Film program showcases work by Karaduman

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A Bengü Karaduman video is on display at Istanbul Modern Museum.

Istanbul Modern is presenting the Artists’ Film International program, showcasing contemporary video, animation and short films from across the globe. This year, Istanbul Modern has selected Bengü Karaduman’s video “We are All in the Same Boat” for the program.

The video consists of two video layered on top of each other. On the top layer we see a ship representing the current political economic system that erodes our planet and its creatures, exhausts our natural resources and uses despair as a weapon of mass destruction. The ship carries the products and its production practices of this system.

On the bottom layer we see horses swimming under water. This theme is based on the real story of the phaeton horses from the Princes’ Islands in Istanbul, who are harnessed to work under poor conditions. When they subsequently die, they are thrown into the sea and replaced by new ones.

The video thus suggests that the political economy of our time exploits not only the labor of living beings, but also their lives as well. “We are All in the Same Boat” is a requiem for our not knowing how to face the mechanisms sustaining this monetary system.

The project was initiated in 2008 with the title “Art in the Auditorium” by established London art institution the Whitechapel Gallery. For the Artists’ Film International, each partner selects one video, film, or animation by an artist from their country. The international pool of videos thus created is screened throughout the year in programs or exhibitions held at the partner institutions. Istanbul Modern has been part of the program in the past with the works of Ali Kazma, İnci Eviner, Ergin Çavuşoğlu and Sefer Memişoğlu. The museum is participating in this year’s program with twelve partner art institutions from around the world.