Interview with the artist Elmas Deniz

I’m glad to introduce this raw audio file of conversation with the artist Elmas Deniz, dear friend and colleague that have met a decade ago on the artist in residency program in Istanbul. The interview is about her artwork exhibited at the 16th Istanbul Biennial titled “The Seventh Continent”, lasted from September 14 to November 10, 2019.

In her conceptual works, Elmas Deniz calls attention to ecological changes occurring with capitalism and the age of Anthropocene. She examines the changing of the landscape and the deterioration of the nature by humankind. Deniz is showing two works about disappeared flows of water. The first one is a three-dimensional topographic relief of Istanbul, spanning the area from Şişli to Taksim Square. On this relief, lost rivers and creeks are marked on the current roads. Deniz’s other piece centres on a creek near which she grew up, near Bergama. This wall installation, which focusing on the small and insignificant, calls attention to natural and human-caused environmental transformations and extinctions.

Interview by Isidora Ficovic, visual artist – isidoravisualart