Çağrı was born 1979 in Istanbul. Lives and works in Istanbul.
On the images existing by erasing...
In addition to its own cultural and political issues, Turkey, which is
in a process to facing with its own recent history, is the point of an
available buffer-zone and some kind of a catalyst-conciliator between
the Middle-East and the “West”. This special situation is not only too
far away to solve Turkey’s own issues which are ongoing for years, but
also completely bringing away the possibility of disinterestedness by
having exploitation and the unnamed-closed engagements-formations
its train. Just like Turkey itself, Canakkale, which is a geopolitical
transition area, is holding the distinction of being a representational
pointer of a supra-identity as to Turkey’s national history. On the
other hand, in the context of the proximity to the center as per
situation and conversely individuality and the being of periphery,
Canakkale demands a well-rounded reading.
My ideas and improved suggestions which come out in the working
process for the Canakkale Biennial, which is fitting into the mentioned
political ground as a conceptual frame, seeming with a limited budget
and opportunities, but conversely not having a certain system and
a confirmed structure over the years like the Istanbul Biennial are
bringing the reversed-readings and a skew view. The drawings I
designed as a part of a new formation, which tries to display the
identity-visibility in the heterogeneous construction of Turkey’s art
media, just like the Canakkale Biennial, are away from the artificial
and non-intermeddling construction of a done and executed work and
also that display the raw-idea ready to develop and implementation;
could be thought as project drawings taken and developed from a
sketchbook.
The nine drawings, I prepared for the 3rd Canakkale Biennial, display
the multi-disciplinary working method which reflect my creation
process since 2000’s. The “Democracy Strategies”, which is like a
pre-work of a nine different projects have been predicted to produce
with the different kind of mediums, instrumentalize the images which
are instant-existing thought I used the drawing language in my own
latest works, and then disappear by layerly erased, and thereby have
been pushed out of the framing; such as the super-heroes, toy soldiers,
rockets and angels. By getting free of the vanishing moment, these
images which are chasing the concepts I basically focused like identity,
memory, storage, personal history, are opening out a new area which
they hide in with ideological connotative meanings. And this secret
area, which are created by the intentionally aestheticized images -as
also Brecht highlighted- is making a new reality perception necessary
for the spectator.
