Erkan Özgen: Giving Voices

The exhibition Giving Voices features four of Erkan Özgen’s video works dealing with war, violence, and trauma. His work invites the viewer to reflect beyond the boundaries of the political, within the private and human dimension. 

Özgen’s recent film Purple Muslin, produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation, will be the focus of his solo exhibition at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies. The film is a touching contemporary portrait created in collaboration with Yazidi women who escaped the menace of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham forces and sought refuge in Northern Iraq. Özgen’s project explores the impact of war on the female refugees who fled the conflict zones. The video is an inquiry into the ways in which these women cope with their traumas in an environment full of violence. 

By deciding not to show images of violence and war, Özgen gives a voice to individuals and objects. Witnessing becomes a way of understanding and a way of resetting memory. 

The curator of the exhibition, Hilde Teerlinck underlines that in the current political and social context, it is fundamental not only to show this work, but also to contextualise the vital questions that are raised in Özgen’s films. How can we feel the realities of war, conflict, and violence? What are the cultural and social implications of war and violence, and how does society respond to war? These are some of the questions raised in Özgen’s work and addressed in the book that has been published by Sternberg Press with contributions written by social anthropologist Rik Adriaans, psychologist Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, curator Özge Ersoy, as well as writer Han Nefkens, and in conversations between the artist and the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries, Hans Ulrich Obrist and curator Hilde Teerlinck.