Words and Things

Emre Burhan

Online Presentations, Video Art

Gaziantep

02/05 – 15/11/2021

‘’Words and Things’’ includes 15 youngsters living in Gaziantep from different social statuses from Syria and Gaziantep. Within the scope of the project, the youngsters attribute meanings to things and the project aims at turning them into digital stories through videos and seminars. The project reveals how the youngsters interpret their life stories, which differ and resemble according to class, ethnic background, age, faith, and citizenship, through a self-chosen theme and “thing”.

“Words and Things” opens a space of story-telling and emancipation for youngsters around the themes of loneliness, longing and freedom through an object that they find meaningful and important. The project aims at listening to them, drawing attention to creativity and freedom of speech, setting the awareness of social harmony in motion and strengthening empathy in society. Based on semiotics, it opens up for discussion the connotations, the usage and exchange values leaked into things, by bringing together video producers, civil society professionals and other relevant people from the public in an online seminar program and video screening to be held in person.

In the online seminars held within the scope of the project ‘Words and Things’ coordinated by artist and researcher Emre Burhan; Ass. Prof. Vefa Saygın Öğütle, Ass. Prof. Gülbin Özdamar Akarçay, Tolga Ulusoy ve artist Rızacan Kumaş address with an interdisciplinary understanding the knowledge of theory and practice on reification, embodiment, machine, human, image, representation, street photography and video art.