At the concert and performance evening “Spotlight: Anatolian Crossroads │Kesişim Noktası: Anadolu,” the duo Duende (Seçil İlker and Selen İrez) together with actress Demet Kavut Holly combine to form “DuenDemet”: In their interplay of music and storytelling, they combine songs from different communities and regions of Turkey with poetic texts and stories about the cultural diversity of Anatolia, memory, and identity.
With its “Spotlight” series, Salon of Cultures 2025 is placing an emphasis on transcultural dialogue through a series of focus countries. The series will present artistic contributions from different communities who live and coexist both in the respective focus country or region and in the diaspora in Austria. The aim is to build bridges between local and global perspectives, promote transcultural dialogue, and highlight the diversity of migrant and autochthonous forms of artistic expression.
“Spotlight: Anatolian Crossroads│Kesişim Noktası: Anadolu” focuses on Turkey – a country of diverse cultural entanglements. Different ethnic, religious, and social groups shape social and cultural life in Turkey. This diversity is also reflected in the Turkish diaspora in Austria. The Salon of Cultures focuses on these complex interconnections and creates a platform where varying artistic perspectives from communities of origin and exile can meet and exchange ideas.
The duo “Duende,” consisting of Seçil İlker and Selen İrez, presents musical performances featuring vocals, guitar, and piano, interpreting traditional and modern songs from various regions and communities in Turkey that reflect the country’s social and historical diversity. These musical narratives are complemented by artistic storytelling in the form of stories and poems performed by actress Demet Kavut Holly, who adds narrative and reflective dimensions to the performance – together they form the ensemble “DuenDemet.”
Through this transdisciplinary space, the event invites reflection on how diaspora communities contribute to both their own identity and the broader cultural and social landscape of Vienna.
Salon of Cultures – „Spotlight: Anatolian Crossroads│Kesişim Noktası: Anadolu”
Date: 15 December 2025, 07:30 pm
Location: Kulturcafé Max, Mariengasse 1, 1170 Wien
Artists: “DuenDemet”: Seçil İlker, Selen İrez, Demet Kavut Holly
Curation: Osama Zatar
Free Admission!
The Salon of Cultures is an interdisciplinary event and exhibition series which since 2010 has regularly provided an artistic presentation and interaction space for artists, a diverse audience interested in art and culture, actors from culture, education and science, with free admission in the Q21 of the MuseumsQuartier Vienna and at decentralised venues in Vienna in cooperation with cultural institutions and artists. EDUCULT is the initiator and organiser of the Salon der Kulturen.
Funded by the Department of Culture of the City of Vienna (MA7), Cultural Initiatives division and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
Date: 15 December 2025, 7:30 pm (instead of 17 November)
Location: Kulturcafé Max, Mariengasse 1, 1170 Wien
Contact: marlene.kalnein(at)educult.at
Funding: Department of Culture of the City of Vienna (MA7), Cultural Initiatives division and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
Free admission!
Salon of Cultures – Spotlight: Abya Yala