by Nihan Devecioğlu

“We’re the ones who made BMW what it is today,” says Emine Ulusen, who worked at the BMW factory in Munich for 38 years. Along with Evgenia Karakolidis and Anayurt Kırımlı, she belongs to the first generation of Germany’s “Gastarbeiter”, or “guest workers”. They are “yoldaş” – friends and companions. They have spent the majority of their lives working at the BMW factory, where they have experienced periods of speechlessness, mental fatigue, and the exhausting physical labour that factory work entails. Singer Nihan Devecioğlu grew up near the BMW factory as the granddaughter of Turkish labourers. With this piece, she seeks to create a space for remembrance that is both poetic and musical in nature – one that honours both her childhood in Munich in the 1980s, as well as the women whose labour remains invisible to this day. The voices of women come together with the sounds of machines and documentary film material to form a vivid collage that also functions as a chronicle of self-empowerment and female solidarity.

Concept, interviews, performance, artistic & musical direction: Nihan Devecioğlu
Video artist & Camera: Cana Bilir–Meier, Tizian Stromp Zargari
Musical & conceptional collaboration: Alexey Kokhanov
Directional assistance: Frank Abt
Dramaturgy: Viktorie Knotková
Scenography: Ragna Heiny
Sound design & technical guidance: Ada Binaj
Creative Producer: Rat & Tat Kulturbüro

Nihan Devecioğlu

Premiere:
20th October 2025, Einstein Kultur

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