Experimental photography in the Coalmine

As a viewer, you instinctively sense that Aykan Safoğlu originally studied film. For his works definitely do not correspond to the image we generally have of photography. His two-part solo exhibition "Ebbe/Flut" at the Coalmine clearly demonstrates this. As the title suggests, movement and temporality are central motifs in the work of the Turkish artist, who emigrated to Berlin in 2008 and currently lives in Vienna.
 

And so his "photographs" are not two-dimensional, but rise up in waves as room-filling sculptures, lie fragmentarily on the floor as puzzle pieces or letters, or appear in cinematic sequences as briefly flashing images. Through this unconventional form of processing visual material, Safoğlu's works question the medium of photography as such. They draw their expressiveness precisely from this critical view of photography as well as of frozen perspectives in general.
 

The artist negotiates socially topical issues such as migration, belonging, identity, class, and gender. He does this by sharing his own life story or that of other marginalized people with the viewer. In doing so, he is never a voyeur; rather, his three-dimensional presentation allows for an individual and physical form of approach to these narratives. Our own movements and stories enter into dialogue with the works.
 

Quite explicitly, for example, when we recognize our blurred reflection in the narrow, glittering band along the wall, on which the symbols for "play," "fast," "forward," "rewind," and "stop" can be seen. The work "Depeche Mode" (2022) refers to the "Walkman," a device on which the artist listened to music in his youth. Our time is linear, but cinematic and musical carriers allow us to fast-forward and rewind at any time. Couldn't we do the same when we look at our past? Or when we dream our future? In the superimposition and alienation of visual worlds, the artist offers alternative representations of reality. In doing so, he also creates free spaces at the same time.