DJ IPEK (GERMANY)
2002-12-12 Pusterviksbaren
BWANA CLUB PRESENTS AN EMAIL INTERVIEW WITH DJ IPEK MADE BY MARIE-AUDE MATIGNON.
MARIE-AUDE: First, a question in shape of a machine gun: Ipek, both your parents are Turkish? Are they German now? Are you born in Germany? Are they born in Germany? Which part of Turkey are they from? Are you travelling a lot? You’re from Munich but you’re living in Berlin. Is that right? Have you lived abroad?
DJ IPEK: My parents are both Turkish, though my father comes from a very Arabic and Kurdish area from Turkey, but he died 29 years ago, so I cannot ask him about my other ancestors. People say that I look quite Arabic or Kurdish. I don?t know. I was born in Germany 1972 in Munich. My mother still has her Turkish citizenship. But she is trying to get the German one. I?ve been having the German citizenship for 11 years. Politically, I am defined as an ?application-german?. Because Germany did not want to give me the citizenship automatically, because I had to fill an application form for that. I also use this term just to make the Law-by-blood-issue more conscious. For this I also had to give up my Turkish citizenship officially: you cannot be a German as well as of another citizenship, because of loyality. Nevertheless for me it was something else than by the law. The law is still based on the 1936 Nazi-Germany. But somehow not-officially I kept my Turkish citizenship, because you never know what will happen in Europe or in Germany. During the Nazisocialism the unimaginable happened, so there is nothing unimaginable in this world. And only people having another citizenship could leave Germany. That is why I still keep my safety. My general selfdefinition is: Lesbian, feminist, migrant from the 2nd generation from Turkey with the ?applied-german? citizenship. It sounds very long and complicated, doesn?t it? I went to a boarding school till 3rd class in Turkey. When I was 18, I went to London as an au-pair girl, just to have a distance to Germany, to the language and to my familiy. But after this one year, I decided to re-immigrate to Germany, and I started to study. Last year I have spent 2 months in New York / USA.
MARIE-AUDE: Are you/do you consider yourself as a musician? What does it mean/imply?
DJ IPEK: I don?t see my self as a musician, I play the music of other musicians and I mix them with my ideas. Though, I started to produce my own but nothing finished.
MARIE-AUDE: Interviews frequently qualify you as a muslim. It’s quite scarce to talk about one’s religious faith. What does faith give you?
DJ IPEK: Well I am sozialized as a muslim in Germany, but not as fundamentalist. My family have always had a very democratic and open minded view of islam. Also, my family has a holy person within ?Evliya Somuncu Baba?. In Konya, people still go to his grave and make wishes. There is also a book published about this holy person. I wouldn?t say that I am this kind of commercial religious muslim person. But I have found my own way of being faithfull to Allah. I even don?t practice all these rituals, but I certainly know much more than many others, who say that they are muslim. For many muslim people, I am not a real muslim person, because I live so differently and I am lesbian, which is not okay at all. And many people say even, you cannot be a lesbian and a member of islam, but I say, ?yes here I am?. After the 11th September, I printed on a t-shirt that says ?don?t panic I am islamic?, because of the anti-islamic racism. It was a kind of affirmative action for me. To make non-fundematalist-muslims, which are the majority, more visible. For most of the Europeans have there own view of muslim people, I also want to break the view, by being visible.
MARIE-AUDE: One is stroke by the diversity of your activities, that you manage to link with a great ability. Can you name the inner or external strenght that drives you to be so active and involved? Why are you going on?
DJ IPEK: Well, okay I am dj, with a music form which is not always popular among the majority. Because of this I had lots of difficulties. For my dj-story, how I started etc. I send you an article, which I have published for a book. For me, it was very important to make a music visible, which is the music of people in Germany in a great number. They should also be able to dance on their own music. I also publish articles about identities about being a member of the 2nd migrant-generation, also being homosexual and migrant and a muslim among a western-europe country. I also give work-shops to social-workers, because I have studied social-pedagogy and works. And I also do counselling work for young people and adults in that matter. I am also the founding member of a turkish gay group in Berlin. It is important within the society to make other lifestyles visible and reprentative. Because I had no help, when I needed one. There was no one who could give me his hand. It is also an aim for me, to show, that we live in a diversity, and that sometimes we have much more things in common than divide us. Sometimes differences are also very important to grow, but they don?t have to be concidered as dangerous. Why do we fear something different???? Why do we think, that something different can be dangerous or steal our identity. Everybody within the society needs ?the others? to make their identity even stronger. But you don?t have to oppress, obcess or push them away. I had lots of luck in my life, why shouldn?t i use it???? I also take my energy from it, I guess.
MARIE-AUDE: Is there a place you can call home?
DJ IPEK: Yes, Berlin is my home. Because I can create here so many spaces for my lifestyle. I can be Turkish, German, lesbian or just Ipek, without any of these identity issues. But when I go to Turkey, I feel myself also at home. And when I go to New York, I feel myself at home there. But the best place for me right now is Berlin. DJ IPEK (BERLIN)