"There is a scene in "Morgenkreis | Morning Circle" (2025), a 16-mm film by Berlin-based Palestinian artist Basma al-Sharif, that unfolds at the threshold of a daycare center. A young boy clings to his father, his fists locked into the fabric of his coat, his arms wrapped tightly around him. The father gently tries to pry himself free while a daycare worker crouches nearby, attempting to distract the child and coax him inside. It is an ordinary moment, one that anyone who has ever been a child - or cared for one - recognizes instantly, as well as the gut-wrenching feeling it provokes."
"Kindergarten was invented in Germany in the 19th century and became a cornerstone of the modern European liberal project. Far from a neutral space of care, it has historically functioned as one of the first institutions through which the state organizes a child's entry into social life, shaping citizens through routines of discipline, language, and belonging, such as the daily ritual of the morning circle."
"As an artist whose work addresses the diasporic condition that has formed her own biography, al-Sharif suggests that the kernel of the trauma of being forcibly separated from one's country of origin can be found in the violence of a child's unwilling displacement from their parent. The grand historical exile of a people is made accessible through an intimate, visceral"
Basma al-Sharif, a Berlin-based Palestinian artist, creates films examining separation and displacement through personal and political lenses. Her 2025 film "Morgenkreis | Morning Circle" depicts a child reluctantly separating from his father at a daycare center, a scene that carries deeper significance. Kindergarten, invented in 19th-century Germany, functions as a state institution that organizes children's entry into social life through discipline and belonging rituals. Al-Sharif draws parallels between this intimate childhood separation and the larger historical trauma of forced exile and diaspora. The screening of her work at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf faced threats and smear campaigns, ironically validating her artistic exploration of how separation and displacement operate across personal and political dimensions.
#palestinian-diaspora #childhood-separation #state-institutions #displacement-trauma #contemporary-art
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