Between Public and Private: Berk Kır
Berk Kır, in his debut solo exhibition “Dışarıda Yakınlık” reinterprets the distinction between public and private by immersing the audience in the interaction of the body with the tangible objects of the perceptible world, experienced through seeing, hearing, and touching. Departing from traditional techniques he has long employed in the act of photography, Kır takes us on a journey where he explores alternatives to viewing the world from outside the world.
You’ve chosen the title of the exhibition as “Dışarıda Yakınlık” How does this title relate to the main theme of the exhibition?
Berk Kır: The exhibition title is derived from the concept of “extimacy,” which can be expressed as the outside. I value Anne Rothenberg’s retrospective approach to “proximity outside.” In her retrospective proposition, Rothenberg adds an inherent perspective on the external and a retrospective dimension of causality. The title serves as a framework for the thoughts I’ve constructed regarding the possibilities of photography transforming into its own object within the potentials of objects.
“Dışarıda Yakınlık” addresses an ontological debate taking place through the corporeality of photography. How important is the ontological dimension of photography for you?
Berk Kır: I believe photography has a transcendent aspect. The transcendent aspect I mention involves suggesting alternatives for viewing the world from outside the world. I am interested in the invasive side of photography, the surfaces it covers, and the meanings it proposes. Here, I prioritize the relationship that the image will establish with another object and attribute my own corporeality to photography for these encounters.
The ideas seeking the possibilities of photography transforming into its own object are accompanied by sounds generated from the surfaces. How does photography and technology form a partnership in your exhibition?
Berk Kır: While seeing sound as a separate object, in the exhibition, I position it as another object generated from within an object. These sounds consist of frequencies that reveal the values of the images I obtain by scanning the surfaces of photographs. I transform the heat emitted by values such as brightness and color on the surface into frequencies, making them audible. My relationship with technology allows for this, utilizing programs that make it possible. In the past, I have conducted some research and experiments on data detections and spectrograms used by earth scientists.
I have a tendency to contemplate the potentials behind things both in my own life and within my artistic practice.
– Berk Kır
Due to the nature of your work, you are closely intertwined with the city. How do the city and Berk harmonize in your perspective?
Berk Kır: Walking and randomness hold a fundamental and prioritized place in my life. I have a tendency to think about the potentials behind things I encounter, both in my personal life and artistic practice. Therefore, my fundamental relationship with the city comes from here, and we understand each other well.
In the process of forming the exhibition and generally in your artistic career, what sources have influenced or inspired you?
Berk Kır: I’ve become someone who values the relationship with oneself. In 2023, it was a year where I walked as much in my inner world as in the external world. I can say that I derive my basic motivation from here. I can draw inspiration from the existence of anything I encounter with an idea, at any moment, from anything. I eagerly embrace and understand object-oriented ontology as a working area; I find excitement in being able to think with it, perhaps like it.
What does “Dışarıda Yakınlık” represent for you?
Berk Kır: The act of your eye spreading to everything it sees on the street, selecting what belongs to itself – persuasively – takes me to the proximity I establish with the outside world. It represents a place between the deepest inside and outside, the exterior of the soul and the innermost, the external world, and the innermost.