“Anna Baba and the 40 Thieves” issa folk tale added to the “One Thousand and

One Nights” this summer as a result of the

exploding new/old fascisms in Germany. After a legacy of centuries of constructing racial difference and inventing racial groups, the last decade of German politics playing “good cop, bad cop” further normalised and mainstreamed

racial categories anew. To this day responsibility

for the far right networks in police

are bluntly ignored, mainstream politics and

media disregard the constantly recurring hate attacks on migrants. This racial discrimination found one of it's peaks, when the Lebanese Restaurant “Al Andalus” in Anna Babas neighborhood got burnt down by fascists and a Berlin newspaper titled this horrific incident

“Flambeed Kebab”.

We assume that our social and political

destinies are shaped by the will of the people

without realising that “the people” are always

produced by the media: we are all embedded

in mediated publics, structured by the apparatuses of communication that govern our interactions. The forty thieves are wearing suitswith tag words German MAINSTREAM media

uses to describe the people white supremacy

uses to weaponize fear.

"Südländer" ist ein Projekt von Anna Baba und den vierzig Räubern. Unsicher ist, ob es sich dabei um eine Performance, eine Ausstellung, eine Byrek-Bude oder einen Raubüberfall handelt. Sicher ist, dass Südländer Steine in den Turnschuhen und Kokoswachs in den Haaren tragen. Am 16. Oktober eröffnet das neue Shisha-Kaffee am Ebertplatz. Kommt vorbei für eine Razzia, neue Installationen der Künstlerin, Chayas Kochtipps und Videoarbeiten. Für eine gemeinsame Huldigung des Abendlandes - ein Sesam, der sich zugleich öffnet und abschafft.