Collection in Focus: Banu Cennetoğlu

Banu Cennetoğlu’s (Turkey, b. 1970) cross-disciplinary practice actively engages with the collection and circulation of data, images, and information. By magnifying these minutiae, she humanizes global geopolitical phenomena that may otherwise be reduced to numbers and figures.

In her work 1 January 1970 – 21 March 2018 · H O W B E I T · Guilty feet have got no rhythm · Keçiboynuzu · AS IS · MurMur · I measure every grief I meet · Taq u Raq · A piercing Comfort it affords · Stitch · Made in Fall · Yes. But. We had a golden heart. · One day soon I’m gonna tell the moon about the crying game (2018), Cennetoğlu considers the mutually informative relationship between personal memory and historical narrative. H O W B E I T compiles the entirety of the artist’s visual archives between June 10, 2006, and March 21, 2018. The resulting video installation collates still and moving images drawn from her cell phones, computers, cameras, and hard drives—culminating in what she calls an “intro-spective.”

The earliest files in the piece chronicle the year prior to Cennetoğlu’s first dissemination of The List, an ongoing project by UNITED for Intercultural Action that documents the deaths of more than 60,620 migrants who have sought refuge in Europe since 1993. The final files mark the days leading up to Nowruz, the Persian New Year—also the production deadline for the artist’s first exhibition of this work. Throughout the video, political matters sit alongside mundane moments and ecstatic encounters. In this way, Cennetoğlu rejects borders and hierarchy, prompting viewers to reflect on their own negotiations of complex realities.

HOWBEIT comprises more than 127 hours of footage, totaling 46,685 digital files presented chronologically. Visitors are invited to return multiple times to experience different portions of the work.