Mamut Limited Vol.1 pop-up, the first exhibition of the Mamut Art Project team's Mamut Limited (Artist Editions) project, which aims to meet all creative people working in different fields and techniques from visual arts to design, music to fashion, took place at Yapı Kredi bomontiada between September 16 - October 1, 2023. We are introducing the artists of this year's Mamut Limited, which will present special selections throughout the year on its online platform mamutlimited.com. Our fourth guest is Çağla Çağlar
Çağla Çağlar
Let's start by talking about your artistic journey. You received your education on photography, which was your grandfather's profession. After high school, you continued your academic education in this field and worked as a director on TV series, movie, and commercial sets for about 10 years. In addition to shooting posters and teasers for theater plays, you also shot video clips of many artists and collaborated with artists to shoot artwork videos. So, when did you start calling it art or were there breaking points for you?
It doesn't seem to be my initiative to call it art. At the point where you show the necessary care and effort to the places where you position yourself, it becomes a "work", but it becomes art to the extent that the point where you position yourself harbors your ideals and emotions. I think it started to become "art" for me the moment I realized that I define what I do as a pure transition of emotion without any material expectation.
How does your local culture and environment influence your artistic work? Do the materials and techniques you use in your art find an echo in this interaction network?
Although my local culture does not take up much space in my work, I do benefit from it from time to time. I can say that the time I spend with my environment, imagination, the movies I watch and the music I listen to make my production more vivid. Actually, I like to make people think independently of their geography. I like to make people say, "Where is this place?" rather than creating a specific location.
The fact that I am both intertwined with cinema and love it very deeply pushed me towards this fictionalism. I also like simple and structured compositions in my paintings. Since I convey communication through people, this fiction does not challenge me. Because I fictionalize emotional states or events that almost everyone can be in, which makes the work a personal composition.
Fictionality is at the forefront in all your works. You embody the fictional structure with a cinematographic narrative language. In fact, looking at your background, it can be said that this is natural for you. What does creating fiction mean to you and do you have codes that you create for yourself while communicating through fiction?
The fact that I am both intertwined with cinema and love it very deeply pushed me towards this fictionalism. I also like simple and structured compositions in my paintings. Since I convey communication through people, this fiction does not force me. Because I fictionalize emotional states or events that almost everyone can be in, which makes the work a personal composition. I just frame and color most of the situations with my own imagination. The point I get stuck on the most is color. Because I make sure that the colors are soft and cinematic. It satisfies me when the feeling of the photographs is like a frame from a movie. I think I convey my emotions better this way.
Çağla Çağlar, Visitor Series, Fine Art Print, 50×75 cm, Edition of 5+1
The photographs that make up the Visitor series we saw at Mamut Limited are the continuation of another series we have seen before. Or should we say before? Can you tell us about the process of the emergence of these works?
Visitor and Visit are also series about people and their experiences. The first series came out in a period when I was not experiencing very bright times, as can be understood by looking at the photographs. I wanted to associate an inner death or exhaustion with a concrete death. In the second series I wanted to show how this is experienced. The fact that the person is the same in both series gives us many answers. We do most of the things we go through ourselves, we put ourselves into this process, sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. Obviously, Visit and Visitor were series in which I explained this paradox the best in my opinion.
In your works, you process inner journeys and emotional states through the human body. What kind of an opening does it have for you to include the human body in your production? Do you also use your own body?
I am someone who spends a lot of time with my own emotions and the emotions around me. I can say that I have built my whole life by making decisions with my emotions. Even though I love logic, I find it difficult to put it into practice. Therefore, getting to know people and their inner worlds leads me to embody them. And when I concretize them, I see using the human body as a more accurate form of transmission, because it is the human body that can give that emotion most clearly.
I don't use myself in my photographs because just like the right actor is very important in cinema, the right model is very important in photography. I think I am better at conveying emotion behind the camera. (Laughs.)
Çağla Çağlar, Visitor Series, Fine Art Print, 50×75 cm, Edition of 5+1
For you, is producing a successful work about personal satisfaction or recognition from the art world? Why is that?
Personal satisfaction is more important to me. Because I don't produce with the fear of whether people will like it. I know that the better I can express myself, the better feedback I will get. I also think that productions made with the expectation of appreciation narrow the horizons of the artist. After all, we are not doing anything customer oriented. I believe that an artist should act in line with his/her own wishes and feelings in order to make art.
I am someone who spends a lot of time with my own emotions and the emotions around me. I can say that I have built my whole life by making decisions with my emotions. Even though I love logic, I find it difficult to put it into practice. Therefore, getting to know people and their inner worlds leads me to embody them. And when I concretize them, I see using the human body as a more accurate form of transmission, because it is the human body that can give that emotion most clearly.
There was also a video in the exhibition. Can you tell us a little bit about it? How do you balance the artistic and technical aspects of the video to achieve the desired results?
Summer Sleep was not a video that I had been planning in my head for months. Location is extremely important for people like me who shoot fiction. We can't always find places where we can show what's inside us in the right way. I found this place by chance. It was the most appropriate place for me to express the serenity in the hustle and bustle. Capturing most people's escapism and desire for peace in such a place away from the noise, a place that looks like a home even without the furniture, gave the video the right feel.
I want to shoot in such a way that people don't think about the technique as much as possible. It can be shot with a camera, a phone or any other device. It doesn't matter. It's not necessary for this kind of production. A correct composition is more important than anything else. The rest becomes just a tool.