Giving Voices. Erkan Özgen, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 13 November 2018-24 February 2019

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Turkish artist Erkan Özgen explores the human fallout of Islamic State. Fundació Antoni Tàpies, 13 November 2018-24 February 2019. 

This exhibition in the Fundació Antoni Tàpies centres on Purple Muslin, a film about the plight of Yazidi women fleeing the Islamic State.

The man behind the film is Erkan Özgen, a video-artist from Turkey. Özgen has sought to put first-hand accounts at centre stage. The film is structured around the individual stories of Yazidi women who took refuge in northern Iraq, after their lands were seized by IS militants.

Inevitably, trauma is an overriding theme. Özgen’s subjects describe their struggles in the face of conflict and displacement. The message, however, is one of hope: of "awakening" in the film’s own words.

Purple Muslin traverses art and politics. This is not just another exhibition of paintings, but an exploration of events which are still unfolding and whose political ramifications continue to be felt around the world. The subjects are not pictures in frames, but human beings.

The plight of Yazidi women has been one of the most widely-publicised consequences of the rise of Islamic State, but Purple Muslin offers a far deeper, more humanised portrait than that given by television news segments.

If you don’t enjoy traipsing around galleries, Purple Muslin offers something less static, and more interactive. It is accompanied by a series of public talks given by experts. The aim of these talks is to broaden understanding of the issues raised in the film.

You can also be assured of the film’s sheer quality. At its premiere at the art biennial Manifesta 12, Purple Muslin won universal acclaim.

This will be Özgen’s first solo exhibition in Spain.

Giving Voices. Erkan Özgen, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 13 November 2018-24 February 2019
Giving Voices. Erkan Özgen, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, 13 November 2018-24 February 2019

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