The installation Rest by İz Öztat sets the stage for working through the top-down imposition of ideologies that attend the founding and perpetuation of nation states, as well as the struggles to resist them. 
 

In the video, a group of fellow artists activate the installation, drawing on embodied collective memories that relate to multiple connotations of the word “rest”: The rest here refers to those whose existence and equal rights are denied by those in power. Resting on one’s shoulder is a burden of violent histories motivated by sovereign fantasies of total control over the rest. Collectivizing mourning as a demand for justice is at once an attempt to put the dead to rest, and to pave the way for a future of recovery that rests in the struggles for freedom and peace. Rest grapples with these multiple meanings through forms and gestures that evoke subjugation, struggle, resilience, mourning, confrontation and negotiation.
 

Commissioned by IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, for the Self-Determination: A Global Perspective exhibition, and supported by SAHA.

Please click here to listen İz Öztat's talk on her work Rest.

Image: İz Öztat’s installation Rest comissioned as part of the Self-Determination: A Global Perspective exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)

The video is created with and performed by Selim Cizdan, Yeşim Coşkun, Gökçe “CheChe”  Gürçay, Leyla Postalcıoğlu, Ra, Mihran Tomasyan, Aslıhan Tuna | Concept and Installation: İz Öztat | Camera Person: Merve Kayan | Script Advisor: Fatma Belkıs | Movement Advisor: Mihran Tomasyan | Body Music: Gökçe “CheChe” Gürçay | Snare Drum: Eray Çaylı Sound Recording: İlkin Kitapçı | Lighting: Erol Uyanık | Editor and Sound Design: İz Öztat & Özgür Kesici | Colorist: Mel Rico | Guest Performers: Gülseren Cizdan, İz Öztat | Backstage Assistant: Gülseren Cizdan | Location: çakSTÜDYO, İstanbul