Wonderland is a touching, wordless story about 13-year-old Muhammad and his family fleeing the Syrian city of Kobanî when attacked by Islamic State (ISIS) forces in 2014. In a short video, Muhammad, deaf and unable to speak, conveys a first-hand account of these traumatic events using only life sounds. Wonderland will be on display in EMMA’s media space from 1 February to 1 May 2022.
The video and photo-based installations of the artist Erkan Özgen (b. 1971, Mardin, Turkey) examine issues related to immigration, cultural identity, language, conscience and ethics, among others. The artist met and befriended Muhammad in the hometown of Özgen in Derik in southeastern Turkey, where Muhammad and his family had resorted to after crossing the Turkish border. Unlike the other refugees encountered by Özgen, Muhammad was happy to tell what he had seen.
According to Özgen, Muhammad represents a collective conscience and a metaphor for all those who have lost their homes in war. Muhammad is their rebellion, their battle cry and the most important message to the world. The story of Muhammad, who has seen extreme violence, helps us look beyond the violent headlines of the media and look at the reality of war and human suffering.
In his works, Özgen reinforces stories that are in danger of being forgotten in the midst of a constant flow of information, or sometimes even on purpose. His work has been featured in various solo and group exhibitions internationally, such as the DOCUMENTA 13 exhibition in Kassel, the Manifesta Revisited in Amsterdam and the Turquie et Alors exhibition in Center Pompidou, Paris.
After Wonderland, the media space of the Touch exhibition is on display Jeannette Ehlers‘ Black bullets and Maija Blåfield‘s Fantastic. Central theme Touch exhibition is humanity. The series of media works has compiled works from the Saastamoinen Foundation’s art collection that deal with the human effects of war on individuals, communities and cultures from different eras and around the world.
Source: Espoo Museum of Modern Art
Source: The Nordic Page