"Determined Barbara" - Banu Cennetoglu

The text about Banu's work "Determined Barabara" was published in the catalgoue of the 3.Tirana Biennial catalogue. "Sweet Taboos" (Episode 5): Go Inside. curator:Hou Hanru.
http://www.tiranabiennale.net/episode_5.htm
http://www.banucennetoglu.com
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Terra Vague
“Determined Barbara”


“September 19th 2002
I come to Banja Luka”

What are the rules of recognition of a space or land if it is in a condition of continuous de-territorialization? How can be interpreted visually? The work by Banu Cennetoglu, “Determined Barbara” offers us two clues of understanding that is not only about the conditions of a space but also the confusions of our senses that are related to our understanding of established “space politics”. “Barbara” is a space which is transformed after 1990s into a temporary military training ground zone constructed in Glamoc for SFOR units which had been a usual settlement in former Yugoslavia: A settlement whose, real and former inhabitants become refugees and temporary habitants yet. The tension between the reality of “border politics” and the abstraction of “the state of exception” creates an assemblage of a post-war paradigm. I think there are two points in this condition which, Cennetoglu invites us to search: the potentiality of this space which is in a specific situation attached its reality, and the fictional aspect of documentary site in the photography series.

“March 12th 2004
I come to Sarajevo”

The interval between two knowledge: the post-war reality of Barbara and its visual interpretation of it, creates a spatial understanding for each spectator. By investigating the transitory and unstable spaces; the artist searches for the power of their uncertain conditions through the paradoxical nature of photography that its ontological aspect provides information but also subjective fiction that plays with the images. Generally, we recognize physical texture of the city in “Determined Barbara” which, focuses on the urban texture and east-european architecture; means mainly the physical environment. However, the whole series is a construction that is an investigation of overlapping identities of the space. The question of reality and the fictional aspect of documentary site in photography are problematised by Cennetoglu’s photography installation as a re-creation of reality, a structure of subjective ambiguous information and a search for the possibility of “potentiality” of the uncertain zone.

“Sunday the 14th
We are in the car
We are in Glamoc
We see Barbara”

“the state of exception” remains as an uncertain space in which the normal law is suspended, where the space becomes exceptional. Re-defining the space with arbitrary rules is where; the ambiguous separation between “bare life” and law/rules begins as Agamben points out. In the case of “Determined Barbara” the question is: how can we approach the overlapping identities and memories of space and define the rules for it? What are the rules of recognition of a space or land if it is in a condition of continuous de-territorialization?

pelin tan.