Borders, Walls and Belonging is an exhibition by Melbourne-based artist Kaytsen (Kate) Jama and Istanbul-based artist Murat Germen.
Borders mark contemporary society. They delineate the boundary of neighborhoods, cities and nations cutting across the many stories and histories within their bounds.
Through photography and video Kaytsen and Murat turn towards the urbanised and militarised border spaces on land and at sea. Spanning Australia, Turkey and Somalia the artists interrogate the impact of borders upon their individual and collective understanding of home, place, and identity.
By collaborating in spite of geographical distance the artists creatively resist the proliferation of borders internationally.
This exhibition is created in response to Kaytsen’s Honours thesis in Law focusing on the increased militarisation of the sea under Australia’s migration laws.
Kaytsen is a Somali-Australian artist completing her Honours in Law. Kaytsen’s work draws on both her research on sovereignty and border practices as well as her diasporic identity to explore the relationship between the body, laws and belonging.
Kaytsen has exhibited and performed her work both in Australia and Turkey. In 2016, in collaboration with Dr Ali Mumin Ahad, Kaytsen developed and presented ‘Gurigeeni Awaay’ (Where is home?) a site specific event celebrating and reimagining Somali dhaqaan (culture) through the mixed media of archival images, artifacts, poetry and music. Kaytsen’s first solo exhibition ‘Mapping Home: From Within and Without’ exhibited at Halka Sanat, Istanbul, in January 2016. During 2015-16 Kaytsen’s ‘On Belonging’ photobook was jury selected for the group show ‘Studies on Photobook’, MixerArts, Istanbul and Istanbul’s Photobook Festival, FUAM at Mimar Fine Art University, Istanbul, 2016.
Murat Germen is an artist using photography as an expression / research tool. Born 1965, he currently lives / works in Istanbul and London. Has an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of art, photography and new media at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Having many papers, photo series published on architecture / photography / art / new media in various publications; he has lectured at tens of conferences internationally.
His oeuvre focuses on impacts of urbanization and gentrification, civic rights and participatory citizenship, documentary sustainability of local cultures, human devastation of nature. Has two monographies, one published by Skira (Italy) and the other by MASA (Turkey). Has opened/joined over eighty inter/national (Turkey, USA, Italy, Germany, UK, Mexico, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Greece, Japan, Russia, Poland, Iran, India, France, Canada, Bahrain, South Korea, Dubai, China, Sweden, Switzerland, Egypt) solo+group exhibitions. More than 300 editions of the artist’s several artworks are in personal collections of eminent art collectors inter/nationally, in addition to several that are in Istanbul Modern, Proje4L Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art (Istanbul), Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń (Poland), Benetton Foundation’s Imago Mundi – Istanbul Codex, Yapi Kredi Bank Culture and Arts Center (Istanbul) collections.
Opening event: Thursday October 26, 6:30pm – 8:30pm