NASAN TUR

THE MINT, THE PUDDLE, AND THE BLUE SKY

As a young contemporary artist, Nasan Tur Questions the territory of the individual in public space, the authority figure in the society, the national indications of religious identity and the national reactions to this action. His ‘silent' rebellious attitude speaks to the viewer via video, performance and photography. His works, “Don't Forget the Fragrance of Mint,” and “The Puddle and the Blue Sky,” indirectly carry the viewer to a state of irritating tranquility by reflecting the continuation of maternal body heat and sense of relaxation.

Although the artists admits that “Don't Forget the Fragrance of Mint” comes from the Turkish proverb ‘Mint is the mother scent', his photograph mainly focuses on his mother's connection with a man's body and all its essences. Initially, by changing (not exchanging) his physical height and presenting himself as ‘shorter' than his mother, though it seems quite unreal, Tur points out to reality that for Tur emotionally-with the whole of his being-elevates and enlarges the mother. Playing with size and therefore with the concepts of reality and delusion, Tur leads the viewer to his own spiritual reality. Spreading his mother's fragrance-which is as pleasant as mint-to each cell of his body, and by his posture, it is obvious that this ‘little boy' feels completely secure. He has returned to an infant's position, leaning on his mother's breast, the two of them becoming one. Now, the infant, from a Lacanian perspective, thinks of himself and the mother's breast as a whole. After the breast-feeding period when the child is separated from the mother, he senses the loss of this unity. With this loss, the exterior world causes anxiety, and becomes threatening to the child. So again, as Tur verbally suggests, the embrace of the mother or the fragrance in the mother's territory becomes his ‘castle.'

Moreover, in “The Puddle and the Blue Sky,” Tur's tranquility, which is formed by soaking his body in the puddle and the infinity of the sky, leads each viewer back to his or her origin. In this performance, one witnesses Tur in a completely peaceful state, and it is obvious that he feels secure even in the heart of a car park. The symbolic genital-shaped puddle he lies in recalls the main Freudian theory of maternal desire to which we are all subject. Hence, this fantasized mother's womb is the main reason for his tranquility. Though the industrial vehicles surround him, they only act as witnesses to his enjoyment of this situation. Yet, he is an adult, and has reached his desires, in his own way of performing in the imaginary.

With the ebb and flow between the infant's the embryo's and Tur's possible actions, the viewer is somehow put in a time-tunnel of desires. Yet, the phantasmagoric time span spent this tunnel is nothing but a momentary pleasure. So, by returning back to the breast and to the womb, and by the effort for the lack of anxiety but the blue sky, Tur brings us back to the primary-Lacanian and Freudian-desires of the human being. In other words, the artist positions the viewer in a journey of desire.

(Ece Pazarbasi)