Cemile Kaptan

Hotel Afrika

2009-04-20T07:02:00.001-07:00

Hotel Afrika, 2009, photo installation
Rotte Metropolitane, Tools for Revolution or just for Sale, Villa Romana, Florence -Italy

Jarbel, Cheikh, Ndaraw, Materassi, Sar, Papà, Thiaw Modou, Tallà and Sillah Sehr are Senegalese people without permissions of stay in Italy, who are trying to earn €200-300 a month to send home...
I've hid their photos in the gallery building with the little information they gave me about their lives.
Nobody saw them.

Hikmet, "il turco"

2008-03-14T07:05:00.001-07:00

Hikmet, "il turco", 2007, video-art, 8’18”
Networking Toscana 2007 “Gecekondu – artistic practices in conflict places”, Florence – Italy;
Networking Toscana 2007 “Integration and Conflict”, workshop and exhibitionwith The Yes Men, Florence – Italy

Hikmet is a Turk that I have found in Italy, who lives on the street.
He talks to me while he is lying on the street…

It has been 22 years that he is there.
He had 3 shops.
Carpet shops.
Italy owes him.
Italy has to pay.
He has many friends around.
He can protect me.
He’s from Cappadocia.
He misses.
He’s weak now.
He wants to return strong.

Hikmet was found dead one week after this film was shot, very close to the place I live…

appraisal to insanity

2008-03-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

“appraisal to insanity”, 2006, 5 piece video installation

Appraisal to insanity… doesn’t actually know what it is appraising or what is insanity.
They are recordings of the people whom I found and followed in Italy, who had given up.

hard on

2008-03-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

“hard on”, 2008, photograph

hard on:

1- (kaba argo) penis sertleşmesi
2- dikilme
3- kalkma

to be hard on somebody: birine acımasızca davranmak

to ride hard on something: bir şeyi kontrol etmek

lucertole / kertenkele

2008-03-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

“lucertole” / “ kertenkele”, 2007, video-meeting and photos
Networking Toscana 2007 “Integration and Conflict”, workshop and exhibition with Mario Rizzi, Prato - İtalya

Three young women, one Turkish and two Italian, start talking as they push the record buttons of three different cameras.

The work takes its name from a kind of lizard which can reproduce on its own by changing sex.

the embrace

2008-03-14T05:39:00.000-07:00

“the embrace”, 2006, photograph

the visit, 03.05.2004

2007-02-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

“the visit 03.05.2004”, video-art, 7’45”
Bilgi’de Sinema – Avrupa Üniversiteleri Sanatsal Video Film Sergisi, İstanbul;
Braunschweig Technische Universität Elementares Formen, Braunschweig, Almanya;
Braunschweig Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Almanya;
Burg Giebichenstein – Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle, Almanya;
University of Ulster Faculty of Fine Arts, Belfast, İrlanda

On his deathday, to the place he lies…

I am shooting and watching myself secretly almost like with a hidden camera.
I secretly document an “un-communication”, an alone speech.

Very personal, a bit embarassing…
An unheard dirge, a shrive…

Completely deaf.

(The work is exhibited in a secret corner of the gallery, with the smallest screen possible.)

accompaniment

2007-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

“accompaniment”, 2004, video-art, 5’00”
Bilgi’de Sinema – Avrupa Üniversiteleri Sanatsal Video Film Sergisi, İstanbul;
Braunschweig Technische Universität Elementares Formen, Braunschweig, Almanya;
Braunschweig Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Almanya;
Burg Giebichenstein – Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle, Almanya;
University of Ulster Faculty of Fine Arts, Belfast, İrlanda

The flow of a serum bottle… An unhealthy mode of waiting and watching…

In contrast to other videos, nothing changes here.
Neither the images, nor the sounds…

It’s only a serum bottle in a fixed shot, its shadow in the dim light, and the air bubbles inside…
As a sign of life…
As a sign that the liquid still goes to through the vein.
As a sign that the owner of the vein is still alive.

An insomniac, hopeless, meaningless, empty waiting…

(The place where the video is exhibited is regularly cleaned with a special antiseptic substance so that it reminds a hospital smell)

220 days

2007-02-04T13:20:00.000-08:00

“220 days”, 2004, installation

The used blister covers of the Cipram form a paralel line to the ground on a white wall…

The title of the work is determined according to the number of the Cipram pills used.

I solved a puzzle when he died

2007-02-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

“I solved a puzzle when he died”, 2004, photograph or "readymade"

The work is the puzzle I have solved on the week I lost my father.

the visit, 16.11.2003

2007-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

“the visit 16.11.2003”, video-art, 5’26”

The last piece of three videos which seem to create a whole…

The meditative and melancholic mood which started with “Cipram 20mg” (2002); moved to “Mourning”(2003) with the feelings of death, loneliness and especially longing.

In both of these videos, the images seem to repeat themselves, and the work needs a specific attention as a whole. There is a stable shot, a stable color in both of them.

Just like a moving photograph…

“Cipram 20mg” is grey; “Mourning”is red…
There is a fairy tale that has to be listened in “Cipram”; and a letter that has to be read in “Mourning”…
“The Visit”, as a continuation of these two videos, is again about the ‘loss’ and the ‘death’…

This time the color is white …

Again, a stable shot and a movement on its own…
And in this movement, photos which have to be seen…
The photos of the one I have lost… The photos of my father…

This video was shot on his first birthday without him , on November 16th 2003…

mourning

2007-02-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

"mourning", 2003, video-art, 4'45",
"The Sphinx Will Devour You" Exhibition, Karsi Art Works, 2003

i have written a letter to him.
i couldn’t guess where and how he shall be listening.
so I created a world for him.

and there I added the sound of his breath...

here are my words that you read among the red bubles:

where are you
is it dark
is it cold
is it that
silent
were you afraid
while going…

have you heard
me
have you felt

where are you
do you see
do you watch
always

do you love
still…

cipram 20mg

2007-02-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

"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

BOM

2007-02-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

"BOM", Cemile Kaptan, Ata Öztürk, Murat Çalışkan, 2003, video-art, 8',

The Association of Painting and Sculpture Museums,

22nd Exhibition of Today’s Artists Exhibition, AKSANAT, Istanbul

A rocket appears on the seashore.
It walks on the streets, looking for an adress.
It finds the adress, rings the bell, enters,
spends an ordinary day and explodes.

BOM: Is our place in the fiction.
BOM: Is a formatted end to the formatted lives.
BOM: Is the end of our sublime being.
BOM: Is the end point of the civil life.
BOM: Is the reference to the silent and unknown traffic of the death.
BOM: Is the appraisal of the real God.
BOM: Is the materialized destiny.

beloved

2007-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

"beloved I", 2001, video-art, 7'22",

The Association of Painting and Sculpture Museums, 21st Exhibition of Today’s Artists

“In Image We Trust”, AKM Exhibition Hall, Istanbul;
Diyarbakır Art Center “In Image We Trust 2”, Diyarbakir

could I be born more "female" than another?

or how "female" would another life, another world, would make me?

inside

2007-02-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

"inside", 2000, installation, typesetting drawer and eggs, 50x70 cm