Sculpting Personal Realities

In 2016, I was shooting the producing process of one of the Sinop Biennial (Sinopale) artist, Philippe Van Eetvelt. I was in the management team of Sinopale and also working as the videographer of the events. Philippe had this idea of building a labyrinth with bricks. This labyrinth was supposed to represent civilization. Philippe had put a washing machine in the center of the labyrinth. When a person walked in the labyrinth, the washing machine started turning and making noise. The trick for visitors was:  if they stopped moving for a while in the labyrinth, the machine also stopped and they were able to hear the sounds of nature. This was a reference to the disengagement of humans from nature. 

During the production phase, 15th July coup attempt occured in Istanbul, which was a very big political event, and most of the artists had cancelled their flights because of the chaotic situation of Turkey. So Sinopale had to be postponed until next year. It was a disappointment for Philippe, as an emerging artist because he had to go back to Canada without accomplishing his installation. 

One year later, he came back to Sinop and I continued to shoot his production process. Since Sinop is a small city and Sinopale is a low budget biennial, there is a different working method and sometimes artists have to adapt their works according to the resources and possibilities of Sinopale. This process can be discouraging for artists sometimes. And I witnessed Philippe's psychology was going up and down during the process. And I wanted to film his different moods in order to show to audiences there is an existential struggle in what they watch. It is not just a matter of installing an artwork but also building or recreating Philippe's own identity as an artist. But whenever I turned on the camera, he was suddenly changing his mood to an impassive professional and behaving like everything is perfect.

So I started to think of another method in order to reveal that existential struggle in the story. I was keeping 'Ecstatic Truth' concept of Werner Herzog in the back of my mind. In the fifth item of his Minnesota Declaration, he said " There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization."

I was all eyes and ears to be able to create a scene to reach this strata. One day, we were searching for a nice spot to be able to shoot the installation from above. We climbed the upper walls of the fortress which surrounds Philippe's artwork and found a very tight aisle between two levels of fortress. When I saw Philippe there, I knew that place was the representation of Philippe's subconscious. Because he was standing downstairs and looks like stucked in the aisle. There was also a very tiny window which he can see his artwork but cant reach it. So I turned on the camera and wanted him to make some exercise there; jumping, stretching etc. Then I wanted him to shout very loudly and I was shouting while asking him to shout. 

After he got a bit relaxed, I asked him to tell the challenging parts of his Sinop experience without any restrictions. I told him to feel free if he wants to be silent or shout or exercise or meditate during this shooting. I wanted him to do whatever he wants while telling the challenging parts. We did this shooting in 2 different days. First day, I asked him some questions and direct him. Second day, I set up the camera and left him alone there for an hour. Ultimately, these 2 shots became raw materials for me to sculpt in the editing. I used those raw materials to reach the hidden strata in the film and thus I think I was able to show my own reality regarding to the process besides Philippe's. Because as the director of the film, my aim was to tell the story from my side, to tell how I perceive the facts in front of me. I think this was the experience of creating the ecstatic truth in the film as Herzog defines.

video 1 : Lost in the subconscious

video 2 : Exploring personal space

video 3 : Challenging tasks

video 4 : Existential struggles

*https://walkerart.org/magazine/minnesota-declaration-truth-documentary-cinema