Erkan Özgen was born to a Kurdish family in Derik, Turkey in 1971. He made his debut into the Turkish art world in 1998 and since then has participated in exhibitions and events in Albania, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Iran, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, Montenegro, Holland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States. Özgen deals primarily with video and photography, creating artworks that confirm his activism and social commitment. In these works, he denounces the policy of assimilation and the negation of Kurdish culture imposed by the central Turkish power, criticizing their overcharged nationalism and military absolutism.
Purple Muslin, 2018
Video
Created in collaboration with women refugees in Europe and Turkey who fled the war zones of northern Iraq, Erkan Özgen’s project explores the impact of the conflict on their lives. The video investigates how these women refugees manage to live with their trauma and memories of violence. Purple Muslin features a series of interviews in which the women recount their personal experiences of war, suffering and migration.