Agora Talk 30: Women in Proverbs - Irem Çoban

About

Digital Curator: @isilezgicelik

Curator’s words:

Irem Coban’s digital art exhibition Women in Proverbs is a colourful project that humorously criticises the way women are perceived in patriarchal cultures. For proverbs convey perceived truths and commonly shared values of the culture for which they speak, Çoban visualises selected proverbs from different parts of the world and sets forth how it is common to degrade and demonise women. 

Proverbs are known to be difficult to translate because of their connotative meaning. However, Çoban illustrates the literal meaning of each proverb as it is told without any interpretation and shows how nonsensical and ridiculously funny these expressions are in the absence of the meanings that culture assigns to them.

With this project, Çoban invites us to question the performative power of the language on the cultural formation of women's identity. Since women's identity is plastic and socially constructed, to change how women are perceived and accordingly how women are treated, we first need to free our language and thought from the sayings of outdated patriarchy. Women in Proverbs joyfully undermines their power through the power of visual language and digital arts.

Join us for a visit the VR Exhibition, on 5 November

in English at 12:00 (noon) BST

in Turkish at 13:00 BST | 15:00 Istanbul time

About the artist  @jdp__art

Irem Çoban (b. 1986) opted to take her Bachelor’s Degree at 1st rank and completed a Master’s Degree in Cinema at Galatasaray University at İstanbul, Turkey. She worked as a designer at Galatasaray University Design Workshop Unit and designed a lot of posters, magazines, and books. She has participated in group exhibitions, festivals, and workshops in various countries such as the USA, Japan, UK, Canada, Italy, South Korea, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey. In the Art Woman 2020 Geo-Graphies exhibition organized by Primo Piano LivingGallery in Lecce, Italy, she was awarded the best technical practice award and the Silver Certificate for her video “Tell me my future”. Her short film “Hear”, which experimentally handles the story of a child bride, has been selected for the official screening selections of various international film and art festivals. She completed her doctoral thesis at Maltepe University Fine Arts Department, Proficiency in Art. Her thesis was awarded the Doctorate Thesis Research About Gender Scholarship Award in March 2020 at the festival organized by Festiva Istanbul Culture and Art Association. She lives and works –as a lecturer in Cinema at Maltepe University- in İstanbul.

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