Pelin Karar

My aim as an artisteducator is to be someone who can counter discrimination, segregation and polarisation by using universal topics in art to find commonalities in people for connection. In my journey of my personal growth, I have always been searching for my identity. It was very complex to define my identity while I was living beyond two different cultures, Dutch and Turkish. I felt that I constantly had to adjust myself between those cultures. I had to change myself to fit in my surroundings. I saw myself as half-half and that I had to belong in those cultures. Yet, I hadn’t reached the sense of belonging in those cultures. As I started to study the masters iMAE, I discovered a feeling of being in-between two different worlds. In every space or environment, my identity changes and my identity becomes hybrid. This hybridity is like a movement, it comes alive and it is always developing and changing whenever I change my space. Performance art is for me a way to express this hybridity and to find connection with my mind, body and emotions. Using elements like movement, voice and expressing emotions, I express of how I feel, think and move as a human being. Through this way, people (the audience) become more aware of their own thoughts, emotions and body. These combinations which I use in performance art, were for me a motivation to think about how I could connect people through art education.

My goal is to create methods where people are able to have empathy for each other in order to achieve inclusivity. For example, I create methods with universal subject, like ‘’home’’. Everyone can talk about home and it is such a topic where everyone has an experience with. Sharing experiences about this topic becomes natural, because many people can relate to told stories. To achieve this, I create tools and methods like embodiment, storytelling and crafting to enable communication through creativity. By making connections through dialogues, people are able to recognize commonalities within each other even though they don’t have the same background in culture or ethnicity. I see myself as a bridge builder between these people because I connect them through making art or sharing experiences. By making people from different backgrounds remember what they have in common, people can create more empathy and respect for each other and most important of all, to remember that we all are human with emotions and thoughts.

In my performances you will see the embodiment of myself as an artisteducator where I have worked with different people and where I tell stories about my journey.

Take a look at my portfolio (2022): 

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