Issue #19

İrem Sözen is aware of the value of remembrance and the metamorphosis of remembrance; she is a young photographer who reaches out on the one hand to reality and that which is fictional on the other. Her works play with the idea of what is recalled, re-creating them from scratch, but meanwhile drawing on feelings as much as meanings; flying with a poof, burning like ouch, and sometimes resembling a cloud pouring rain. I talked about her photography works, her urges directing her works, the book format and exhibition methods with dearest İrem.

Zeynep Beler, an artist who uses photography as a medium, paints photos, especially Instagram photos in her recent works. And she does this by using the effects of camera lens, flash, light etc. The main topic of our conversation with Beler is fetishization of camera and photographs.

In Black Book (Orhan Pamuk) a foreign TV channel coming for an interview with the anti-hero Celal Salik, keeps him waiting for days and decides to do the interview with Galip, believing that he can explain matters better than Celal. There is a mention on "pornographic" Istanbul taken before the interview with Galip. So, this issue of "pornographic" Istanbul haunted me. How can places be pornographic? It reminds me of the museum walls, the columns Andrea Fraser rubs herself against, masturbates with. So, is it possible that Istanbul serves a pornographic function?

We were very excited to see the projects of 10 people and then meet on a raki table after our conversation in Ka Atölye within the scope of “Look What I've Brought You" in January 2014. At night, we walked towards the warmth of the house we would be hosted without bothering the shivering cold of Ankara. Throughout the whole day, both the event and people's excitement in photography thrilled us beyond our expectations.

An artist should use whatever medium s/he wants whenever, both in terms of sufficiency and potentiality. This sentence, in which every phrase can be a matter of debate, preoccupied my mind in terms of the notion of sufficiency of artist's choice. In contemporary art, where multidisciplinary works become prevalent more and more, the mediums of choice are just as important as what is conveyed because they also embody their own subjective meaning in themselves. When the artists are contemplating and asking opinions on notions like theory-context, the exhibition space or its form; how much do they have a grasp of their choice of medium in terms of its conveyance?

Dear Silva, one should read more poetry! And put one's head in one's hands, ponder more; break one's shell just like a walnut, purify it, find the fruit. And in this effort of purifying there should be traces of nails. An absolute return to nature. And surely, a rebirth. When I think about this and cringe away from the effort, I see people who can blend their anger with their practice, and I am full of hope.

“Ghosts of Recollection" is Tuna Uysal's project in which he thinks about the act of recording and memory.

"NatureMort" is Ece Gökalp's work focusing on the relation between nature and individual, which she started as a dissertation.