Pınar Öğrenci
Resisting Forest
Turkish artist and filmmaker Pınar Öğrenci lives and works in Berlin. Displacement, migration, survival and resistance are the cornerstones of her films and installations. Through a decolonial and feminist lens, she analyses everyday practices and human stories that follow the actors of forced migration. It is a necessary response to a collective past that is all too often forgotten.
At Kunst & Zwalm, Pınar presented the video work Resisting Forest. In it, we follow the rural protest in Turkey against the thermal power plant in Gerze and the hydroelectric power plant in the village of Aslandere. In both rural locations, women stood up to the state security forces with nothing more than wooden sticks. After two years, they succeeded in halting the further development of construction projects in their area. A work that invites us to witness the rich, multifaceted layers of survival, resistance and resilience.
