28. Nov 2017

Kurdish artist Fikret Atay is Örebro's first ICORN resident

Fikret Atay, interview with SVT 24 November 2017. Photo. — Fikret Atay, in interview with Swedish Television SVT 24 November 2017

Fikret Atay’s art is collected and exhibited worldwide, among others at Tate Modern in London and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. For the next two years, Atay is ICORN artist-in-residence in the city of Örebro in Sweden.

Internationally renowned Kurdish video-artist, Fikret Atay, arrived in Örebro city of refuge in July this year, where he will continue his artistic practice for the next two years.

With a hand-held camera and natural light, Fikret Atay makes video works that offer short vignettes of life in Batman, a Kurdish city near the border of Turkey and Iraq. Atay’s work deals both with a metaphysical void and a political, economical void which is linked to the structural problem of the Kurdish minority. His home town Batman has long suffered from the conflict in the region and has often been at the centre of protests against government suppression of the Kurdish community. His films and photography describe the permanent opposition between the West and the East, civilians and military, tradition and experimentation.

Works and exhibitions

Atay has lived and worked most of his life in Batman, and his work is mostly filmed in Batman. He graduated in fine arts from Dicle University in Diyarbakir in 2001, and in 2010 he was nominated for the bi-annual Future Generation Art Prize, presented by Victor Pinchuk Foundation.

From the video Sring Fever by Fikret Atay, a video that focuses on the student demonstrations that took place in Paris in 2005. Photo.

His work is collected by major galleries, including the Tate Modern in London that has purchased his Rebels of the Dance (2002) and Fast and Best (2003). He has had solo exhibitions at PILOT (Istanbul, 2014), Viafarini Docva (Milano, 2010), Bonner Kunstverein (Germany, 2008), Site Gallery (U.K., 2007), UCLA Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, 2006), FRAC Ile-de-France-Le Plateau (Paris, 2006), Maison de l’Architecture (Paris, 2005) and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo di León (Spain, 2005).

Atay has participated in numerous group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, at prestigious art museums and institutions including Istanbul Modern, New Museum, and Tate Modern. Recent group exhibitions include Lines Made by Walking, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel (2011), Future Generation Art Prize@Venice, Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice (2011) and Starter, Works from the Vehbi Koç Contemporary Art Collection, ARTER Space for Art, Istanbul (2010).

His work was also included in the 10th Lyon Biennial (2009), the Alexandria Biennial (2009), the 10th and 8th Istanbul Biennials (2007, 2003) and the Biennale of Sydney (2006).

Targeting artists and intellectuals in Turkey

As illustrated by his art work, Atay has long been engaged with Kurdish rights. As for many towns and cities in south east Turkey, Batman has seen many protests calling for Kurdish rights and protesting against abuses by police and military, many of which have broken out into violence. Atay has experienced harassment and threats from the Turkish authorities for many years because of his work and activism. Following the July 2016 coup attempt, resulting in a mass crackdown against journalists, academics, teachers and writers, hundreds of whom have been arrested, charged or lost their jobs, the situation for artists in the region became tenser, and he feared for his safety.

The Swedish city of Örebro joined ICORN in 2016 and welcomed Fikret Atay as their first ICORN resident in July 2017. With a safe base in Örebro, Atay continues his video production and photography, collaborating and engaging with other artists, curators, writers and the local artistic community in general. He will also bring his teaching experience in contemporary arts to the academic field in the city.