Mahalla is a travelling festival of contemporary art, film and literature, with several ancillary events running alongside it.

The last Mahalla Festival took place in September 2022 under the title Palimpsest at the Özel Kurtuluş Rum İlköğretim Okulu in Kurtuluş Istanbul in the frame of parallel events of the 17th Istanbul Biennial.

Press Kit 2022

The Turkish based cultural association diyalog invented and realized the Mahalla Festival dedicated to migration, exile and cultural identity in the frame of the Istanbul Art Biennale 2017. The second Mahalla Festival took place in the frame of Valletta European Capital of Culture 2018.

The festivals brought together cultural actors and initiatives from different fields and different backgrounds in Europe and beyond to support an intercultural understanding in the field of migration, inclusion and local communities. Under the title Generating New Narratives the festival in Malta displayed art works, performances, installations, screenings, readings and talks reflecting aspects of borders, armed conflicts and migration, minorities, hospitality and hostility, urban structures, inclusion and intercultural communication.

In November 2016, following an invitation of the Villa Romana in Florence, various cultural initiatives from Europe came together at the Museum Centro Pecci, Prato, and at the Villa Romana, Florence, under the title Gravity for All. The question of this first discussion was: if the European migration crisis continues to be a scandal, how should artists and cultural actors behave?

The participants expressed the desire to establish a sustainable international network for the exchange of experiences between cultural initiatives and artists of the host countries and the newcomers. Since then the Mahalla Festival was established and is continuing on different locations.

In Malta the festival was supported by the Maltese Cultural Ministry, the German Foreign Ministry, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, the Allianz Kulturstiftung and other international private foundations.