Halil Altındere

Halil Altındere (* 1971 in Mardin , Turkey ; lives in Istanbul ) is a Turkish multimedia and action artist of Kurdish descent. He works with videos and various multimedia techniques, as an object artist and photographer. Halil Altındere is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of art-ist Contemporary Art Magazine in Istanbul.

life and work

Halil Altındere's art is shaped by political content. Altındere dealt with the repressive Turkish regime in his early work. Altındere often uses the insignia and symbols of state power and presence in his installations, such as postage stamps, flags, banknotes or identity cards, which he manipulates and - sometimes humorously - alienates. His works aim to disrupt the systems of state representation and identification with the system. In his videos and installations he deals with the life and language of the subcultures and the heterogeneity of the big cities in Turkey.

In 2007, Altındere was a participant in documenta 12 in Kassel with Dengbej's video work . The word Dengbejs means storyteller in Kurdish . In the video, Altındere introduces Dengbejs, who sit in a room lined with Mesopotamian carpets and sing singing stories that belong to the orally transmitted Kurdish cultural history. When the storytellers leave the place, nested wooden houses appear that stand over the roofs of a Turkish city. With the film, Altındere indicates that modernity and tradition coexist as well as above (and below) one another. The contradiction in architecture is a symbol of the Dengbej's anti-modernism.

Important exhibitions

• 1997 5th Istanbul Biennale
• 2000 early spring Kunsthallen Nikolaj , Copenhagen
• 2001 Boztepe / Rhomberg / Karamustafa / Altindere Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Bregenz
• 2002 Between the Waterfronts Galerie Ron Mandos, Rotterdam / In search of Balkania Neue Galerie, Graz / Manifesta 4 Frankfurt am Main / Oh, it's a Curator! rotor Graz
• 2003 Tirana Biennale 2 / In the gorges of the Balkans Kunsthalle Fridericianum , Kassel / Blood & Honey - Future is on the Balkans Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg
• 2004 5th Cetinje Biennale - Love it or Leave it Biennale Cetinje / Shake - ID Troubles -Lüneburg, Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
• 2005 PILOT: 2 PILOT London / 9th Istanbul Biennale
• 2006 October Salon 2006, Belgrade / Art Without Borders ACCEA Yerevan, Yerevan
• 2007 documenta 12 Kassel
• 2015 Who the F * ck is Halil Altındere Kunstpalais Erlangen
• 2016 nbk Space Refugee Berlin

Literature and Sources

• documenta 12 catalog , 2007, 416 pages, ISBN 978-3-8228-1677-6
• documenta 12 picture book , 2007, 228 pages, ISBN 978-3-8228-1694-3

Web links

• Literature by and about Halil Altındere in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Halil Altındere in the documenta archive
• Manifesta 4
• Pilot 2 London
• For the exhibition in the Kassel Museum Fridericianum ( Memento from December 22, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
• For the exhibition in the Kunstpalais Erlangen
• For the exhibition Space Refugee at nbk