Kutluğ Ataman: The Enemy Inside Me

Despite being one of Turkey's best known contemporary artists, Istanbul-born Kutluğ Ataman has never previously been able to hold a major solo show in his home country. The Enemy Inside Me, a mid-career survey currently running at Istanbul Modern (until 6 March) redresses this balance, showcasing a comprehensive collection of Ataman's key works in his native city - some for the first time during his 13 year career.

Discovered by the international art scene when he exhibited at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, Ataman was one of the first artists to pioneer the docu-interview technique and his works are characterised by a sense of narrative and a genuine human interest in - and connection with - his subjects (“I am not interested in exposing these people and turning them into a show. I only work with people that I see myself in.”)

Displayed as sculpture-like installations, Ataman's multi-video works also explore themes relevant to society today, such as historiography, social identity, memory, plurality, myth, game and power. At the centre is the individual: while verbalising personal stories, Ataman's subjects 'expose the ease of verbal expression and persuasiveness of language, and narrate not over an academic and fixed representation of history, but over flexible performances such as 'personal myth-making, masking and shielding'. 

The Enemy Inside Me features all the artist's major oeuvre-defining works, including Women Who Wear Wigs, which explores the bigger issues facing society today through the individual stories of four women who wear wigs for different reasons - a journalist undergoing chemotherapy, a transvestite taking up a new identity, a devout muslim banned from wearing a veil and a woman accused of being a terrorist who finds safety in disguise -, 99 Names, in which a devout muslim recites the 99 names of Allah with increasing fervour on four screens that rise diagonally from the floor (as if a prayer sent heaven-wards) and Turkish Delight, for which the artist turned the camera on himself. The show also features an entirely new work, Beggars, which challenges our preconceptions of the 'bottom of the bottom of society' - footage of real beggars on the streets of Istanbul is mixed with footage of actors begging.