade. While several collectives and solidarity organisations which we were part of struggled to sustain themselves, larger cultural institutions had to make concessions from programs that defined their long-term missions. Seeking comfort in actions of immediate solidarity against oppression resulted in gathering only around certain defense lines. Trying to push back the attacks on our lives, we were left with no time and space for nuanced debates.

Without forgetting the importance of togetherness, KIRIK would like to explore the creative potentials of in-betweenness. We aim to foster knowledge production and sharing through talks, discussions, screenings and meetings. 

In its first year, KIRIK hosted a number of discussions on the radical meaning of solidarity in addition to film programs on the ecological crisis, colonialism, extractivism, capitalism and crime, genocide, and accountability. In its second year, KIRIK proposes to host talks and screenings that will primarily address the complex issue of sanctions and boycotts in the local geography, as well as discussions of cultural hegemony and cultural polarization.

* crack / broken / hue / hybrid / fault / strange / queer / bent