Mehmet Ali Boran

Mehmet Ali Boran (b. 1981, Mardin/Kızıltepe) graduated from the Ceramic Department of Sakarya University's Faculty of Fine Arts in 2007. As an artist, he works with mediums such as video art, Installation, ceramics, performance, and video-novel. Currently residing in Mardin, Boran is one of the organizers of the Contemporary Art Talks at Mişar Art, established in Mardin in 2017. 

In his productions, addressing themes of belonging, displacement, cultural heritage, and memory in conjunction with environmental destruction, Boran delves into multi-layered narratives. He examines the positioning of new generation security systems on the surfaces of his surroundings and the effects of territorial boundaries, urban/rural settlements, and topographic areas in creating a discourse on the surveillance society controlled by authorities. Rather than offering a antropocentric interpretation of space, history, and memory, he proposes a holistic reading of the existing whole. Boran progresses by looking at animals, water, land, stones, air, plants, and cultural remnants from a geontological perspective.

Drawing inspiration from geographical sciences, Boran challenges and fragments the human gaze that both knows and constructs, elevating multiple perspectives in nature and humanity as a form of protest. By approaching his place of residence through a metonymic lens, he strives to open channels that reveal the interconnectedness between local experiences and their global dimensions. As a storyteller, Boran transforms his narratives into forms around restless and trembling images, seeking healing and ways to remedy our societal wounds through art. Through various collective collaborations, he aims to multiply the layers in his works by incorporating new possibilities brought about by collective thinking.

ANXIETY

What can an inventoried and neglected vehicle brake, measuring to 30-centimeter-diameter, tell us about the mined areas? 

Scientific and technological advances have contributed to resolving issues between people, increasing the possibilities for a more equitable life. The problem of hunger, which persists today, has improved slightly compared to previous eras. This positive development is directly related to the initiatives and investments of the advanced scientific world.

As artificial fertilizers proliferate, they have become more accessible for people to meet their needs, and life has become more democratized. However, when the earth's future is considered, it will be easy to realize that artificial solutions are temporary and only human-oriented. Fertilizer, which increases grain, fruit, and vegetable production, is now produced artificially more than ever before. To produce this item, phosphate mines must be extracted from soil and rocks and operated. In the areas where phosphate is mined, the earth's crust and the sky are being degraded on an immense scale. The resources in Mazıdağı, Mardin, one of the world's most essential phosphate sources, are being processed and extracted faster than ever. Privatized in 2016, Eti Copper Mines' facility in Mazıdağı is expanding its production capacity and mining areas; while, the soil layer, village settlements, and trees on the mined land are being rapidly consumed and destroyed. In his project developed during the SAHA Studio process, the artist focuses on the observations and research he has conducted in Mazıdağı since 2018. As a result of this research, Boran periodically traveled to the phosphate mining area and documented the mine site with photographer Tehsin Baravi. While editing these photographs, Boran was inspired by Forensic Architecture research methods, considering all components of an issue together.

In the photographs, the artist focused on more than 30 village settlements in the Mazıdağı region that are at risk of displacement due to the phosphate mine, the soil washed with heavy metals, the gases released into the atmosphere from the chimneys of the plants; the mountain rises that will later turn into flat terrain, plants, trees, animals and the safety apparatus explicitly located in a mining area. The artist set out to organize a narrative in the aftermath of the June 2023 accident in which a truck brake, a small part of the more significant mechanism of a large production facility, exploded, killing 21 people.

The artist aims to make the viewer feel uneasy by installing 22 photographs-- using a panoramic landscape shooting technique. While showing the dramatic transition of the once idyllic images towards Khora, he reveals the schizophrenia of the past, the depression of the present, and the struggle of the future with anxiety through the notion of space. He also incorporates his artistic fiction into the project in some of these documentary photographs. As in some of his previous installations, the artist looks at the architectural, sociological, ecological, and cultural destruction caused by the phosphate extraction plant in Mazıdağı. In parallel to this project, he has also created a security mirror in which he addresses food issues, a ceramic whistle installation carved with inventory numbers, and ceramic installations called Istanbul diaries.