Cihan Çakmak

em fraktal, 2021

01_träumen (Sound)
02_rausgehen (Video+Sound)
03_reflektieren (Photography)

In her work em fraktal, Cihan Çakmak approaches herself and her kurdish identity: She leads us through her dreams, which often revolve around her fractured past of isolation and uprooting; takes us to photographic encounters with other kurdish women and with herself. For this Çakmak weaves a multi-sensual carpet of photographs, video and sound.

The title is made up of the kurdish word for we and the term fractal, which the similarity of individual parts to the whole means, in short, self-similarity. So can the experiences individually viewed as part of a collectivized experience. In her self-portraits and portraits, Çakmak reflects on other kurdish women, exploring similarities and differences. The visualization of the physical and mental stresses that arise in their bodies inscribed is of political relevance: it is about showing a often repressed and marginalized identity. Here Çakmak deviates with her portraits stereotypical representations of kurdish women, the images are quiet and loud at the same time. Therewith Çakmak's em fraktal is both an approximation of her kurdish identity and a emancipation from the same.

Text by Carlotta Jacobi