Associação Cultural Videobrasil

What was the main reason that got you into video production?

Video is one of the tools that I have been using. Writing is other tool I like to use. I studied film and video. Video was affordable comparing to film.

Your videos often feature large amounts of text and graphics superimposed onto image. How is your creative process like? What was the initial idea for videos such as “f/f” (2004)? Was it data about violence, or was it the image of the dancer? How do you build up these references linking text and image?

It all depends on the project: in “F” first I decided to do something with the dancer. Later I changed the venue and dress. The text became more than a text, something visual as the dancer and all the other factors on the screen. You have also developed documentary films such as “The people of lights long walk” (2000). What are the differences between the creative process for experimental videos and documentary films?

The simplest answer to this question would be that both forms are fictions (experimental and documentary). They have comparable ways; there is no mentionable difference for me in the creative process.

I have a lot to say about documentary; one thing is that its production is too painful; perhaps that is why I choose experimental video or film more often.

In much of your work, written text on the screen is vital for the understanding of the piece. Some examples are “Erol Akyavas” (2000), “Little lake” (2002), and “GURE aegean” (2004), which features a poem by Ilhan Berk. What is the relationship among written text on the screen, poetry, and the narratives in your videos? Is poetry a natural consequence of the appropriation of written text on the screen?

For me being understood is not the main issue. Text becomes a support means for my esthetic expressions. Text becomes a graphical image more than its meaning as a text. My films are my expression of poetry. 5. What was it like to promote the International Video Production Workshops that you have developed along with Petra Holzer and Walter Pucher? The importance of the workshops was the creation of solidarity among young people from different cultures in the process of creating videos. After ten years we found it was time to change the form and we do now such events much smaller and more concentrated locally. In ten years over 200 students from more than 20 countries were able to get a grant to participate in our workshops (the funding was organized by ourselves).

Your work usually features strong political overtones, even when dealing with subjective and personal issues. Some examples are “AMN (All my nightmares)” (2001), “GURE aegean” (2004), among others. How do you view the relationship between art and politics?

Art is my form of opposition. Art is a tool of retreat. Art helps me to leave the battlefield without turning my back and running as fast and as far as I can.

What is the current art scene like in Turkey, especially in Istanbul?

The art scene of Istanbul is explained very detailed in “Delirium”. Let me use the text of my “Nightmare” installation:

we live in a decade where everything can be edited as part of something / anything and giving meaning (!) to the same whole. these parts are cited without any relevance to aesthetics and/or ethical principles, theories.

for all fields which determine lives, being a determining factor for one of these fictions mean hegemony. fiction determined by hegemony is accepted without preconditions. we live in a decade where politeness has become extinct. politeness does not exist any more. nothing is questioned, speed builds up, parts are getting smaller and/or shorter, the importance, uniqueness and the position of smaller parts lose meaning. a vision, a note, a decrease in meaning as a sentence alone or as part of a whole; they could be extracted and be placed elsewhere easily…

in a condition where colours, visions, voices and states change so rapidly and free of responsibility, where they transform and grow, where hegemonic powers and technology intervene with the local powers so harshly, often, and apparently, we cannot trust any opinion of the masses who consume art work. just as we cannot trust those who produce art work (!). naturally the art work may not be trusted, either.

in short, we cannot put faith in the producer, in the consumer or in the product.