Cihad Caner is an artist whose work explores the politics of image-making and the way photographs affect and are influenced by socio-political realities. Initially from Turkey and primarily based in Rotterdam for the previous decade, Cihad works in video, images, music, movement seize, and CGI. His artwork challenges the linear and sometimes one-dimensional narratives that dominate widespread media, specializing in problems with illustration, language, marginalization, and the processes of picture manufacturing and circulation. His works regularly characteristic fictional characters in nonlinear, multilingual narratives that use humor, absurdity, and poetry to supply various views on how we perceive the world round us.

In his solo exhibition, Cihad examines a largely forgotten occasion in Dutch historical past: the 1972 riots in Rotterdam’s Afrikaanderwijk neighborhood, the place visitor staff have been focused. With the riots as a focus, Cihad expands his exploration to incorporate how the neighborhood was named in commemoration of the Anglo-Boer Struggle in South Africa, in addition to the actual challenges of gentrification it faces right this moment. This venture explores the character of reminiscence—how we keep in mind, how subjective experiences form collective reminiscence, and the function of reenactment in bringing the previous into the current. That includes movie, sculptural installations, an area for public activations and excursions of Afrikaanderwijk carried out in languages extensively spoken within the neighborhood, Cihad delves into the fluidity of reminiscence, recognizing it as an ever-changing phenomenon. By revisiting the Afrikaanderwijk riots by particular person recollections, the artist attracts out various views inside these reminiscences. He makes use of reenactment not simply to recreate occasions however to activate archives and recuperate forgotten narratives. Via this course of, Cihad types a multifaceted understanding of this pivotal occasion, addressing the complexities round how historical past is remembered and retold, and the implications this poses for the neighborhood.

curated by
Gabi Ngcobo, Rosa de Graaf

at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam
till April 27, 2025