Cihan Cakmak in front of a self-portrait in the Great Art Show. She is the winner of the 2020 Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize. (CARMEN JASPERSEN)
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From Hüttenbusch to New York – this is a brief summary of your career.
Cihan Cakmak: I didn’t stay in New York, so you could say: from Hüttenbusch to Leipzig.
What were the first steps to get there?
My family moved to Bremen when I was relatively young. I then moved out when I was 18, but it was already clear to me that I wanted to take a different path in life. Apart from culture and religion, I was curious about a different, more self-determined life. What my family lived wasn’t mine, I didn’t want that.
Did photography show the way a bit?
I started doing it relatively early, I think I was 14 or 15 years old. That was always a bit difficult because as a woman in this cultural area you are not artistically active. Photography wasn’t even possible there. At the time, I did it more for myself, but there were also recordings that I later used to apply for the university in Dortmund.
Your elementary school teacher in Hüttenbusch wasn’t entirely innocent in the development, was she?
That’s true. I always loved painting in primary school, and she noticed that and encouraged her very much. It was not so much my parents but other people who saw how much fun I was. I think one should never ignore that: there are many people who are “guilty” of becoming who you are. It doesn’t always have to come from the family. Unfortunately I never saw this teacher again, I have no idea what she is doing.
Do you see yourself as an example of the fact that to a certain extent you can also decide what kind of familial character to take with you and what to part with?
Yes, you can. But what concerns the psyche is different. You have no decision-making power when it comes to illnesses that run through the family, for example, or unresolved problems that lead to trauma. There are already very common patterns among Kurds that arise from experiences of oppression, persecution and murder. You just notice that it’s not just the parents who have something in it, even if they never talk about it. You take this fear with you yourself.
What would have become of you, would it have been up to your parents?
My family wanted me to be a teacher or a doctor, as all parents would like, that has nothing to do with being Kurdish. Of course you can oppose it and say: I want to be an artist. But for that you need extremely great will and a lot of strength, not many can do that. And you have to be a little crazy too! You have to go beyond your limits – I think that’s the secret. Actually, it’s not at all, you just have to do it over and over and be careful that it stays healthy.
When did you realize that you wanted to become an artist and make photography your profession?
Actually, I wanted to be a director; maybe it will come. I realized that very early on because I’ve always been a very visual person. I perceive a lot and that moves and works in my head. There is always something that wants to get out, like an urge. Images pass through me and come out again, once shaken.
You mentioned trauma. This is what your current photo series is about. How do you translate an inner process into pictures?
I related that to my night dreams. I’m not a psychoanalyst, but I think you can read a lot out of it. Things that keep repeating in your head like an unconscious visual language that tries to say something to you all the time. You have to interpret that somehow. On the other hand, trauma does not only sit in the head, but in certain places in the body where it can be felt. You can represent that. But there will also be moving images and people who tell of their trauma. So far I have limited it to Kurdish women whom I interview, but I can well imagine moving on to other cultures as well.
The photos are therefore completely composed for this content. Is it also possible that you find something optical that you just want to photograph?
Most of the time I watch what the protagonists give me in terms of visual food. That always corresponds to what I find there. I see a fig tree moving in the wind and I think of a story my mother used to tell me. But I didn’t go looking for a tree like that with the camera. I then put that together and determine the picture frame using the cutout I choose.
Someone once wrote that your pictures were quietly rebellious. Is that how you see yourself?
Yes, I am totally rebellious. It has always been like this: I always find something that I am against. It’s not just this anti-mainstream attitude among youth, I just tick that way. As soon as a lot of people indulge in something, I always have a pull. I think it’s okay to join groups, but you always have to question what happens to you. If you want to change something, you first have to take the other side. My rebellion brought me this far. My aim is not to always reject everything, but to want something better.
As a teenager you will have been to the Barkenhoff or the Great Art Show in Worpswede. Would you have expected that one day you would exhibit there yourself?
No, definitely not! As a child you don’t think about that. But when I stood in front of it and realized that I was present there with my topics and work, it was really crazy in relation to my whole story. Precisely because that was so important to me the whole time, this subject of oppression, freedom, self-determined life – and now it depends exactly on this starting point, where all my memories come from!
Lars Fischer conducted the interview.
To person
Cihan Cakmak
was born in 1993 in Osterholz-Scharmbeck and grew up in Hüttenbusch. Her parents had fled the Kurdish part of Turkey. She completed her training as a photographer at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree. Study visits to Marrakech, Lisbon and New York follow. In 2020 Cakmak wins the Young Talent Award of the Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Award of the Osterholz district. Today she lives in Leipzig and is working on her diploma thesis.
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