WOW Turkey
curated by
Tahir Ün
@ AND – Artists Network Database
http://and.nmartproject.net/?p=5004
Tahir Un was born in Turkey. He holds a BA degree from Language and History-Geography Faculty of Ankara University, where he studied History of European Arts.
He gives lectures in photography and multimedia essay in the Communication Faculty of Yasar University, Turkey. Tahir Un is currently active in photography, moving image and curatorial works. He lives in Izmir.
Some Video/Film Awards & Distinctions:
2017 – FATHER TONGUE, awarded for “The Film With Most Profound Message”, Uhvati Film Festival, NOVI SAD.
2014 – THE GAME, TOP 10 Selected by jury of the Facade Videoart Festival, PLEVEN.
2012 – POSE, best videoart prize, 14th. International Panorama of Independent Film and Video Makers, PATRAS.
2012 – FACIAL PERCEPTION, 2nd prize for experimental video section, International SnapFilm Festiwal, KRAKOW.
2006- DISTRESS IN THE CITY is selected for Rhizome Artbase Collection, NEW YORK.
Curatorial statement
If art is a language to express myself, then inspiration ought to be the very life in which I am. And societal issues troubling me every so often, and sometimes my own dilemmas… Lies in the foundation of all a moral and humanitarian urge to question, shaped by one’s own ideologies. Indubitably to me, starting off with strong concepts devoid of mass-market meretriciousness, putting them in a story line and choosing the right material to ensure a firm expression make up the indispensable principles.
I believe as an artist and curator, that naturally an art-work can not be deprived of a reflection of artist’s ideology. In a sense, your ideology is a prime source of your stance in life..
List of videos
1. Gökçen Dilek Acay – Lenin, 2010, 3:29
2. Orhan Cem Çetin – Passiflora, 2016 / 04:34
3. Ali Demirtaş – Vision, 2018, 02’30”
4. Beste Erener – SATURN, 2018/ 4:24
5. Murat Germen – Emerging talent, 2017 / 5:03
6. Çağdaş Kahriman – Rear window, 2009-2013, 6:00
7. Tahir Ün – The Game, 2013, 00:02:56
Artists:
1
Gökçen Dilek Acay
Born in Istanbul, in 1983, Gökçen Dilek Acay, studied music major violin at the Yıldız Technical University Istanbul (2009) and attended master program in fine arts, at the Bauhaus University Weimar (2012). She worked with the dancers, musicians, visual artists and participated several group exhibitions She was Gala Artist and Performer at Watermill Center Benefit 2013 curated by Robert Wilson and guest artist in Cite International des Arts Paris in 2015 with support Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. Artist got 3rd Honorable Mention of the competition of ”New Generation Young Contemporary Artists in Turkey“. She is selected artist who represents Turkey for 17th International Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Milan 2015. She was represented at ‘Art Fair Brussels’ and ‘Contemporary Istanbul’ by NEV Gallery Istanbul.
Lenin/2010/3:29min.
There have been many people who have changed world history. They’ve stopped time, fast forwarding and deforming it. By time, many phenomenon and ideology gave their places to names and symbols while losing their importance and value. I was lucky to be in East Germany where I found a Lenin statue near a Russian Casern near Weimar. This statue was clean and re- polished although the buildings nearby were demolished and torn apart. I knit a
nearly 4 meter long rug with phosphorous colors and decided to cover the statue with it. There is an ideological illusion that remains.
2.
Orhan Cem Çetin
A self taught photographer, Çetin was born in Istanbul in 1960. He graduated from the Department of Psychology at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and received his MFA degree in Visual Communication Design at Istanbul Bilgi University.
He opened his first solo exhibition “Familiaria” in 1988. His work attracted considerable attention with its alternative approach to photography. Numerous solo and group shows have followed ever since. Orhan Cem Çetin is recognized for his focus on a conceptual and interdisciplinary approach to visual arts.
Today, Çetin earns his living as a visual artist, a photographer, a consultant on photography and photographic technology, and as a lecturer, currently teaching at Galata Academy of Photography and Bahçeşehir Uni. Dept. Of Photography and Video.
His personal works, essays, and critiques are published in various printed periodicals as well as e-zines. In 2000, Orhan Cem Çetin released a mini-album, Renk’arnasyon and his book, Bedava Gergedan (Rhino for Free), a black humor collection of photography and literature was published in 2004.
Passiflora
2016 / 04:34 / photography and editing by the artist
This short and silent time-lapse piece shows the movements of a passiflora plant raised by the artist from a seed.
Commonly used as the source of an otc tranquilizing syrup, the plant itself seems to be very active and finally tries to string itself to an old mandolin from the artist’s childhood.
The piece was earlier shown as part of a group show titled “The Atlas of the Sleepless” at Halka Art Gallery in Istanbul in 2016, curated by Ipek Cankaya.
3.
Ali Demirtaş
He was born in Turkey in 10th of April 1996. He still studies in İstanbul Arel University Faculty of Communication Department of Journalism with %100 succes scholarship. He educated on cinematography in İstanbul Media Academy for 8 months. During this time he also made experimental and fictional works; a single plan named “Bakış”, a music clip named “Kaçış” and a short movie named “Diyalog”. He wants to work on the subjects like “disability, criterion, communication” in the area of cinema. All literary and short movie works of him are collected and published by him on his blog named “momamijournalist”.
Vision, 2018 / 02’30”
Director: Ali Demirtaş / DoP: Ayşe Nur Gençalp / Art Director: Dila Kuvvetli
Short Synopsis: vision examines the traumatic aspects on humanbeings of media environment with a young man watching a TV. This young man watches a TV at home and zapping not so often. He continues watching different kinds of programs without any reaction. When the pen he plays gets broken, he gives a really abnormal reaction on it. His response should be observed in the sense of media informations, against our daily abnormal and traumatic reactions.
4
Beste Erener
Turkey based visual artist. She graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2003 and continues her studies at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, digital arts department. She joined several group exhibitions and social projects in Istanbul, Vienna, Salzburg, Izmir and Athens.
In the last years she is working consequently on the field of 3D animation and developed here a unique style, where she transforms concepts of classical analog painting into this time based virtual medium.
SATURN, 2018/ 4’24’’
/1920×1080/16:9 video animation
Sound: A. Devrim Güçlü & Beste Erener
The W:OW Project – copyright © 2016 by artvideoKOELN/Agricola de Cologne
Saturn is an experimental video-animation, which unfolds an allegoric story on the Lacanian ‘Father-law’. The Big other, or the structure that envelops us within the language, hijacks our desire and fills it with its own phantasies. These phantasies appear in the narratives of nations, moral doctrines and capitalistic success stories. The character Saturn in the animation is inspired by Goya’s infamous painting: “Saturn Devouring His Son” which refers to the Greek myth Cronus or Saturn in Roman myth.
The 3D environment is created with Blender and Make Human. This environment is overlapped with real city shots from Istanbul in some scenes.
5
Murat Germen
Murat Germen is an artist using photography as an expression / research tool. Born 1965, he currently lives / works in Istanbul and London. Has an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of art, photography and new media at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Having many papers, photo series published on architecture / photography / art / new media in various publications; he has lectured at tens of conferences internationally.
His oeuvre focuses on impacts of urbanization and gentrification, civic rights and participatory citizenship, documentary sustainability of local cultures, human devastation of nature. Has two monographies, one published by Skira (Italy) and the other by MASA (Turkey). Has opened/joined over eighty inter/national (Turkey, USA, Italy, Germany, UK, Mexico, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Greece, Japan, Russia, Poland, Iran, India, France, Canada, Bahrain, South Korea, Dubai, China, Sweden, Switzerland, Egypt) solo+group exhibitions. More than 300 editions of the artist’s several artworks are in personal collections of eminent art collectors inter/nationally, in addition to several that are in Istanbul Modern, Proje4L Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art (Istanbul), Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń (Poland), Benetton Foundation’s Imago Mundi – Istanbul Codex, Yapi Kredi Bank Culture and Arts Center (Istanbul) collections.
Emerging talent / 2017 / 5:03
Murat Germen / The prevailing economic system internalizes, consumes and finally depletes almost everything; even opposition, resistance… Permanency, durability, sustainability are not desired qualities anymore; the quicker any object or subject disappears from the scene to be replaced by a new “cool”ness to be consumed next, the better!
6
Çağdaş Kahriman
Çagdas Kahriman’s works are rooted in everyday observations, but push beyond them to reveal latent aesthetic, socio-political, or even metaphysical realities. Her characteristically intricate visual sensibility conceals a tension between the referential possibilities of images and the choreographic nature of their agencement in context. She combines drawings, collages, animations
The W:OW Project – copyright © 2016 by artvideoKOELN/Agricola de Cologne
and videos. This mixed and hybrid practices require different approaches to evoke the ambivalence of perception by playing with notions of distance and reversals. She is sensitive to the unassuming nature of everyday interactions, uninteresting details and through subtle means examines the notion of individual agency as it plays out within common ideals, models of authority or processes involving manipulation and power. Kahriman transposes everyday life experience with other temporalities to reveal the social conditioning, latent violence of practices and normative processes.
By Cem Bölüktas.
Fenêtre sur cour / Rear window, 2009-2013, 6 min
The last years of a tree in city, photographed through my windows between 2009 et 2013
7
Tahir Ün
Tahir Un was born in Turkey. He holds a BA degree from Language and History-Geography Faculty of Ankara University, where he studied History of European Arts.
He gives lectures in photography and multimedia essay in the Communication Faculty of Yasar University, Turkey. Tahir Un is currently active in photography, moving image and curatorial works. He lives in Izmir.
The Game / 2013 / 00:02:56
Mardin is an ancient city of Mesopotamia Coombe and nearest to the border of Syria. The city is established above the hill and some border villages can be viewed from. The civil war in Syria has been effective economically as well as socially in southeastern Anatolia because of the affective commitment between the peoples.
The Syrian immigrants more than 2 million came to Turkey during the Syrian civil war. They fight a lot of problems in their new home.
Nowadays, Maybe someday, the children will establish peaceful World who share the pain.