-
info
ongoing project Experimental research based film project about asylum seekers who are living in japan. The project will be interlaced with Japanese peoples life. Since the collapse of the bubble economy and the continue decay of it until this day, many Japanese people are struggling to sustain a decent life, especially the elderly and single mothers are living in poverty.
-
![Man and Earth/part one Japan]( "Man and Earth/part one Japan")
infoVideo installation about farmers and culture in Japan
-
![Qanok]( "Qanok")
infoFilm about memorie identity autobiography and landscape
-
info
Pony A dilapidated house laden with history, memories, and unknown lives and suddenly like a burst of life comes a friendly pony that looks at us in the eye and invites us to join him in his fun ride. As the lovely pony roams freely in the garden following his animal instincts and wants us to be with him, we realize that there is a boundary... the boundary of the field. This moment of inner peace consisting from the raw instinct of the pony is distracted by the sounds of civilization in the background-- the cars, the traffic. The wild roaming pony offers a slice of happiness and freedom, in a world where none completely exist.
-
![Memories beneath the dining room]( "Memories beneath the dining room")
info2nd Mardin Biennial
-
![Pony]( "Pony")
infoPony living in an dilapidated house
-
![The Eventual Probability of Landscape No 4]( "The Eventual Probability of Landscape No 4")
infoLife on the Deabu-do Island South Korea
My work is a river,
I’m interested in creating visual narratives employing the mechanics of cinematic production,
with themes focusing on identity, migration, intercultural dynamics, and the globalized world
in flux.
Drawing from my personal history, I question notions of identity-making, the bounds of what
constitutes cultural heritage, “life between cultures” and the ways in which these are
transformed in a globalizing world. Migration with its dual aspects of being uprooted and resettled,
experiences of mobility and displacement inform my art practice as a Kurd from
Turkey who has migrated to the Netherlands. I hope to bring light to the ways in which new
Transcontinental identities and cultures are re-made, and the role of borders, migration, and
transcultural politics in shaping such re-iterations. Autobiographical account is often part of
my artwork, and the border between the artwork and my personality becomes fluid, hence we
might speak of a new kind of authorship, intimately related to the artist as an individual, but
also mediating between self and the other, home and abroad – and thus fundamental in the reshaping
of identities.
In addition, land and urban-scapes play vital roles in my video and artwork. Majority of my
work is embedded in the urban context. I am interested in the relationship between human
beings and nature; how this unfolds in creating cultural, individual, as well as collective
identities and memories. The diversity of cultural ideology can be unified through geography
and memory. My work exposes the fragile and at times volatile connection between these
elements, affording viewers a new perspective via cinematic style immersion. In my recent
projects, I have been experimenting with different ways to extend the subject matter of my
video and films into the space. I create installations around the moving imagery to materialize
its content with the help of diverse objects and materials that deliver and envelop the audience
in an environment where perception of the narrative of the moving imagery can be received in
fresh and rigorous ways.
Websites
A short selection of my video's
vimeo.com/seyitbattalkurtSocial media
Curriculum vitae
Education
-
2008 - 2010MA. Fine arts Amsterdam, Sandberg Instituut diploma
-
2001 - 2005BA. Fine arts Den Haag, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten diploma
exhibitions
-
2019Open studios Gravenstraat 31 ateliers Dordrecht, Netherlands slideshow installation www.dordrechtmuseum.nl/openatelier. Group
-
2017Open Studio Tokyo Arts and Space Residency Tokyo, Japan Research for the Video/Film project: Kari-Home Film project Kari-Home is based on the research about Kurdish asylum seekers who are living in japan. It tells the complex story of contemporary Japan and Kurdish asylum seekers within it and this two very different people, cultures, contexts interlaced and juxtaposed with each other. It's going to be a video instalation full of mystic misconceptions and misunderstandings, unexpected plots and bitter lives of migrants, prostitutes, elderly street artists and single mothers. www.tokyoartsandspace.jp/en/archive/residence/2017/20170901-5480.html Group
-
2015De-lâl Gallery T Tokyo, Japan When gallery t offered me a solo show, I decided to make a work about Kurdish people living in Japan. Back then I wasn’t aware of their life struggles, and I didn't know the political and social problems they were facing. As I met a range of different Kurdish people for interviews, I slowly got to know them better, getting the whole picture on their lives in Japan. In this regard the videos are just a light touch upon the subject matter, and give a small glimpse into the lives of Kurds living in Japan. The videos in this show are a selection of many hours of footage that I have taken in the past months. I have also included photos and video work from a previous work that I had conducted in the village where I was born, Toprakkale in the eastern part of Turkey. It’s close to Mt Ararat, where only Kurdish people live. The reason for the combination of two works is to give the viewer a better understanding about who the Kurds are and where they come from. Kurds began to migrate to Japan mostly from Turkey in the 1990s. Most Kurds in Japan are from villages in Southeast Turkey, and now some 1,500 Kurds live in the Warabi and Kawaguchi, north of Tokyo. Kurds usually enter Japan for tourism or on short stays visas, as pre-arranged visas are not required for temporary visits by Turkish citizens. They then apply for the refugee status, citing human rights abuses in Turkey. According to a Japan Times article from September 3 by Tadashi Tsumura, 3,415 Kurds have so far applied for refugee status. None of them has yet been recognized by the Japanese authorities. www.toho-beads.co.jp/tbs/galleryt/galleryt034.html Solo
-
2014Now&After 14, Intl. Video Art Festival The State Museum of Gulag Moscow, Russian Federation In the video Pony we see the friendly animal trying to invite us into his surroundings, that of a dilapidated house. Memory is a special human ability to accumulate the past and to keep it for the present and future, overcoming the oblivion. We suggest the artists to explore memory as a flexible structure that is migrating in time and space from person to person, from generation to generation, between social groups and nations, between cities and continents, between virtual and real world. Which memory features are important for us? · Memory as a process, memory in evolution, memory in search. · Lost memory, returned memory. · Lapses of the memory and continuous chain of memories. · Memory as a mechanism of past actualization. · Autobiographic memory and collective memory. · Memories about things that never happened and those that are only going to happen. · Memory as a premonition of unpredictable future and as a precursor of eternal present. · Memory as a stop in time and a leap in time. · Memory in the virtual space. · The site of memory and memory of the place. · Memory of the loss and the loss of memory. In 2014 "Now&After" festival is being held at the State Museum of GULAG – a place that has accumulated the memories of Stalin's punitive system. In the area of our special interest there is a traumatic memory: reliving and rethinking of the historical traumas, especially those related to the history of GULAG. now-after.org/eng/arh.php?u=1&id=583&papka_arhiv=NA14foto Group
-
2014Man and Earth ARCUS Project Moriya, Ibaraki,, Japan Man and Earth (2014), 7-screen HD video Installation (variable duration). Installation view from the open studios at ARCUS project Moriya, Ibaraki, Japan, (October 2014). These intimate video portraits and interviews give a personal and unique look into the Japanese living in Ibaraki and the city of Moriya. With them on topics ranging from ecology, farming, sustainability, cultural identity, family structures, and the Second World War. vimeo.com/136089688 Group
-
2012The Eventual Probability of Landscape No.4 GyeongGi Creation Center Daebu-do, South Korea, Republic of Korea This exhibition was centered around the cultural aspects of the South Korean community living on the Island of Daebu-do. Based on my encounters with different community members such as dancers, musicians, restaurant owners, artists, poets, fishermen, I re-staged and filmed the things that I saw and learned from them in different parts of the island with professionals and combined it with documentary footage that I recorded during my wanderings around the island. The seven videos were presented together with natural found objects and industrial garbage materials from the surrounding. The exhibitions aimed at showing and give an experience of the materialization of the nature and the fast industrial developments in addition to the impact it has on nature and the social cultural life of the island. gcc.ggcf.kr/archives/resident_artist/seyit-battal-kurt Group
-
2012In which language shall I tell my story? Stedelijk Museum Schiedam Schiedam, Netherlands ‘In which language shall I tell my story? In Turkish, Dutch or Kurdish?’ These are the opening words of the film Qanok (director’s first cut, 2012) by Seyit Battal Kurt (Toprakkale, 1978): a film about the landscape of his youth. Now, twenty years later he returns to Toprakkale, the village of his youth in the extreme eastern part of Turkey, near the border with Armenia and Iran. During his stay there, he reflects upon his life. In this way, a personal, autobiographical narrative slowly unfolds. It is the story of a migrant, of children of immigrant workers, and also of the position of the Kurdish population. With the exhibition entitled In which language shall I tell my tale?, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam brings together ten artists from Turkey and the Netherlands who recount their stories with themes such as identity, origins, migration, changing social structures, perception of time as a measurable phenomenon, and dreams of a better future. What drew attention during the interviews with these artists was that they all managed to articulate their tales in an extraordinarily beautiful and powerful way. They fuel narrative imagery with their expressive work; they reveal to us a whole new world. www.artslant.com/ams/events/show/226780-in-which-language-shall-i-tell-my-story?tab=EVENT Group
-
2012Memories Beneath the Dining Room 2nd International Mardin Biennial Mardin, Turkey In Memories beneath the dining room, food is the main character as Seyit Battal Kurt provides an insight into South Korean ladies preparing sea food dishes for restaurant customers. The video’s display within the Konak’s kitchen conjures a concrete link between the creation of food with all that is entailed, and the work’s presentation. In the video Pony, also by Kurt, we see the friendly animal trying to invite us into his surroundings, that of a dilapidated house (reminding one of the biennial venue). recycled plastic beads and HD video, installation view at Tokmakcilar Konagi frieze.com/article/2nd-mardin-biennial Group
-
2011Yin & Yan Maritiem Museum Rotterdam and China Maritime Museum Roterrdam, Netherlands 5 screen video installation about the Yin & Yan about the maritime trade between Netherland and china. www.shmmc.com.cn/English/news_detail Duo
-
2010Art Pie 2010 Westergasfabriek Amsterdam, Netherlands Untitled 3x screen video installation sandberg.nl/kunstvlaai Group
-
2010Splitscreen Art Cinema Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Roterdam IFFR Rotterdam Film Festival, Video Fim screening of 60x1 minutes iffr.com/nl/2010/films/splitscreen-art-cinema-60-x-1-movies Group
Projects
-
2020
Kari-Home in eigen beheer Tokyo, Japan vimeo.com/210252252 Video/Film project: Ongoing, Kari-Home Experimental research based film project about asylum seekers who are living in japan. The project will be interlaced with Japanese peoples life. Since the collapse of the bubble economy and the continue decay of it until this day, many Japanese people are struggling to sustain a decent life, especially the elderly and single mothers are living in poverty.
International exchanges/Residencies
-
2017Tokyo arts an dspace Tokyo arts an dspace, Japan Research Residency Program (2017.9 - 2017.10) www.tokyoartsandspace.jp/en/creator/index/K/1188.html
-
2014ARCUS project, Studio Residency, Ibaraki, Japan Moria, Ibaraki, Japan Seyit Battal Kurt [Netherlands] Man and Earth 1. Statement by Seyit Battal Kurt I want to investigate how farmers deal with industrialized, modern life and what strategies they employ to sustain their farming activities. And at the same time, to see how people from different parts of the world, are keeping their relation with the physicality of the land and hence the earth. In Moriya I have gathered numerous stories from farmers and various individuals involved in farming, gardening, and agriculture. The video portraits and interviews, which I have executed and compiled, give personal and unique look into the Japanese living in Ibaraki and Moriya. These intimate portraits enable unexpected encounters ranging from the relationship between math and agriculture, or personal tales of the World War II. Their naked stories, told through the prism of farming tell us beyond farming, as it touches upon human tales. Tales that are stuck between the pieces of modern industrial life, wanting to be heard… Looking at their manual work and ideas and dreams about farming, I feel the urge that this project could extend further, to diverse communities in the world. 2. Comment by Mihoko Nshikawa [Guest Curator2014/Curator of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo] Kurt was born in a Kurdish district in Turkey but later moved with his father to the Netherlands when still a child. His work, Qanok, for which he spent several years visiting and filming the village of his birth, looks through a camera at people in everyday life, whether a grandmother baking bread or villagers assisting the birth of livestock. Such issues as Armenian history, Kurdish history, immigrants, language, and modernization run as an undercurrent throughout the work. While a personal record, Kurt’s work simultaneously maintains a distance from his subject to provide an objective portrait. As a result, it is tinged with a nostalgia transcending regional boundaries, perhaps because it awakens our memory of living close in contact with the earth—memory that cannot be erased no matter how modern our city surroundings may be. During his residency, this time, Kurt is researching people who engage in farming. The artist, who does not speak Japanese, throws out a few simple questions while filming and concentrates on capturing facial expression, tone of voice, and the background scene of the room or field. His subjects speak actively, continually getting off track about everything from raising vegetables to their own upbringing and experiences of the Second World War. Kurt’s loosely related video portraits of different people’s lives converge to tell a story of people, the land, the city, and migration. arcus4u.exblog.jp/i17/
-
2012GCC Gyeonggi Creation Center Artist Residency, Daebu-do, South Korea Daebu-do,, Republic of Korea During this artist in residency program at GGC, I centered my focus during my stay of 3 months; around the cultural aspects of the South Korean community living on the Island of Daebu-do. Based on my encounters with different community members such as dancers, musicians, restaurant owners, artists, poets, fishermen, I re-staged and filmed the things that I saw and learned from them in different parts of the island with professionals and combined it with documentary footage that I recorded during my wanderings around the island. The seven videos were presented together with natural found objects and industrial garbage materials from the surrounding. The exhibitions aimed at showing and give an experience of the materialization of the nature and the fast industrial developments in addition to the impact it has on nature and the social cultural life of the island. gcc.ggcf.kr/archives/exhibit/the-eventual-probability-of-landscape-no-4?term=42
Commissions
-
2014Jodi Dordrecht, Netherlands Video editing and re-production of new video finished
-
2011Rolling Stones Fikret Atay Amsterdam, Netherlands Video production, Rolling Stones www.crousel.com/static/uploads/artists/Expositioncollective/press/bande_a_part_livret_1.pdf finished
-
2010Urban Explorer Festiva CBK, Dordrecht Dordrecht/Nederland, Netherlands Curator 2010 is 2010, Urban Explorer Festival www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE545y2Xkzg finished
-
2009City Portraits for cityoneminutes The One Minutes foundation Hong-Kong, Bei-Jing, Hang-Zho, China City Portraits for cityoneminutes: Hong-Kong, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eze4Ho8ZjzI finished
Sales/Works in collections
-
2015De-Lal Ms, Y.H. Tokyo, Japan Two photos from the series De-Lal
-
2009Various titles, video's The One Minutes foundation Amsterdam, Nederland Various titles, videos 2008/2011
Publications
-
2017In-Between Worlds Antiga Edizioni Luciano Benetton Collection Italy www.imagomundiart.com/collections/kurdistan-between-worlds This collection is an expression of Kurdish art, in keeping with the global and democratic spirit of Imago Mundi, and with the conviction that if we tear a culture from the world, we annihilate a colour, a scent, a part of its wealth. This is the most far-reaching body of research completed to date on the creativity of the world's largest group of people without a state: 115 artists from the various Kurdish communities in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the diaspora. A cataloguing of works that took more than two years to complete, involving both emerging young talents and established names, recipients of major international recognitions (Biennale, Documenta). A mosaic of identities brought together on the small Imago Mundi canvas, pieces of a cross-border dialogue that takes place in a land without borders or wars: that of contemporary art.
-
2016
-
2014‘Now&Aafter’14’ Catalog Now&Aafter, Moscow, Russia Russian Federation www.now-after.org/eng/arh.php?u=1&id=583&papka_arhiv=NA14foto Catalog
-
2012In welke taal zal ik u mijn verhaal vertelen Museumtijdschrift, Schiedam Netherlands recensie
-
2012Vitrine not for sale, Buitenbioscoop Movies on the road catalogue
-
2008Aan het werk 5, CBK Dordrecht catalogue
reviews
-
2012Genau hinsehen: Die Kunst-Biennale von Mardin Magazine Sabine Küper-Büsch Germany www.kunstforum.de/artikel/genau-hinsehen/
-
20122nd Mardin Biennial Magazine Sam Thorne Londen , United Kingdom frieze.com/article/2nd-mardin-biennial
Awards and grants
-
2015Subsidie De-Lal Solo show Nederlandse Ambassade,Tokyo Netherlands
-
2014Subsidie video project Gemente Dordrecht Netherlands
-
2012Subsidie voor deelname Mardin Biennial SAHA, Istanbul Istanbul, Turkey
-
2011Project subsidie FBKVB Netherlands
-
2006Stroom Invest grant Stroom Den Haag
-
2005Goedman Encouragement Award for the Graduation Exhibition KABK, Den Haag