Artist talk with Hera Büyüktaşçıyan and Başak Şenova

In the context of the conference "Re-Orientation. Context of Contemporary Art in Turkey and Abroad" that examines artistic production in Turkey from 1960 to today curator Başak Şenova interviewed artist Hera Büyüktaşçıyan about her artistic approach and her understanding of identity and memory.

Hera Büyüktaşçıyan (born 1984, Istanbul, lives and works in Instanbul) is a storyteller who processes extensive research on historical and cultural narratives mostly based on her Greek-Armenian roots, Turkish myths, or historic and iconographic elements that manifest in long-term projects. Büyüktaşçıyan uses the notion of the "other" and combines it with the concepts of absence and invisibility in order to compose an imaginary connection between identity, memory, space and time. Water is a recurring theme in her practice, referring to what the artist understands as the fluid, aquatic nature of memory. Her most recent works enquire into the meaning of "absence" within collective memory. There is a focus on urban transformation and the disappearance, invisibility, and sense of isolation it causes.

Büyüktaşçıyan graduated from Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Painting department in 2006. She has since participated in various residency programs and participated in several exhibitions including "The Jerusalem Show" (Jerusalem, 2014); "Fishbone" (State of Concept, Athens, 2015); "Century of Centuries" (SALT, Istanbul, 2015); 56th Venice Biennale, Armenian Pavillion (2015); 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015).

Başak Şenova (born 1970, Istanbul, lives and works in Ankara) is a curator and designer. She studied Literature and Graphic Design at Bilkent University and attended the 7th Curatorial Training Programme of Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. She has been editing and writing on art, technology and media, initiating and developing projects and curating exhibitions since 1995. Şenova was the curator of the Pavilion of Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale and curated in 2014 the Helsinki Photography Biennial 2014 as well as the Jerusalem Show. In 2015, she curated the Pavilion of Republic of Macedonia at the 56th Venice Biennale and was recently appointed as curator of 4th Biennial Land Art Mongolia 360°. As an assistant professor, she lectured in various universities in Istanbul and is currently lecturing at Bilkent University.