I WILL GIVE INFORMATION ABOUT AIRPLANE

As a result of the Open Call announced in April 2024, Bilsart has provided production support to Ceren Su Çelik’s video project entitled “I Will Give Information About Airplane” in respect to the evaluation of the selection committee.
Ceren Su Çelik’s exhibition entitled “I Will Give Information About Airplane” will be at Bilsart on December 11, 2024 – January 4, 2025.

According to records, the towers of Rumeli and Anadolu Feneri were bombed by air for the first time in 1915, marking a revelation that Istanbul could frequently be exposed to air raids. The phrase “Tayyare Hakkında Malumat Vereceğim” (“I will provide information about the airplane”) was a coded expression used among soldiers to signal the approach of an aircraft. This work brings together the historical reality of air raids in Istanbul with a fictional character named Rakik Mayreni.

Rakik Mayreni represents an identity born out of a limitation in historical narrative, finding a place within this gap. Her letters form the foundation for constructing this identity. The letters in the video were generated using a language model enriched with various data from the period. Similarly, Mayreni’s voice was created by blending the voices of individuals recorded in period-specific cantos and archives. The exhibition expands this narrative with physical elements such as photographs taken by Mayreni and pages from her diary.

The dichotomy of underground and aboveground plays a significant role in the narrative; the contrast between underground cisterns and caves, and airplanes circling the sky, evokes the cultural and symbolic meaning of seeking a safe space against the threat of destruction. The name and character of Rakik Mayreni respond to this need. The word “Rakik” comes from the Arabic root “rķķ” and means tender-hearted, gentle, or compassionate. “Mayreni,” on the other hand, is derived from Armenian and corresponds to concepts like maternal and home.The personal narratives in Mayreni’s letters make the cyclical nature of history visible through individual experiences, aiming to convey the unique yet strikingly similar struggles of each generation. 

17’27’’, 4K single channel video

Click here for the press kit.

ABOUT CEREN SU ÇELİK

Ceren Su Çelik explores the relationship between humans and technology through various disciplines, including painting, video, installation, and computer-based visualization. She often integrates technological themes with historical, cultural, and political contexts through storytelling. By combining cyborgs or hybridized elements, she embodies a process-oriented expression, examining the ongoing dialogue between the natural and the artificial.
Çelik graduated from the Painting Department at Marmara University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2019 and completed her master’s degree in Plastic Arts and Painting at Yeditepe University’s Institute of Social Sciences in 2023. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues and fairs such as Position Art Fair, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Zilberman Gallery, CerModern, Mixer, and Mamut Art.