They are called suitcase children, commuter children, summer children … the children of the first migrant workers who, suitcase in hand, were forced to lead an unsteady life of commuting between countries, partings and reunions. Their parents wanted to return soon. But then three years turned into ten and ten years turned into an eternity. Germany became home, the children remained strangers.

According to estimates, 750,000 suitcase children from Turkish migrant workers alone live in Germany and Turkey. The offspring of Italian-German, Greek-German or Spanish-German migrant workers report similar experiences. It is a story which keeps on repeating itself wherever parents set out in order to make a better future for their children. The collateral damage is inevitable.

In his staged installation, Hakan Savaş Mican takes a look not only at his own story. Interviews with suitcase children and their parents, starting from Germany, across the Balkans all the way to Turkey, letters, photos, super 8 mm film shots, texts and music form the stations of a never-ending search for home. Mican’s heroes and heroines seem to have lost their travel route, nevertheless, their stories intertwine seamlessly, blurring the lines between the geographic spaces and between times: a limbo characterizing a whole generation’s approach to life.