Category Archives: fluxus

Tornavideo Hits The Road For Some Repair Work On Contemporary Art!

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Tornavideo video-art activity

Özgen Yıldırım

Curated by Funda Oruç, Uğur Karagül
Artists: Ferhat Özgür, Gözel Radyo, Hakan Akçura, Maria Sezer, Nezaket Ekici, Ozan Adam, Şinasi Güneş

Contemporary art makes another appearance in Ankara. A new exhibition activity meets the audience in a dynamic and energetic platform. With Funda Oruç and Uğur Karagül as curators, Tornavideo exhibition will meet the audience in Tamirhane Bar, a meeting point of the youth.

When we take a look at the recent contemporary art history of Ankara down the time tunnel, we see that; the 1st -International Asia-Europe Art Biennial- in 1986 was motivating for Ankara art community. This biennial chain continued in 1998- 90- 92 years. By the end of 1980s, a student from Hacettepe University called Salim Özgilik, with the moniker -Moni-, exhibited some installations and performances challenging the established order of art environment.

Founded as a branch of the first foundation university established in Turkey in 1984, Bilkent University, Fine Arts, Design and Architecture Faculty became the focal point of innovative artists. And a group of students from Fine Arts, Design and Architecture Faculty at Bilkent University formed -Grup Grip-in-. Grup Grip-in held the -Popular Myths and Graphic Image Circulation- titled exhibition in Ankara Anfa Altınpark Exhibition Center in 1992. In 1993, -Hangar Artistic Organization- was founded by Cebrail Ötgün, Atilla İlkyaz and Cezmi Orhan. After making some important activities contributing to the contemporary art setting of Ankara, the organization split. The interesting -Gar Exhibition- held in Ankara Station in 1995 was shut in a single day. The installation of Selim Birsel, -Lead Sleep- is still engraved in our memories. -Youth Art Activity- has been organized four times, the first being in 1998. The most striking of these were -Youth Art-3- exhibition organized in Ankara Contemporary Arts Center in 2000 with Vasıf Kortun as the curator. This exhibition was really decisive in terms of historical process. If we examine this exhibition properly, we can clearly see that the artists in this exhibition today direct contemporary art movement in Turkey.

After that, the art practices in Ankara have frayed around the edges and seem to have run dry for so long. 2 young curators are making a stagnation-breaking contribution with the -Tornavideo- exhibition devoting all their dynamism into the work. -Tornavideo- exhibition activity contains the works of 7 contemporary artists: Ozan Adam, Hakan Akçura, Nezaket Ekici, Şinasi Güneş, Ferhat Özgür, Gözel Radyo and Maria Sezer.

The first Tornevideo exhibition artist is Ozan Adam, known for his experimental video and film works. The story of the artist’s film -The Two Names of A Testimony About The Execution of A Happening And A Suitcase Full of Broken Records- is mounted on some sequences from various stories in a sleeping man’s dreams. In another film of him, -Zymotic-Amaurosis: Contagious Arbitrary Blindness- he builds on how reality and subconscious are mixed up in a surreal way as a consequence of experiments performed on a blind man’s memory and dreams. The theme of these two films of the artist refers to psycho-social processes. And his film to be presented within the scope of Tornavideo exhibition is an animation. The music of this 1-minute animation called -Little Bird- is written by Ozan Akıncı. This animation is about the transformation of lines into shapes, then objects and figures by changing shape, and finally a spatial journey. This process takes place with a simple triangle turning into a pyramid object which is 3d form, then a cornered object after changing its shape, following it a human hand derived from this, and a woman figure with the re-forming of the hand, and finally transformation of this woman figure into a little bird flying in the tunnel of infinity. The artist finishes this animation, that begins with lines and turns into a bird figure and spreads into eternity, i.e. evolutionary process of forms with the idea of eternity ironically.

Another artist taking part in Tornavideo and describing himself as open flux artist is Hakan Akçura who lives in Sweden. The artist exhibited every document with the attribute of -mirror- requested from the persons on the internet according to their date of arrival in the –I Want My Mirrors– project leaving its mark on the minds of men. It should be noted that; Akçura also has some harsh and striking political works. One of them is the extraordinary video work he shot in Sweden with an individual named Abdulkadir Aygan, who once had connection with a terrorist organization [PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and JITEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counterterrorism) HA] and then escaped and settled in Sweden. Akçura preferred to spread this video known as –It Is Enough That The Truth Comes Out-. The –Open Letter to Swedish Migration Board– titled video of the artist turns the residence permit extension decision waiting process of the artist in Sweden in 2006 into a video performance, and he describes this work as -for the sake of accelerating this process for myself and to support all waiting immigrants as far as possible–. The video of the artist to be presented in Tornavideo exhibition is again a video making reference to immigration and being an immigrant. His video –Catharsis– contains improvised actions of a group of immigrant youth in Stockholm. We can see the traces of being an immigrant in a foreign country, cultural entrapment, sense of belonging or shortly being stuck in between from the dictions, the musical tastes, dressing styles, dances and technological equipments of the youth.

Another artist in Tornavideo is Nezaket Ekici, a performing artist living in Germany. Taking every social fact as a subject, women’s problems being in the first place, the artist begins with expressing artistic actions with her body and turns them into a performance. Having also installation and video works, one of the artist’s projects -Self Diversity- is composed of performance and installations and questions gender, race and identity concepts. The performance-video with the title -Wardrobe- will be exhibited in -Tornavideo-. The artist stands before a two-door wardrobe half-naked and takes some clothes and puts them down. After this, the artist stars wearing the clothes continuously one after the other. As the clothes are put on successively, they start creating a physical pressure on the artist. However, the artist is insistent on wearing them. The artist’s insistence on wearing in her intellectual dimension clashes with the resulting physical pressure. This clash ends with the artist getting help from the individuals around. Emphasizing the naturalness of mankind at the beginning of the performance with -being naked-, the artist becomes distanced to this naturalness as she wears the clothes one after the other, and becomes alienated to herself first, and then the surrounding environment.

With his installations, works on canvas theoretically built on hermeneutics and constantly deconstructed, video art works where he interprets the visual sometimes with an ironical seriousness, and sometimes with a mise en scene language and his art aesthetics captured in the ordinary in all his works, one of the important projects of the contemporary artist Şinasi Güneş is -Obsession-. Seeing the light of day in 2005, this project helped to create a memory record in terms of audio art videos. The close ties of the artist with mail art have been actualized in his mail art projects on -Watch-, -Fundamentalism-, -Global Warming-, -Woman and Ecology-, -Gypsies-. Güneş also prepares street-art promoting publishes and fills a gap in this sense. He offers an alternative course to contemporary art practices with an e-zine named -e-benzin- published on electronic environment. Some of his videos area -Horned Toad-, -Anatolia-, -Batumi-, -After the Sheep-, -New York and Chewing Gum-. His video -New York and Chewing Gum- is built on the traces of many chewing gums deliberately or unconsciously thrown by people of New York to Brooklyn Subway floor. Having turned this performance into a book with the same title, the artist has completed the deconstruction process.

The artist is featured in Tornavideo with the -My Lovely Hats- titled video constructed again with an ironical and cynical mise en scene. The artist puts on several objects over his head like hats. There are art books, flower pots, bags, buckets, boilers etc. among these objects. Each hat refers to a social role and points to a character fact. The artist strengthens the sense of rhythm with a background rap song. We see ironic allusions in this video.

Ferhat Özgür, a contemporary artist living in Ankara, underlined and expressed urban progress of Ankara, rational and irrational results of modernism, city-individual and change facts in his -City Journal- titled exhibition composed of his photograph and video pieces of work. We witness the points underlined by the artist in the negative effects of recent urban transformation programs that eventually lead to -destruction- in metropolises particularly in Istanbul. A series of performative photo works of Özgür in historical places with the title -Jump”, and also the -Jump- titled video of him creates some mise en scene situations with the artist trying to touch the peak points by jumping. The artist added city-individual dualism building and history and expended the interpretation perspective. Getting involved in -Tornavideo- with his video titled -Upper Garden-, Ferhat Özgür appears with a different theme. In this video, he shows the military greeting ritual process in sequences with the preparation to ceremony until the end of ceremony. The artist begins with showing ritual elements like cannon ball, helmet, shoulder mark one after the other, and following this, we see some sequences from the march of soldiers and greeting ritual, then the greeting ritual ends.

An interesting artist in -Tornavideo- is Gözel Radyo, who first of all brings together cues with music and as a pioneer blends electronic music with arabesque and oriental tunes. Some of the released music albums are -No-Exotic-, -Sound of the World: Turkey- and their fanzine is entitled -Güzel Mecmuası-. The artist creates versatile alternative works. The video which will be shown in -Tornavideo- is -İsyanbul 2010-. The artist acts in his own way over some scenes and dialogues from old Turkish films and achieves a comic effect. At this point, there are some experimental verbal rhythms streaming and they accompany the images in the background. The artist begins the message bombardment with smart cards and continues with microchips and ends with GMO. The artist associates these elements with Istanbul 2010 project as the name suggests. The artist makes use of ad techniques in the presentation of the messages placed within the video flow in critical moments. Therefore, the influence area of the video is extended.

Another artist in -Tornavideo- is Maria Sezer who states -Opposing the nature and trying to dominate the nature does not always bring happiness to people- and uses nature and time as a reference in her artistic works. Time and change are states where the artist makes the ironic and complicated association of these two concepts an object of inquiry in her works or naturally exhibits it. In one of Sezer’s installation works taking Rapunzel story as the center, the artist nearly creates an image of ladder with black, long and bush-formed yarns just like Rapunzel’s hair. Having assembled beauty and nature concepts with the sense of protection in this work, the artist designs original raku plates by using the special firing technique known as raku in another exhibition. Being a notable expert of transforming natural materials, the artist will appear in -Tornavideo- with her video titled -Swarm- created with similar operations. The video begins with the display of a colony of bees flying in the air, and then the movements of bees in and out of their hives are shown like a ceremony to the audience. Each entry to the hive means that a brood waiting at a cell gets fed and remains alive. Each swarm becoming a grown bee moves out of the cell to make honey.

I think the most striking element in Tornavideo exhibition activity including Funda Oruç and Uğur Karagül as curators is that; most of the internationally active artists in the exhibition consist of the rare independent artists in Turkey.
I hope this exhibition will precipitate art project initiatives and serve as a factor in emergence of new breath in the contemporary art scene.
tornavideo06@gmail.com
http://tornavideo.blogspot.com
http://www.tamirhanelive.com

Opening January, 15 2010, Friday 19:30
Tamirhane Live Music
Tunalı Hilmi Cad. Bestekâr Sok. 49/A Kavaklıdere – Ankara (Old Getto Pub)

Reklam

30th anniversary of Voyager’s journey: Even though it is 30 years late, maybe…?

Posted on by omosis
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From:
hakan akcura <hakcura@gmail.com>Date:09.Oct.2007 15:26Subject:Open inquiry and invitation to Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mr. Recep Tayyip ErdoganTo:
Fredrik Reinfeldt <registrator@primeminister.ministry.se>, R. Tayyip Erdogan <rte@akparti.org.tr>


Even though it is 30 years late, maybe…?
Open inquiry and invitation to Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt,
Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan,

USA launched the unmanned probes Voyager 2 on August 20, 1977, and Voyager 1, on September 5, 1977 and sent them deep into space. This is the 30th anniversary of this meaningful journey toward deep in space.

Golden Record

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.


Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.

Messages

“Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time,” says the translation of one of the greetings recorded on identical gold-plated phonograph discs mounted under engraved covers on the side of each Voyager. That message is in Amoy, a language spoken by millions of people in eastern China, and one of 55 languages included on the record.

“Greetings to our friends in the stars. We wish that we will meet you someday,” says a translation of the Arabic language greeting.


Some other messages don’t sound quite as eager about getting together. The one in Rajasthani, a language of northwest India, translates to “Hello to everyone. We are happy here and you be happy there.”

The English-language message among this set says, “Hello from the children of planet Earth.”


Voyager 1, launched on Sept. 5, 1977, has already become the most distant of all human-made objects. Every day, it flies another million miles ( 1.6 million kilometers) farther from the Sun. Voyager 2 is about 80 percent as far away as its twin.

They are still returning scientific information from the outer reaches of the Sun’s domain almost every day. Their durable electric power supply, generated from the heat of radioactive plutonium, will allow them to continue making measurements and radioing them home for about 20 more years. That may be long enough for at least Voyager 1 to still be operating when it passes the boundary between the solar wind from the Sun and the interstellar wind from death-explosions of other stars.

Even after the power supply runs too low to operate instruments and transmit data to Earth, the Voyagers will continue silently speeding away from the Sun and Earth. Many thousands of years from now, each will eventually become closer to other stars than they are to the Sun.

A committee headed by the late Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University chose what to put on the Voyager “golden record.” The group had only about six months to decide on the contents and to gather the recordings.


Some choices, such as the multiplicity of languages, suggest that the message is as much for Earthlings as for aliens. A single language would be easier for an unearthly intelligence to decipher, if one ever acquires the record. A diversity of tongues aboard a craft leaving the solar system emphasizes the shared global significance of the endeavor.

Besides the multilingual greetings, each record also has music, ranging from Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven to Melanesian panpipes, and from a Navajo night chant to a Beethoven symphony.

Other sounds of Earth on the record include both natural noises, such as a rainstorm and a chimpanzee, and human-created ones, such as a train and a kiss.


Pictures can be encoded into information on a record. The Voyager golden record 116 pictures. One document stored as an image is a greeting from Jimmy Carter, who was president at the time of the launch.

Part of Carter’s text says, “We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some – perhaps many – may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.”

Swedish and Turkish language messages

When it was observed that the Turkish and Swedish messages were obviously recorded by the personal acquaintances of the committee and without officially contacting the governments of these countries…

Inquiry

If one day these messages would find their counterparts and if they will be listened to, the Turkish and Swedish messages will be spoken with the content, accent and articulation I just mentioned.

What exactly do you think about these subjectively recorded messages and the way that the contents of these messages determined most probably by the people who read them?

I attached the greeting samples from other extinct and living languages, and can we honestly talk about the personal-national characteristics when we take place like this unserious manner within such a meaningful content?


How would you like the messages in your native language take place on this golden record instead of these messages?

Invitation

I am a contemporary artist from Turkey and who chose to live in Sweden for the last 3 years.

On the 30th anniversary of Voyager 1 and 2’s launches, the only reason that I direct these questions about the quality and content of these messages to you as the currently office holding prime ministers of the native countries of these languages is related with who and what I am.

And of course, among all other languages only Turkish and Swedish messages were having this kind of extraordinary quality…

I invite you to record the answers of these questions vocally and have them sent to me, and then permit them to be exhibited –without any interference- with the original messages.

I sincerely carry the hope for both of you to hear my call in your busy schedule and will not be late to answer…

Respectfully,

Hakan Akcura


9 October 2007
Stockholm

hakcura@gmail.com

Resources and useful links:

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/index.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/languages.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/swedish.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/languages/turkish.html

Attachement:
Other messages
Sumerian language message translated to English is “May all be well”Urdu language message translated to English is “Peace on you. We the inhabitants of this earth send our greetings to you”.Italian language message translated to English is “Many greetings and wishes”.Ila (Lambia) language message translated to English is “We wish all of you well”.Akkadian language message translated to English is “May all be very well”.Romanian language message translated to English is “Greetings to everybody”.Hindi language message translated to English is “Greetings from the inhabitants of this world”.Nguni (Zulu) language message translated to English is “We greet you, great ones. We wish you longevity”.Nyanja language message translated to English is “How are all you people of other planets?”.Hittite language message translated to English is “Hail”.French language message translated to English is “Hello everybody”.Vietnamese language message translated to English is “Sincerely send you our friendly greetings”.Sotho (Sesotho) language message translated to English is “We greet you, O great ones”.Hebrew language message translated to English is “Peace”.Burmese language message translated to English is “Are you well”.
Sinhalese language message translated to English is “Wish You a Long Life”.
Wu language message translated to English is “Best wishes to you all”.Ukrainian language message translated to English is “We are sending greetings from our world, wishing you happiness, goodness, good health and many years”.Aramaic language message translated to English is “Peace”.Spanish language message translated to English is “Hello and greetings to all”.Greek language message translated to English is “Greetings to you, whoever you are. We come in friendship to those who are friends”.Korean language message translated to English is “How are you?”.Persian language message translated to English is “Hello to the residents of far skies”.Indonesian language message translated to English is “Good night ladies and gentlemen. Goodbye and see you next time”.Latin language message translated to English is “Greetings to you, whoever you are; we have good will towards you and bring peace across space”.Armenian language message translated to English is “To all those who exist in the universe, greetings”.Serbian language message translated to English is “We wish you everything good from our planet”.Portuguese language message translated to English is “Peace and happiness to all”.Kechua (Quechua) language message translated to English is “Hello to everybody from this Earth, in Kechua language”.Japanese language message translated to English is “Hello? How are you?”.Polish language message translated to English is “Welcome, creatures from beyond the outer world”.Luganda (Ganda) language message translated to English is “Greetings to all peoples of the universe. God give you peace always”.Cantonese language message translated to English is “Hi. How are you? Wish you peace, health and happiness”.Punjabi language message translated to English is “Welcome home. It is a pleasure to receive you”.Nepali language message translated to English is “Wishing you a peaceful future from the earthlings”.Russian language message translated to English is “Greetings! I Welcome You!”.German language message translated to English is “Heartfelt greetings to all”.Mandarin Chinese language message translated to English is “Hope everyone’s well. We are thinking about you all. Please come here to visit when you have time”.Marathi language message translated to English is “Greetings. The people of the Earth send their good wishes”.Thai language message translated to English is “We in this world send you our good will”.Bengali language message translated to English is “Hello! Let there be peace everywhere”.Welsh language message translated to English is “Good health to you now and forever”.Gujarati language message translated to English is “Greetings from a human being of the Earth. Please contact.”Kannada(Kanarese) language message translated to English is “Greetings. On behalf of Kannada-speaking people, ‘good wishes'”.Telugu language message translated to English is “Greetings. Best wishes from Telugu-speaking people”.Oriya language message translated to English is “Greetings to the inhabitants of the universe from the third planet Earth of the star Sun”.Hungarian (Magyar) language message translated to English is “We are sending greetings in the Hungarian language to all peace-loving beings in the Universe”.Czech language message translated to English is “Dear Friends, we wish you the best”.

"Nefret tünelinde Aşk" Birgün’de…

Posted on by omosis
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Birgün Gazetesi bugün, “Nefret tünelinde Aşk” sanat etkinliğime dair benle yaptığı söyleşiyi yayınladı. Aşağıdaki linkten söyleşinin internet linkine ulaşabilirsiniz:

Söyleşinin internet linki

Gazete, yapılan söyleşiyi sayfaya sığdırmak için kısaltmak zorunda kalmış. Kesintisiz halini aşağıdan okuyabilirsiniz:

“Bir türkü seven kürtler, bir kürdü seven türkler… Çağrım size!”
Nefret tünelinde Aşk

“Yeni yeni büyüyen bir şey” var. Bu şey, tam da sokaklarda Dink’in katilinin beyaz beresiyle rahatlıkla dolaşabilenlerin temsil ettiği, yeni bir saldırgan klu-klux-klan ırkçı alt-kültürünün yaygınlaşması.

Söyleşi: Sinan Kurtuluş Bilgenoğlu

S.K.B: Çağrısını yayınladığınız “Nefret tünelinde Aşk” isimli çok katılımlı sanat etkinliğinizin içeriği nedir? Nasıl bir karar ve hazırlık süreci yaşadınız?

H. Akçura: Türk ırkçılığının kökleri çok derin, gücü ise resmi ideolojiden. Türkiye’de türklerden gayrı bir ulusun, azınlığın varolmadığının açık açık savunulduğu, tersine düşünenlerin hapislerde çürütüldüğü, olmadık acılara uğratıldığı, öldürüldüğü günler geçeli çok olmadı. Bugün ise, herkesin “bir milliyetçi ve türk olduğunu”, her diyalogda ilk söz olarak söyleme ve söyletme çabasıyla kendini gösteren, yaygın kalabalıkların hakim söylemi haline gelen bir yeni milliyetçi dalganın, teklifsizce “yeni soykırımlar” çağrısı yapabilen bir ırkçılığa kapı açıyor olmasını tartışmalıyız.

Geçen yıl Türkiye’de ve İsveç’te aynı anda başlattığım, sonuçlanmayan ve hâlâ katılıma açık olan “Gerçek Diyalog” isimli sanat etkinliğimde, Türkiyeli katılımcılara sorduğum üç sorudan biri, “gelişen yeni milliyetçilik ve ülkenin geleceği hakkında düşündüklerine” dairdi. Birçok kişi ve kurumun dikkat çektiği bu kara dalga, zamanla kendine kurbanlar arayarak ve ne yazık ki bularak palazlandı ve Hrant Dink’in katlinin ardından daha da tehlikeli bir düzeye ulaştı.

Yıllardır takipçisi olduğum “internet yazışma kültürü” içinde, hiçbir zaman son dört-beş ayda olduğu kadar yaygın, “meşru” ve tehlikeli keskinlikte ırkçılığın varolmadığını rahatlıkla söyleyebilirim. Bu anlamda “yeni yeni büyüyen bir şey” var. Bu şey, tam da sokaklarda Dink’in katilinin beyaz beresiyle rahatlıkla dolaşabilenlerin temsil ettiği, yeni bir saldırgan klu-klux-klan ırkçı alt-kültürünün yaygınlaşması.

Bu keskin türk ırkçılığı, kimi kürtlerde de karşılığını buluyor. Gücü ve sahip çıkılırlığı elbette ki egemen ulusun ırkçılığı kadar olmasa da, hızla yaygınlaşarak, – ne yazık ki nedenleri kimilerince haklı da görülse- bence niteliği farksız olan, karşı çıkılası bir saldırgan kürt ırkçılığını beraberinde getiriyor.

İnternette binlerce kürt ve türk arasında akan diyaloglarda yeralan ırkçı mesajları biriktirdim. Sohbet forumlarında akan aynı içerik ve nitelikteki sesleri kaydetmeye başladım. Bunları “nefret metinleri ve sesleri” olarak tanımladım ve çağrı metnimde de dediğim gibi, okurken ve dinlerken kendimi hep kirlenmiş hissettim.

Herkesin gelişen ırkçılığa karşı elini taşın altına sokması gereken bu günlerde, bu çok katılımlı etkinliği tasarladım ve “Nefret tünelinde Aşk”ın çağrısını yayınladım. Yayınladığım çağrı, bir yanı kürt, bir yanı türk olan çiftlere… Bir türkü ya da bir kürdü çok seviyor olmayı bir süredir ya da çok uzun bir süredir deneyimleyen çiftlere yönelik.

Çağrımın tam metnine okurlarınız internetteki blog sitemden ulaşabilirler: http://open-flux.blogspot.com

Projeye katılmak isteyen çiftlerin ne yapması gerekiyor?

Onlardan, ellerindeki ya da ödünç alacakları video kameralarla birbirlerini ve/veya ilişkilerini çekmelerini istiyorum. İçeriği ve biçimi tümüyle katılımcılara bağlı kayıtlarla, bana ve olası serginin ziyaretçilerine, bir kürdü ya da bir türkü sevmenin nedenini, nasılını, öyküsünü, varsa zorluklarını, dışavurumunu, içeriğini aktarmalarını, belgelemelerini istiyorum. Özetle katılımcılardan, kurgulanmamış ya da kabaca kurgulanmış “home-video” kayıtlarını istiyorum.

En ağdalı, ayrıntılı biçim ve içeriklerden, en yalın biçim ve içeriklere kadar her şey kabulüm. Çünkü, cevaplayacakları asal soru, okuyacakları o zehirli nefretin belgelerinin kapladığı tünel-mekanda nasıl varolmak istedikleri ile ilgili olacak.

Sanat etkinliğine katılacak çiftler, bu küfür ve saldırıların dört duvarını ve tavanını kapladığı, seslerin de aralıklı olarak “boşaldığı” bir mekanda, kendilerine ayrılmış ekranlarda akan videolarda hayat bulacaklar. Ziyaretçiler bu fazlasıyla “kirli” nefret tüneli-mekanında o videoları izleyecek. Sergiyi, İstanbul ve Diyarbakır’da aynı anda açmayı istiyorum.

Projenize katılacak çiftler bulabildiniz mi? Yardım ve destek çağrınız karşılık buluyor mu?

Sadece iki hafta oldu etkinliğin çağrısını yayınlayalı ve yaygınlaşmadı yeterince… Ama yine de katılmaya karar veren ve bu sürecin ilk adımlarını, varsa merak ve sorularını benle paylaşan çiftler var. Elime ulaşan video henüz yok. Yine de, böylesi açık katılımlı çağrılarımın en fazla yankı, karşılık ve destek bulanı oldu “Nefret tünelinde Aşk”. Sürecin her aşamasında şu ya da bu şekilde katkı verebileceğini söyleyen bir dizi insan var ve her gün sayıları artıyor.

Peki nefret metinlerinin içeriğini tam olarak öğrendikten sonra vazgeçen çiftler oldu mu? Sonuçta o kadar küfrü okumak herkesin yapabileceği bir şey değilmiş gibi geliyor.

Katılım isteklerini bana iletenlere “nefretin metinleri”ni yolluyorum. Yolladığım örneklerin sayısını çok tutuyorum. Çünkü çağrımda da belirttiğim gibi, “görmeli, okumalı, bilmeliler, katılmayı düşündükleri etkinliğin hangi zehirli tünelde-mekanda soluk almaya çalışacağını…”

Onları okuyunca katılmaktan vazgeçen çift olmadı. Ben, çok fazla sayıda insanın kendi ırklar-milliyetler üstü sevgisini, bu metinlerin karşısında konumlayacağına ilişkin inancım ve umudumla adım attım. Bu umudum sürüyor.

Bu metinlerin sergilenmesiyle beraber iki tarafın sıradan insanlarının birbirlerine duyduğu kin artar gibi bir kaygınız var mı?

Bu metinlerin ne olduğunu bilip, gözden uzak olmasına sevinmek yerine, onları ışık altına çekmeyi yeğliyorum. Bu nefret metinlerini teşhir etmem, kafasını kuma gömen tonla ortalama yurttaşı irkiltmek ve katılımcıların yaratımlarıyla gönül bağı kurmalarını istemekten başka bir anlama gelmiyor.

Sizin deyiminizle “iki tarafın sıradan insanları”yla bir umudu ve tepkiyi paylaşmaktan başka bir hedefim yok. Hayır, onların yaygın bir kini taşıdığını düşünmüyor, tam tersine bu kini taşıyan ırkçılara karşı “ortak tutum” içinde olacaklarına inanıyorum.

4-5 aydır bu proje üzerinde çalışıyorsunuz. Peki Hrant Dink suikastı projenizi hayata geçirme sürecini hızlandırdı mı? Suikastın ardından bazı gazetelerde ırkçı sitelerin forumlarına yer verildi. Sizce gazeteler bu forumları fark etmekte biraz geç mi kaldı?

Elbette ki, Dink suikasti ve onu uğurlayan 200 bine yakın kişinin belirlediği süreç bu ülkenin geleceğinin karartılmasına karşı çıkacak herkes gibi beni de tetikleyen bir süreçti. Bazıları için sözkonusu ırkçı yazışmalara dikkat çekmek ve Dink’in yaşamını adadığı bir eşitlik ve adalet çağrısının yaygınlaşabilmesi için belki de bu acılı sürecin itkisi gerekiyordu.

Ama hâlâ isminin altında “Türkiye Türklerindir” ifadesini fütursuzca taşıyabilen, yayın yönetmeninin inanılmaz bir aymazlıkla “türklerden ırkçı çıkmayacağını” savunabildiği bir gazete bu ülkenin en çok satan gazetesi ise, bu ırkçı yazışmalara ilişkin sorumlu uyarılarının zamanlamalarından dolayı kimseyi “geç kalmakla” suçlayamam.

Yurtdışında yaşıyorsunuz. Peki Türkiye’deki ırkçılıkla Avrupa’daki ırkçılığı benzerlikler ve farklılıklar açısından karşılaştırabilir misiniz?

İsveçliler, İskandinavya’nın gerçek sahibi Sami ulusuna sınırlı temsil hakkını 1993’te verdi. Sadece 14 yıl önce. Henüz bir parlamento binaları yok. Sami ulusunun eşitlik mücadelesi hala sürüyor.

Bugünkü Avrupa’yı, kaynağı Türkiye’deki ya da İsveç’in yakın geçmişindeki egemen ulus ırkçılığından farklı ama günlük yaşamdaki birçok gizli-açık göstergesi ortak olan bir zeminden, artan göçmen ırkçılığından tartışmak isterim şimdilik…

Artan göçmen varlığı, gelişen dinsel saflaşma, yaygınlaşan işsizlikle birlikte güç kazanan gizli ırkçılık Avrupa’da gün be gün artıyor ve artacak da. Kalabalıklar için dünyayı algılamanın giderek daralan ve karşıtlıklara odaklanan fakir perspektifi, birçok orta sınıf avrupalıyı aslında kendi ülkesinde yabancı görmek istemeyen bir hale çoktan taşıdı. Göçmenlerin çoğu uzundur, her zeminde, kendine yönelik farklı, ayrımcı davranışın farkında. Bir başka farkındalığı ise, artık ve hep, onsuz, göçmensiz bir Avrupa’nın olmadığı, olmayacağı.

Çok önemli bir fark şu ki, bu ülkeler hâlâ, ayrımcı milliyetçiliğin ve gizli ırkçılığın tonla göstergesini içerse de, bu göstergelerin her birinin, her türlü zeminde acımasızca sergilenebildiği, tartışılabildiği ve onlara karşı mücadele etmenin yasallığının yaygın olduğu ülkeler.

Sadece iki yıllık kendi kişisel yolculuğuma, mücadele ve yaratımıma baktığımızda bile bu farkı görebiliriz:

Geçen yıl, “İsveç Göçmen Bürosu’na açık mektup” isimli video-performansla oturma ve çalışma izinlerini ben gibi uzatmak isteyen 6500 göçmene reva görülen haksız muamelenin karşısında ne dediğimi sergiledim. Kamuoyundan çok olumlu yankılar buldum. “Gerçek Diyalog” etkinliğimde İsveç’ten katılacaklara sorduğum üç sorudan biri de, kökleri çok derin olan ve ayrımcılığın, gizli ırkçılığın göstergelerini besleyen günlük yaşam kuralları toplamı diye özetlenebilecek Lagom’u sorgulayan bir soru… Bu yıl, sadece göçmenim diye beni sanatçıdan saymayan, belgelerimi ve geçmişimi yeterli görmeyen İsveç İş Bulma Kurumu Kültür Departmanı’nın bu ayrımcılığını medyaya ve sanat ortamına teşhir ettim; İsveç Komünist Partisi (Sol Parti) bu sorunu hemen İsveç Parlamentosu’na taşıdı.

Türkiye’de ise milliyetçilik ve ırkçılıkla savaşan her kişi ve kurum ne yazık ki hala tehdit altında. Bu tehdidin azalmayıp artacak olma ihtimali ise en büyük tehlike.

Türkiye’den uzakta yaşıyorsunuz. Bu, Türkiye hakkındaki değerlendirmelerinizi zorlaştırmıyor mu, oradan takip edebiliyor musunuz?

Elbette zorlaştırmıyor ve elbette takip edebiliyorum. Bunun için sadece istek, kaygı ve sorumluluk duygusu yeterli. Artık herkesin sadece kendi ülkesine ilişkin değil, çok yakında yok edicisi olabileceğimiz bu yerküreye ilişkin de farkındalığının artması, kapsamlı, sorumlu bakışının ve tutumunun artık belirmesi gereken bir zamandayız.

Ben kendi adıma, bir yandan Türkiye’de artan milliyetçi ırkçılığı, bir yandan İsveç’teki göçmen ayrımcılığı ve gizli ırkçılığı yaratımımın konusu haline getirirken, bir yandan da Bush’a kabus önerisi olarak yapıp, yaygınlaştırdığım videoları izleyenlerin sayısını başta ABD olmak üzere tüm dünyada artırmaya uğraşıyor ve yeni kabus önerilerimi kurguluyorum.