Funda Özgünaydin, Displacement of a cultural self portrait II, 2008
Funda Özgünaydin
Displacement of a cultural self portrait II & VI

Funda Özgünaydin was born in Frankfurt and studied at the Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork, Ireland, 2004–2008 before working as an assistant for the German artist Nasan Tur 2008–2009. She then moved to Berlin, where she studied under Hito Steyerl at the Berlin University of the Arts 2009–2014. In her performances and videos, she explores her identity as a Turkish-German woman, placing special focus on the role of women in the art discourse. Her works have been shown at many international video festivals and exhibitions – in 2010, for instance, she took part in the Festival “Miradas de Mujeres” in Spain. MM

artist's website: funda-studio.com

In her ongoing series of video performances entitled Displacement of a cultural self portrait (2008 – present), Funda Özgünaydin takes various music videos by Turkish pop icons (including Barış Manço’s Sarı Çizmeli Mehmet Ağa, 1978, and Cem Karaca’s Namus Belasi, 1974) as well as sequences from films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (including Katzelmacher and Liebe ist kälter als der Tod (Love Is Colder Than Death), both 1969) and mixes them with footage of herself. With much concentration and in the manner of a teenager, Özgünaydin re- enacts the movements of the Turkish pop legend Barış Manço in Displacement II. In Displacement VI, she performs the death of Ricky, the main character in Fassbinder’s film Der Amerikanische Soldat (The American Soldier) (1970), in a sequence that is accompanied by the melancholic vocals of the black actor Günther Kaufmann (1947–2012). Through this ambiguous appropriation of the culture of her parents’ generation, which has a delayed effect on the present in this case, Özgünaydin traces the slow change in gender relations.

Courtesy Funda Özgünaydin

Format
videos, b&w, sound 4:05 min & 6:16 min

Issue date
2008 & 2011