Page 55 - "he 2020 Guggenheim issue of World of Art Contemporary Art Magazine

CANSU ÇAK AR

Cansu Çakar, Stencil for A day, 2020. Courtesy Cansu Çakar. Installation view, 11th Berlin Biennale c/o ExRotaprint,
5.9.–1.11.2020. Photo: Mathias Völzke

The struggles between the traditional and the modern that define
contemporary Turkey underlie the stories that Cansu Çakar renders
in delicate detail. In her series Labyrinth to Kybele (2020), Çakar
creates a landscape of vignettes drawn from anecdotes in the
Turkish press: A man murdered his daughter, after the look in her
eye as she made breakfast convinced him that she was possessed
by evil; a family tree shows the characters in this real-life drama.
A watery setting refers to two treasure hunters who were granted
governmental permission to lay a lake dry with explosives, making it
into a black hole; nearby village officials comment that they are glad
the lake is gone because its depths were a danger to local children.
Another scene, featuring a maze-like architecture dotted with
female figures, is inspired by a rape trial in which the defendant’s
female lawyer interrogates the victim with the malicious logic: “I am
also a woman. Why have I not been raped?”
A keen observer of the social fault lines in Turkey today, the artist
works in miniature painting as a gesture synonymous with tradition.
Reviving this ancient method of storytelling, Çakar’s practice reflects
on how society deals with everyday violence and injustice—and how
gender inequality impacts women ...(excerpt)

DORINE MOKHA

Dorine Mokha, Elements from the performance: dress, stone and letter, 2020. Installation view, 11th Berlin Biennale c/o
ExRotaprint, 5.9.–1.11.2020. Courtesy Dorine Mokha. Photo: Mathias Völzke

Born in November 1989 in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Dorine Mokha is a Congolese dancer, choreographer, and
author. He is artistic co-director of the ART’gument Project in
Lubumbashi and associate artist at Studios Kabako in Kisangani.
With a fully-fledged artistic presence in the international arena, his
resumé includes four creative works (Reclus, Entre deux, Entre deux
II : Lettre à Guz, and Entre deux : Testament), as well as multiple
international collaborations with established artists such as Désiré
Davids, Elia Rediger, and Faustin Linyekula. He has written texts on
dance and theatre, and has contributed to literary reviews.

Dorine Mokha received a scholarship from the Akademie Schloss
Solitude to study from 2014 to 2015. He received a prize at the
Institut français’s triennale Danse l’Afrique danse ! (2017). He was a
jury member at the Zürcher Theater Spektakel (2017); a participant
at the Séminaire en Avignon at the 2017 Avignon Festival and at
the 2018 International Coproduction Fund at the Goethe Institute;
and an artist in residence at Pro Helvetia Johannesburg (2019).
Dorine Mokha holds a Masters in Economic and Social Law from the
University of Kisangani (2013).

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