In this video, we visit Cihad Caner in his studio in the Afrikaanderwijk district of Rotterdam. The artist discusses his project (Re)membering the riots in Afrikaanderwijk in 1972 or guest, host, ghos-ti, exhibited at Kunstinstituut Melly. This project examines the largely forgotten 1972 riots, where guest workers were targeted, and explores the complexity and elusive nature of memory. Through the testimonies of witnesses to the riots, the artist constructs a collective memory that is not entirely accurate or true but attempts to reflect on something lost in the past that inhabits the present state of the neighborhood itself. By reconstructing the events of 1972, the artist proposes a healing of Afrikaanderwijk’s history through alternative narratives that challenge the dominant ones.

For his exhibition Parroting The Parrot at 1646 in The Hague, the artist delves into the history of Sultan Cem, an Ottoman prince accompanied by his parrot, who serves as the narrator of the story. A story that defies primary narratives by mixing myth and reality. The exhibition is accompanied by tapestries and lamps made especially for this exhibition.

In our conversation, Cihad Caner elaborates on his projects and experiences, focusing on how history is constructed and distributed, as well as the influence it has in shaping socio-political realities that have distant origins in time but act in entirely contemporary ways. His work employs non-linear and multi-directional narratives that offer a perspective that challenges accepted and taken-for-granted parameters.

Cihad Caner (b. 1990) is an artist based in Rotterdam and Brussels. His practice explores the politics of the image through the mediums of video, photography, music, motion-capture, and CGI. Caner’s research-driven practice revolves around (re)presentation, language, marginalisation and alterity. His fictional CGI characters are often multi-lingual protagonists in non-linear, metaphorical narratives that employ humour, absurdity, and poetry to critique the status quo. Recently he has exhibited at Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; TENT, Rotterdam; Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel; Nest, Den Haag; Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; Július Koller Society, Bratislava; Kunsthal Mechelen, Mechelen; Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, and İstanbul Modern, İstanbul, among others. Caner was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2021-2023).