Rebels of the Dance
2002 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
10 min 52
Fikret Atay
In the video Rebels of the Dance , two boys are filmed dancing to traditional Kurdish songs inside of the confined space of an ATM. Shy, proud and joyful, the two boys appear to be influenced by a third person – the artist and his camera. Their play of eyes creates an atmosphere reminding one of the close scrutiny and state control of the Kurdish population. While Atay films, the music grows and intensifies, and the ATM machine becomes a simple decor for the scene, losing its proper function. As if in a state of triumph, music and dance take on the role of a new language of power, juxtaposing local identity with an international dimension of the city and country. This simple performance gives meaning to the geographical and political situation of Batman, whose oil resources are rich, although its citizens rarely reap benefit from its natural wealth. *This title is a variation of a televised transmission representing 90 folk dancers “Sultans of the Dance” which was a big success in Turkey.
It is said that the artist Fikret Atay secretly stole his parent’s camera to film the city of Batman and its citizens in East Turkey. His first experiments later transformed themselves into his first videos such as Fast and Best (2002) and Rebels of the Dance (2002). The city of Batman is a mid-sized Turkish city situated on the border with Irak. Its geographical and political situation inevitably contextualizes the work of Atay and inside of this context is Atay’s focus on the city’s citizens, its communities and traditions, whether linguistic, family orientated, musical or religious. Camera in hand, Atay makes short videos of everyday life. Despite the fact that they are direct and spontaneous, the images conserve an ambiguity, at times mysterious from a outsider’s point of view. In this regard, Atay translates reality while adhering to a larger grain of complexity. Fikret Atay was born in Batman, Turkey in 1976. He lives and works in Batman, Turkey.
Colors:
Related works featuring themes of: » Turkish
» see more
© » KADIST
Burak Delier
2013Burak Delier’s sculpture Homage to Balotelli’s Missed Trick is a symbol of resistance to the demand for success and performance...
Other related works, blended automatically
» see more
© » KADIST
Burak Delier
2013Burak Delier’s sculpture Homage to Balotelli’s Missed Trick is a symbol of resistance to the demand for success and performance...
Related works sharing similar palette
» see more
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Illusions of home, and the hyper-capitalism behind technology, explored in show by Hong Kong artist who finally feels at home … in Finland | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more A still from Everything is a Projection (2023), a video in which Hong Kong-born, Finland-based artist Sheung Yiu explains what it felt like to rediscover childhood comic books and how he tried and failed to preserve their essence...
© » KADIST
Drinks at 6pm, Screening at 7pm This filmic portrait of Guy de Cointet , the French-born, California-based artist, compiles interviews with friends and colleagues such as John Baldessari , Larry Bell , Richard Jackson , Morgan Fisher , Paul McCarthy , Robert Wilhite , Christophe Bourseiller , Violeta Sanchez, and Gus Foster ...
Related artist(s) to: Fikret Atay » Nevin Aladağ, » Cyprien Gaillard, » Dan Perjovschi, » Adrian Paci, » Ayşe Erkmen, » Carlos Motta, » Hale Tenger, » Harun Farocki, » Ivan Grubanov, » Johanna Billing
» see more
© » KADIST
Harun Farocki
2009For Immersion , Harun Farocki went to visit a research centre near Seattle specialized in the development of virtual realities and computer simulations...
© » KADIST
Carlos Motta
2014Searching for We’wha is composed of five photographic triptychs combining photographs from the American West (New Mexico and Arizona) with excerpts from American Indian poetry in an attempt to reconstruct imaginary aspects of the life of We’Wha, a famous member of the Zuni tribe, who was born male but who lived a feminine gender expression...
Related works found in the same semantic group
» see more
© » ARTS EQUATOR
M1 CONTACT: Dance artists talk mental health | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints June 13, 2020 Four artists, Ruby Jayaseelan, Irfan Kasban, Fabio Liberti and Xenres Kirishima Chi Ji Hong, get personal as they talk about mental health issues in relation to works they have been developing for M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival...
© » KADIST
Arash Fayez
2021The short film I Can Only Dance to One Song by Arash Fayez features a series of people from the migrant community in Barcelona singing along or dancing to songs of their choosing...
![[Online Course] ArtsEquator Introduction to Reviewing Dance](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/webdance-2-150x150.png)
© » ARTS EQUATOR
[Online Course] ArtsEquator Introduction to Reviewing Dance | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints July 6, 2020 INTRODUCTION TO REVIEWING DANCE by Chan Sze-Wei, Jocelyn Chng and Bernice Lee Course Synopsis: This introductory course offers tools and practical exercises for writing for dance and about dance...