BTU Cottbus–Senftenberg · World Heritage Studies · 2025

The Research

In July 2025, two researchers — Shahriyar Zarei Kasiri and Shubham Dogra — spent time in Stev Varga's Cottbus studio for the course Introduction to Critical Intercultural Studies (World Heritage Studies, Prof. Dr. Tetiana Havlin). Their photo essay, “Stev Varga's Artistic Tribute to African Immigrants in Cottbus,” is the first academic study of his work.

How they worked

Ethnographic fieldwork in the studio; a semi-structured interview; visual and spatial analysis of the works and the room they are made in; a grounded-theory reading of what they found.

What they found

The study reads Varga's practice through five themes — race and identity, queerness and visibility, marginality and resistance, intercultural dialogue, and historical memory — and treats the studio itself as part of the work: a cultural hub and safe space whose openness is, in their words, an act of performative resilience in Cottbus.

Their conclusion: his work “actively constructs migrant memory, performs resilience, and advocates for true diversity and intersectional understanding.”

The question they left open

“How can everyday art practices reconfigure public memory and challenge systemic exclusion?”

This site's public willingness-to-pay board is one small answer: every visitor's voice becomes part of how the work is valued and remembered.

Quotes and findings from Zarei Kasiri, S. & Dogra, S. (2025), “Stev Varga's Artistic Tribute to African Immigrants in Cottbus,” BTU Cottbus–Senftenberg, with thanks. Individual observations from the study also appear on the relevant works in the archive.