Halil Altındere, 1971

Born in Mardin, Halil Altındere graduated from the painting department of Çukurova University before obtaining his MFA in painting from the Fine Arts Faculty of Marmara University. Focusing on cultural codes, Altındere explores the political and social atmosphere of the period through various means of expression such as hyper-real sculptures, installations with humorous touches, and videos imitating fictional documentaries. The artist remarks that he aimed for intelligibility in his early works. Approaching subjects such as power, sociology of gender, militarism, and nationalism, the artist occasionally includes himself in his narratives. In his post-2000s output, Altındere turns his attention to subcultures and situations that seem ordinary in the quotidian but are, in fact, extraordinary.

Halil Altındere’s “Dancing with Taboos” series interrogates what identity represent while exploring issues relating to politics and social structure through ID cards. The work explores the global and local effects of communication technologies expanding exponentially in the 1990s through identity and individuality. In this work, Altındere discusses the obligation for every citizen to have an ID card at birth. He swaps the ID photos for pictures of young people facing each other and talking on their cell phones. The artist questions and protests that convoluted process amplified by the era's networks and forms of communications.