Cemil Batur Gökçeer

Les Rencontres d'Arles | Arles, France

SAHA supports Cemil Batur Gökçeer's project at Les Rencontres d'Arles between 1 July – 29 September 2024. The artist's new project Thin Air, in collaboration with Ka Atölye, is presented as part of the festival's Discovery Award 2024 titled Sur le qui-vive/On the Look- Out.

Gökçeer is celebrated for his introspective approach that explores themes of identity, landscape, and memory, challenging conventional narratives through photography. Cemil Batur Gökçeer’s project, "Thin Air," explores themes that resonate deeply with contemporary concerns, weaving complex narratives through visual expressions that challenge and engage audiences. This project has been carefully selected among nearly 400 submissions to be part of the Discovery Award exhibition, which is curated by Audrey Illouz. This major show features seven projects by seven artists, each chosen for their unique contributions to the field of photography. The exhibition will be held at L'Espace Monoprix, a significant venue within the festival spanning over 720 m2, equipped with a tailor-made set design to enhance the display of each work

Cemil Batur Gökçeer (1981, Ankara) started photography with long-term self-initiated photo-journalistic works. Facing the instrumentalization that the media implements on the subjects in a documentarian context, this experience (2004-2010) has played a significant role in shaping his later works. During his participation in Reflections Masterclass, Joop Swart Masterclass (2012), he started to investigate new forms in photographic expression. He exhibited respectively Düğüm (Torun, Ankara, 2012), The Closest Possibility (The Empire Project, Istanbul, 2014), Parasite (Torun, 2015), Şşt (The Empire Project, 2016) as solo shows and self published Düğüm (2017) & Mağara Albino (2019) books. He is one of the founding partners of the artists run space Torun (2012-2019). He lives and works in Istanbul.

About Les Rencontres d’Arles

Les Rencontres d'Arles is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970. Between July and September, the public is invited to explore more than 40 exhibitions at various heritage sites throughout the city, from 12th- century chapels and cloisters to 19th-century industrial buildings and contemporary sites. Throughout its latest edition, in 2023, they welcomed 145 000 visitors.