OSMAN BOZKURT. REJECTION EPISODES AND FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY
printed in Camera Austria, International. No. 92, p.31-38.
ISBN 3-900508-59-3
ISSN 1015-1915
(both in English and German)
© Camera Austria, International. 2003
Immune cells may cause serious damage in order to protect the body from any medical intervention by triggering rejection episodes. The occurrence of these episodes is totally instinctive. In alike manner, a social rejection may also be instinctive and beyond reasoning. Osman Bozkurt’s works are quiet explicitly orientated to detecting these social rejection episodes. Since he started working with photography and video, he has been investigating bizarre situations that demonstrate the nexus of social paradoxes, ironies and parodies as modes of rejection. All types of social rejection mainly operate along with and against a dominating system; in Turkey this is usually the State. Amongst many governing systems, the State has been the epitome of power demanding obedience. Factoring the nation’s history with ruptures, short and long-term memory losses, it is evident that nothing but only “the idealized notion” of the State has embodied the sole credibility of the nation as a whole. In this respect, each and every social rejection episode occurs without conscious control, and can therefore not be considered conscious resistance towards the dominant system, but appears as a reflexive act in various modes. While such modes indicate temporary and ephemeral states, Bozkurt’s works also trigger troubling questions about memory. They resonate between the act of covering and the act of revealing: forgetting and remembering –a cyclic pattern of denying (ignoring) incidents and recreating the memory.
In "Marks of Democracy / Portrait of the Voters", (2002) Bozkurt presents a series of portraits documenting this cyclic pattern. The permanent indigo dye especially imported from India for the general elections in Turkey is a paradoxical sign for the progression of democracy: After casting their vote, each citizen is obliged to have the left index finger marked with this paint. Originally, this method was used by the Indian Department of Health to mark the corpses of epidemic victims. The dye oozes under the epidermis (outer layer of skin), so that the duration of its complete removal for depends on the speed of the metabolism of the body. It only fades completely when the skin is renewed.
The indigo dye mark is also a public “spectacle” until it fades away. This process corresponds to Foucault’s perception of torture as an externalized punishment illustrating
the “truth of the crime” in public (through marks on the body). Similarly, the process of being marked and carrying this mark internalizes this act of voting as the “truth of obedience”, seen as a debt to be paid to the governing system which stabilizes its own power through this collective obedience.
Bozkurt personalizes each finger by taking a portrait of it in front of a white background. Each finger signifies a unique face. Yet, all of them are forced to carry a spot of paint on them, either on the finger or on the neck. Ironically, The Supreme Council of Elections declares that “if a citizen is disabled and has no finger, the mark should be put on the neck”. Each face is different. Each mark is different. But the consciousness of this debt is the same. It is the imperative dept to the governing system: the State. The very act itself indicates an acceptance of an axiomatic power, a mental violence in its most subtle form. It is a voluntary accepted act that is repeated millions of times. It is an act that causes millions of different shapes/marks/wounds on each citizen –to establish a collective consciousness acknowledging the same authority.
On the other hand, “Auto-Park: The Highway Parks of Istanbul”, (2003), a project in two formats: a series of photographs and a documentary video), operates as an outstandingly vivid example of a social rejection episode: the use of strips of greenery between highways as areas of leisure. It documents unexpected and unorganized actions that penetrate through the dictated imperatives of globalized urban situations. Every single inhabitant of the city is expected to circulate within the territories of the domain defined by the governing system. Inhabitants, living at the outskirts of the wealthy and extravagant zones of the other urbanites, subtly resist these territorial decisions that overlap their factual needs. It is an instinctive act and addresses a transitory dangerous haven (a secretive zone) bordering on the mechanized and globalized urban reality. The work documents of happy people in the city’s most unexpected location. While hopes, passions, and dreams are all embodied in such a zone, it always carries the potential to turn into a nightmare any time. As the artifacts of the dominant system, it constantly demands a sort of courage that blends with unresponsiveness.
Paradoxically, since the design of the authoritative system lacks a prediction of a possible defect and is hence unable to counter it, the penetrators are able to legitimize such transitory zones. The system lets the unexpected situations exist until it damages the “the perception and reputation” of the idealized values attributed to the system, but not its operation. Another photograph, Tomurcuk (Bud), (2000), records this feature in its most apparent form. Again the system tolerates the existence of all kinds of self-sufficient formations and structures -despite their similar (dys)functions and connotations-, as long as they do not present a threat to the system.
In both works, the authoritative system, presents itself as the defender of the values that bond the society, form the culture and enable people to live in harmony The system seeks new economic upheavals with the same intention by trying to overcome its dead-weight, such as traditional neighborhood, old districts, religious and historical buildings and ancient cemeteries. New highways, flyovers, viaducts crisscross the city all over. Many old districts and mosques around the Golden Horn are long forgotten under the towers of the highway bridges. Not only the historical sites, but also the districts that were lively and active in local economy just a couple of decades ago are already extinct. The new market economy covers the ageing city’s wrinkles with concrete bandages.
From a different point of view, it can be observed how the system attacks the city with blades to dissect and open up new areas of economical activities. In Bozkurt's "Untitled Urban Scenery", (2005) a photograph series depicting these common occurrences in the city, concrete fillings serve as the treatment for the amputated parts of the city geography. The frames display a cut-out view of large volumes of hillsides facing over-crowded dwellings, covering it all over and below. These series of operations conducted by the system hold control over the memory. The memory inscribed to each and every building and district is permanently removed along with all of its experiences and marks. The interesting correlation with enormous bundles of papers stacked on top of one another, displays another sign of the memory loss induced by the system. Paper documents, which still hold the memory of all sorts of inscriptions of the activities carried out in society, are waiting for their imminent end, where all their memory will be erased. Holding the memory and/or erasing it at its own, grants the authoritative system great power. With no proof of memory, individuals have no other choice but to believe in the narratives given to them. Manipulating or controlling the masses on the neural level enables the authority to act more smoothly and swiftly.
Rest in Peace, (2004) follows the same tension between the acts of covering and discovering, forgetting and remembering. This specific photograph is the starting point of another on-going project which explores cultural frames of approaches to death in the urban context. In Istanbul, in the course of intensive urban development, cemeteries are encircled by residential areas. Yet, it is not an awkward situation, since the relationship with the dead is a highly internalized fact of life. Both the Muslim and Christian communities regularly visit the graves of their ancestors and ancient holy figures, spending long hours there, showing their respect for them, praying and feeling peace in the silence. Having a picnic or resting around the greenery that surrounds the graves is also a normal practice. The word for grave is “kabir”. It is Arabic in origin, meaning the "highest", which denotes the celestial bodies. On the other hand, the word "grave" itself has the morbid and gloomy heaviness of the underworld. That distinctive approach to the remains of the dead defines social activities that take place in conjunction with their symbolic residences. In this manner, the dead are not only visited but also invited into the daily routine of life. This specific photograph of this extreme case indicates the distinctive association of death from a culturally framed perspective. Furthermore, it underlines once again the hidden potential for the occurrence of rejection episodes with any system despite its authority and control mechanisms.
