Good evening to everyone! While the violent repression of the protest movement in Turkey continues, i purpose to you the interview which i have realized with Sukran Moral, a Turkish artist, operating between Rome and Istanbul and currently active in Istanbul’s protests. The image above captures a moment of the artist’ s recent performance realized in Istanbul. Enjoy your reading!
What’s the origin of your recent performance, critical of the AKP’s government approach towards the Occupy Gezi and Taksim Square’s movement in Istanbul?
The 31th of May a People’s Revolution started. This revolution has grassroots origins, it’s not driven by someone. Everything is changed and i also wanted to do something; leaving a sign, for certain . This protest is a critic of the system in general, and goes against everything that is “fascism” , thereofore against the laic and democractic country. I have sliced on my abdomen the letter A, symbol of this movement “Occupy Gezi”. I walked up on the bench with a gas mask and a cap on my head, two objects symbols of the protest.
I have enveloped myself in white linen as if wanted to say: “ I am ready to die for my homeland”. But i have also said: “ I hope that this blood will be the last one to be spilled”. At the end of the performance, I have asked the public to embrace me.
In your artistic career, you have analyzed the negative effects that religion may have on women. What is the role played by the laity and gender issues in the recent protests?
Religion is an excuse, a trick, aimed to rule the people and exploit the poors.
In 1996, i have started a work on the gynecological bed. In 2009 , i have realized a series of artworks called LOVE AND VIOLENCE…
In that performace, i explained how a family’s strong hand may affect the life of a child. Forcing a children to marry is violence. I had foreseen it all. Fifteen women have been killed just in June. Violence on women has no end: asking the women to bore three children, getting married when they are children, or when someone is pregnant, new rules on abortion… there is a relevant Game on the womens’ body .
In this moment the Turkish people is united on two fundamental points: being laic and democratic.
A true democracy, a representative one and not just an apparent one.
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