Artist Name: Somer Şpat
Residency Dates: February – March 2022
Born: 1996
Lives and works: Prizren, Kosovo
Education:
2014-2020 | Photography Department, MSGSÜ – Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
2018-2019 | Photography Class of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, HFBK – University of Fine Arts Hamburg, Germany
Bio/Statement:
Somer Şpat won the 2019 Artists of Tomorrow Award for his remarkable project focused on the rise and fall of the railway industry in Kosovo, through the socialist Yugoslavian period until today.
Archival research is instrumental in Şpat’s practice and affects his choice of mediums in every new project. Defining himself as a producer, rather than a creator, in an attempt to complicate the authorship issues with his work, Şpat experiments with video, photography, installation and examines the political issues through everyday objects. His projects deal with the various forms and representations of state violence, both on the local and international level. Şpat’s works were presented in several group exhibitions in Turkey and Kosovo, including Autostrada Biennale Revolution Is Us – La Rivoluzione Siamo Noi in 2019 in Prizren.
Support: Somer Şpat’s residency is made possible with support from The Trust for Mutual Understanding.
