The exhibition Reflection by Ali Zülfikar opened in the Maigalerie der Junge Welt in Berlin-Mitte on Thursday. The Kurdish painter's art project shows portraits of historically significant personalities from different contexts that still divide opinion today. They are politicians, philosophers, activists, artists, political thinkers, each of whom has fought and is fighting for a better world through their own means. Ali Zülfikar wanted to respectfully recall their lives and work and enable a debate through the medium of art.

In the run-up to the vernissage, advertising posters for the exhibition were vandalized in Berlin. The artwork "Cry for Freedom", in which Ali Zülfikar portrayed the Kurdish thinker Abdullah Öcalan, was damaged. The artist has since filed a criminal complaint for property damage through his lawyers.

Bundestag member Gökay Akbulut (Die Linke) gave a speech at the vernissage in which she pointed out the difficult conditions in the cultural sector in Europe. For artists and cultural workers who come from war and crisis regions, the requirements and conditions are all the more difficult and harsh. "The repression against the Kurdish community here in Germany and the criminalization of the Kurds that go hand in hand with the PKK ban are things we are all following together," said Gökay Akbulut.

There is anti-Kurdish racism in Germany, and Die Linke in the Bundestag is expressing its explicit solidarity with the artist Ali Zülfikar, also in view of the destruction of his billboards. "We condemn this attack. Freedom of art and culture must also be guaranteed for Kurdish artists in Germany," said the MP.

The exhibition also draws attention to the situation of the Kurdish community in Turkey and especially of political prisoners. Thousands of politicians, MPs and mayors have been imprisoned for years.