In June 2025, a nationally unique research project for the artistic and academic promotion of BiPoC+ FLINTA** was launched at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG). Led by visual artist Ülkü Süngün, the project focuses on analyzing structural barriers faced by BiPoC+ FLINTA* individuals at art universities. Its goal is to develop practical recommendations for greater visibility, representation, and institutional transformation.

The joint project “Critical Faculties – BiPoC+ FLINTA* at Art Academies” investigates, simultaneously at HfG Karlsruhe and UdK Berlin, structural obstacles for BiPoC+ FLINTA* individuals at art academies, as well as mechanisms that hinder the visibility of BiPoC+ FLINTA* persons and their achievements in the fields of visual arts, art studies, and academia.
BiPoC+ FLINTA* refers to all persons who identify as women, lesbians, trans*, intersex, non-binary, or genderqueer and who experience racist and/or antisemitic discrimination in Germany based on their (perceived) origin, religion, language, or appearance.

The project combines artistic and scientific research. The academic study, focusing on racism, inequality, and higher education research, is supervised by Prof. Ulaş Aktaş and Anujah Fernando at UdK Berlin. Its aim is to develop practical recommendations for dismantling and overcoming these barriers, based on the research findings. The effectiveness of these recommendations will be tested through scientifically accompanied participatory action research.

The artistic research is based in the Media Art department at HfG Karlsruhe and is being conducted in cooperation with the ABK Stuttgart, AdBK Nuremberg, and HBK Braunschweig as a model project.
The interdisciplinary core concept group – the LAB – brings together renowned experts from art and science, including Prof. Diana McCarty, Ülkü Süngün, and Anna Feldbein (HfG Karlsruhe); Prof. Heba Amin, Prof. Lucienne Roberts, Prof. Katrin Ströbel, and Carmen Westermeier (ABK Stuttgart); Prof. Anike Joyce Sadiq (AdBK Nuremberg); and Prof. Havîn Al-Sîndy (HBK Braunschweig).

The starting points for the artistic research include questions about knowledge production and archives, the decolonization of algorithms, the art canon in education, visual codes and drawing as political gestures, as well as self-institutionalization as an artistic-political strategy.

The results of this interdisciplinary research process will be presented in an international symposium and an exhibition in Karlsruhe in 2027. Documentation will be provided through a bilingual open-access publication and a project website.

Ülkü Süngün initiated, conceptualized, and applied for the research project in collaboration with HfG Karlsruhe. Born in Istanbul in 1970, she works as a sculptor, curator, research-based activist, and educator, living in Stuttgart. She studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, where she most recently served as a visiting professor from 2022 to 2023. In 2017, she founded the “Institute for Artistic Post-Migration Research” as a nomadic art project, from which the current research initiative evolved. Ülkü Süngün’s artistic practice connects art with socio-critical questions related to memory and identity politics in the context of migration society.

“The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under grant number 01FP24094 ‘Joint Project: BiPoC Women at Art Academies in Focus – The Discrimination-Free Academy’ within the funding line ‘Innovative Women in Focus’ (IFIF). The responsibility for the content of individual contributions lies with the respective authors.”