cipram 20mg

"cipram 20mg", 2002, video-art, 4'52",
Borusan Culture and Art Center, "New Suggestions/New Propositions 9" Exhibition, Istanbul;
Diyarbakir Art Center “In Image We Trust 2”, Diyarbakır-Turkey

The most important aspect of this project is that it has details that need to be solved by the spectator...
It is made of pieces that are deliberately left blurred or hidden. And only a very attentive watcher can notice these little but important details.
Above all, Cipram[*], is the name of an antidepressant medicine... But this, is going to remain meaningless for the ones who don’t know or use these pills.

The main intent of this project is to create the feeling of a stress, a depression; and to make this depression immortal.
To document an insistant cycle...

The image was shot when I literally had my stress balls in my hands, when somebody was literally reading my future, and when I was literally sitting near a patient. The work has created itself...

I only wanted the image to be in black&white, so that it would be as plain as it could.
To be able to prevent all the throng...

While mounting, I deliberately wanted the movements to be slow and soft.
I wanted only the ones who really pay attention to be able to see, that there is somebody who passes through under my thumb, whom I love, caress and touch...
I wanted the spectator to be forced to find the details...

It is the same with the sounds and words...
With the eternal and continuous cycle of the balls, the words also create a cycle, a repetition, again understood only with careful attention.
I wanted the story to break into pieces, to be repeated, to create an eternal and meaningless fairy tale; instead of following a logical order... A fairy which is too utopic and surrealist for the present stress...

This work is completely an expression of personal depression. But I believe that leaving the personal aspects to the interest and attention of the spectator, makes the image become a ‘document of stress’ for everyone who sees it. Also maybe by reflecting some of this stress to the viewer...
[*] LUNDBECK Medicine Ltd. Comp.


"...Cemile Kaptan'ın Cipram 20 mg başlıklı video çalışması, yine kişisel boyutuyla dikkat çeken bir iş; oldukça resimsel bir etki uyandıran bu videonun işe adını veren antidepresan türü ilaçlar gibi sakinleştirici, neredeyse meditatif bir etkisi var - aynı süreçte belli belirsiz duyduğumuz sözcükler de anlamını yitiriyor (bir kahve falının uçup giden sözleri bunlar), izleyici, şimdi ile gelecek arasında, gerçek ile olasılıklar arasında sonsuz bir döngüyü izliyor..." Ahu Antmen, 2003