EMRAH GÖKDEMIR – THERE ARE SHARKS WHO WRITE LOVE POEMS TO THE PLANE SHADOWS WHICH DROP TO THE SEA- ONE OF THEM IS ME.

WITCHES’ TOWER

January 8th – February 20th 2015

 

I go to distances I come to distances- I don’t know always why I am doing it. Seems like I don’t have any other choose. Actually it s very nice to drink coffee at home with my mother each morning. But the taste of obstinacy seduces me.

I am a storyteller, I tell my best stories to far away. I tell my lies to the water, I am in love with trees. One time I got cross with you- I started to write diary with languages which I don’t know and I never told about you.

Born 1984 in Antakya, Turkey. He is a painter, video maker, graphic designer and per- formance artist. He is a member of A77 art collective which founded Antakya at 2005. It is a rural collective and it belongs to the Third World. In 2010 he worked as production manager in the 2nd International Antakya Biennial. He is one of founder of AGÜSAD/ Antakya Contemporary Art Association which is established in 2011 by young contemporary artists living in Antakya. He has exhibited his works both locally (including Istanbul art venues and the other cities in Turkey) and internationally (Poland, Germany, UK, Ukraine).

In 2012, he organised ‘Bedesten’ festival as a co-project coordinator with Polish artists in Antakya in the frame of Tandem cultural managers exchange program between Turkey – EU. After that he has a special connection with Poland and he is spending half of his life in Poland. He is one of artist of Group Çekmece with Pawel Korbus and Maria Wronska. For 2 years he has working in anthropology field in collaboration with Dr. Yael Navaro-Yashin from The University of Cambridge on a cultural anthropology research in the city of Antakya. He is interested to think about social identity, privy, individual lifes, sociology of everyday life, gender mainstreaming and observe these subjects under the topic of ‘social ethic’. He is trying to emphasizes about the codes which is constituted by society and how effects of these codes on persons of society. In this case, his art works takes shape around ‘self’ concept as a rubbish of ideal man character in male-dominated society. For his understanding, all part of his life is a process and he saves it via art. He is trying to create solutions for his life. This is his own therapy method. In this case, art protects him and thus, he gets a right for doing what he wants to do.