A blog for selected texts of Basak Senova in various books, catalogues, and magazines. Some of the texts posted are copyright, and their holders are indicated.


02 June 2007

FALLING UPON A PARALLEL LIFE

published in Trans Sexual Express Barcelona 2001: A Classic for the Third Millennium, curated by Rosa Martinez. (catalogue)
on Ebru Özseçen's work.
"Falling Upon a Parallel Life"
"Ensopegant amb una vida paral-lela"
"Trapezando con una vida paralela"
(both in English, Spanish and Catalan)
june.27.2001-september.18.2001 in Centre D'art Santa Monica, Barcelona.­



Which one is the real challenge? To live an ordained life with the heaviness of its strict and predictable pattern or to try to build up a new independent life out of what remains from the struggle of that prearranged life.

Which one is easy/painless/undemanding? Which one needs more patience/endurance/ tolerance?

And how can someone compare them or tend to measure the “rectitude” of such a decision? There is no such situation of “being in between them”. It should be truly difficult even for the most probable schizophrenic mind-set to easily comfort itself to adapt and experience both situations without any blankness.

And how can someone be sure about the stability of such a decision? No matter how solid the formation of a life is, the whole ground can be distracted and shifted at any time.

It is a familiar shot from a familiar exposé of life. At first sight, veiled with a cultural shade: A young girl who is believed to be “virgin” offering herself through the legitimised fragility of the coffee cups with envelopes on a silver tray in the company of the confirming witnessing of her parents. Offering herself as a unique gift. Offering fidelity as a promise. Offering the continuation of a secure ordained life as a commitment.

The shot, sooner or later, comes into view as a collective act, which is orbiting around “offering” and now it strikes beneath its cultural coverage.

It is about a basic code inscribed in that very vision: everything has been constructed according to that code. Regardless of its origin, it is strictly and heavily there to shape an average life. It is an immense effort; preparing and to be prepared for it all throughout a lifetime. Like a common hallucination that has been believed truly without a doubt. Like an allegorical play that has been performed plentiful times. It is an old but cerebral play.

In that play, each time, the protagonist is in a hidden conflict with the rest of the manor and flat characters of the play including the spectator of the work itself. In a possible and subtle way, she is carrying inner conflict as a suppressed struggle against herself. The shot “as the identical scene”, she “as the identical subject” simply bends to the taboos with a 45 degree angle. And the spectator of the work responds to this very act by standing in front of it.

Digesting
Confirming.
Witnessing.
Experiencing.
And ignoring.

Nevertheless, ignorance never overshadows the feeling of curiosity towards the secluded corners. What is found beneath is the striking fact: a reflection of yourself on the wall and the reflection of an official governmental form for application in order to become a legal prostitute. It is placed inverted at the back of the photograph as the other side of a coin. The recognition is fair enough. Telling so many things about appearances…about common truths/lies…about decisions…concisely about life. It is not a simple case of the clash between sweet illusion and bitter reality. Nor the guilty consciousness. It is not even emotional violence. As part of life, it is so basic, so familiar, and so predictable. Still, something bizarre comes out of it.

Striking.
Irritating.
Hurting.
Questioning.
And suffocating.

Whatever the costume or the set-up, the real motive is not “to live it”, it is all about its construction. Hence, it is the very question of coping with a “decision” which has registered as the destiny of life.