‘I like the fact that I don't choose when things come, and I think what I should do is to try to create the conditions for them to come.’
Zeynep Yılmaz
1
Who do you think is an artist? To what extent is your personal identity as an artist reflected in your works? In particular, how do your gender, class and cultural background affect your works?
Artistry seems to me to be a set of behaviours more than anything else. It is like being a good observer of the practices, beliefs, discourses, contradictions, feelings that form the basis of our singular existence, and of course, of what these create when they hit the outside, and having the will to process them. It is like being able to do this as a reflex only in this way. Naturally, the things about me include the things I do and the things I do include the things about me.
2
What does it mean for you to produce? Do you always have the feeling that you should do something? If so, how do you deal with it?
It seems that production can be an action that looks different for different contexts. We melt everyday and intuitive things and more intellectual or mental things for production. I don't have the feeling that I have to do something every moment. But I always have a notebook and a pen with me. It feels good that I don't choose when things will come, and I think what I really need to do is to try to create the conditions for them to come.
3
What does your relationship with the audience mean to you?
I think I have an intense relationship with the audience. But neither in full production nor in full viewing. Audience is an inevitable element for performance, it is even one of the important variables of the work. It is a bit like this in writing and poetry, but there at least you put something in front of the audience that seems to be finished. Nevertheless, the audience is always in the corner of my mind, in the sense that it will encounter what I do, rather than affecting my parameters while creating the work.
4
What do you think about creating your own representation on social media? Do you think there are challenging aspects to this?
I am not very good with technological tools, if we consider social media as such. As I said in the previous question, if the things about me include the things I do and vice versa, I cannot help but see social media as a possible place of representation. The challenging part is definitely today's algorithms. Even the most beautiful poem can get 3 likes. I'm not talking about my own poetry, of course, I'm talking about the place that textual posts find in the general pool. Sometimes I convince myself that I need to shoot spoken-word reels. Then I go back from there.
5
Do you think the perception of your target audience changes when you bring your art to the public space? What do you think is the difference between art galleries and museums and public space?
If we look at the concrete level, there are works, street readings or performances that I place in the public sphere. But since we are digging into the individual, I think that this also has an inevitable place in the public sphere. It does not seem to be a matter of doing what will be public with the motives of changing perception, creating opportunities or taking risks. Galleries and museums are interesting places in this sense. I guess they are not considered public spaces.
6
What do you think about censorship in art? Do you think there is such a thing as objectionable art?
This is a subject to be discussed at length. I think it may vary depending on the person or structure by which censorship is applied. Of course, every censorship is fundamentally against the structure of thought and feelings. As long as the artist does not censor something against himself, I find it interesting that he can find ways or possibilities to find forms of expression that are ‘appropriate’ to the conditions he is in. I think there are more objectionable people and belief systems than objectionable art. If there is no art, why should it be objectionable? I mean, it might as well be, after all, we are not trying to please the hearts.
7
Do you feel that you self-censor yourself, and if yes, how do you relate to this? Do you care about developing an attitude against the power that self-censorship creates in you?
If I observe that I practice it, I try to understand why I need to do so, instead of believing that ‘it is wrong to practice self-censorship’. Something new emerges from there, and over time the walls of self-censorship are broken down and new ones are built.
8
Is there a contemporary artist whose work you would like to exchange any of your works?
I have recently started working with pastels on cloth or paper, and the number of my small editions has increased. Since my work comes from text and performance, I have just started to do things that can be exchanged. That's why it feels so sweet and I do it. Although the letters I have been writing for a long time do not count as an exchange, there have been writings or poems that I have given to someone, sometimes reading poems to the whole table in the bar at night feels like a good exchange, I haven't received anything in return yet. We are in a constant exchange with my dear friend painter Poznihal Yaldız, both in terms of our work, labour and time. In addition, I would love to exchange with Zeynep Beler or Can Küçük.
