Erkan Özgen

15th Sharjah Biennial | Sharjah, UAE

SAHA provides support for Erkan Özgen’s project Natur Mord at 15th Sharjah Biennial titled Thinking Historically in the Present. Conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor and curated by Hoor al Quasimi, the 30th anniversary of the biennial takes place between 7 February and 6 June 2023. Özgen aims to convey the practices of exploitation of nature and common living spaces as the result of humans' utilitarian approaches through a visual presentation. He wants to reflect the crisis and sense of chaos caused by the climate crisis and ecological destruction affecting all living things. Özgen collects the sounds of burnt leaves from fire-stricken forests for the video, wherein viewers see four Afghan refugees walking, who are forced to leave their homes due to the war. 

 “Hoor Al Qasimi interprets and re-envisions the titular proposal by the late thinker to critically centre the past within the contemporary moment. Al Qasimi develops the concept of ‘thinking historically in the present’ by adopting a working methodology that privileges the role of intuition and incidence. Acknowledging the effect Enwezor’s documenta 11 had in transforming her curatorial consciousness, she also builds upon her own long-term relationship with the Biennial, as visitor, artist, curator, and eventually, as director of the Foundation, an institution that came into being as a result of the Biennial, a fact Enwezor appreciably recognised.”

Erkan Özgen (1971, Mardin) Born and raised in the Derik district in Mardin, Turkey, he graduated from the Fine Arts Education Painting Department in Çukurova University, Adana in 2000. The artist’s video and photography-based installations examine issues concerning migration, cultural identity, language, conscience and ethics, among others. Özgen’s works explore the contemporary conjuncture where various forms of displacement are redefining our political and social ecosystem. These works amplify stories that run the risk of being forgotten amid the constant flow of information or are sometimes even intentionally overshadowed. They are fragments that awaken feelings and raise such a fundamental question as, how can art help understand the reality of war, conflict, and violence?

About The Sharjah Biennial

The Sharjah Biennial is an international platform for exhibition and experimentation for artists from the region and beyond. Since 1993, the Sharjah Biennial has commissioned, produced and presented large-scale public installations, performances and films by artists around the world, bringing a broad range of contemporary art, cultural programmes and producers to the communities pf Sharjah, the UAE and the region. Prior Sharjah Biennial curators include: Zoe Butt, Omar Kholeif, Claire Tancons, Christine Tohmé, Eungie Joo, Yuko Hasegawa, Suzanne Cotter, Rasha Salti, Haig Aivazian, Isabel Carlos, Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Mohammed Kazem, Jonathan Watkins, Eva Scharrer, Jack Persekian, Ken Lum, Tirdad Zolghadr, Peter Lewis and Hoor Al Qasimi.