Nov. 27, 2010 - Jan. 22, 2011
Dengbejs, 2007, video Installation, 15:17 min.
A group of men gathers in a traditional wooden hut decorated with oriental carpets, where a map of Turkey hangs in the background. These men are dengbejs, the Kurdish word for “storytellers.” They are the traditional singers of their nation’s history, which is often intertwined with tales of love, war and social injustice. In the course of this gathering, for instance, one of the singers addresses the audience with the following words: “Let me tell you the story of the Kurds, their genealogy. They found shelter in Iran, but the Iranian Shah poisoned them.”
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The history of the Kurdish people was transferred from one generation to the next in an exclusively oral manner. Sadly, this oral tradition of singing historical narratives is being lost as a result of Turkey’s modernization. For the time being, such gatherings still survive in increasingly isolated enclaves, which are disappearing as a result of the constant expansion of contemporary cities.
This point is clearly understood towards the end of the film, when the camera distances itself from the participants in the gathering and provides an increasingly wider view of their surroundings. We then realize that the traditional hut in which the dengbejs are gathered is not located in a rural village, but rather on the roof of a tall glass building overlooking a modern Turkish city (Diyarbakir). Curiously constructed on top of a structure representing a very different architectural reality, this Kurdish hut acquires a surreal presence, and leaves us to ponder the fate that awaits it and the traditions of those it houses.
G. L.
Halil Altindere — born in Turkey, 1971
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