Fikret Atay
Artist
Fikret Atay lives and works in Örebro, Sweden. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally, at prestigious art museums and institutions.
Fikret Atay shows his works under the title Floating Imagery in the frame of the Mahalla festival at Valletta Contemporary.
The Flood” is the title of the latest video work by Fikret Atay. The artist left his hometown Batman (TR) in 2017 to settle to Örebro in Sweden, 200 Kilometers West of Stockholm. The video is refelcting displacement and was produced in Gotland, an island in the Baltic Sea and the new residence of many refugees in Sweden.
The  photograph, “The Country for old man” is composed like a poetic fragment. Atay quotes his grandfather: “My grandfather said: I have no birth report. I was not in the army. My father did not allow me because my two brothers never came back from military. That is why I have no any identity. ... But I am quite happy. Because I am here. I know all these hills and valleys inside out. I shepherded. ... The system does not see me, but you do. Nice to meet you!”.
The Video “Theorists” was produced in a religious school, where boys have to learn the writings of the Koran by heart. Most of them don’t know Arabic. To be able to master this impossible memory performance, they are practicing also after the lessons. The pupils chant out loud while circling the room. Since nobody pays attention to the rhythm of the others when reciting, a discordant babble is the result.