Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

In the early 1980s, VHS video recorders had become widespread in Germany and in a very short time they were also well accepted by many Turkish immigrants there. The lack of sufficient German language skills, as well as the fact that the content of German television broadcasting was not targeting the Turkish audience at all, led Turkish immigrants increasingly to rent videotapes. The video nights were a sort of social event including neighbours and family. Watching videos was accepted as a pleasant and family-friendly alternative to going out and getting attached to German-dominated cultural life. A lot of Turkish video companies opened up in Germany and imported movies to transfer them on videotapes. Some of these companies also produced low-budget video movies targeting the Turkish audience in Germany. Due to digital revolution, these companies were not able compete against digital TV and online videos and closed one after another. Some of the movies which were only released on videotapes, are now in danger of disappearing forever. Replaying Home is a video collage including selected cuts from these Turkish movies shot in Germany during the 1970s and 1980s and invites on a journey through a fictive universe based on stereotypes, culture shock, Occidentalism, homesickness and the traumas of migrant life.

Can Sungu was born in Istanbul, Turkey, studied Film (BA) and Visual Communication Design (MFA) at Istanbul Bilgi University and at the Institute for Art in Context in Berlin University of Arts (MA), gave courses on film and video production, facilitated workshops and took part in various exhibitions in Europe, such as at transmediale`14, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka and Künstlerhaus Vienna. In 2014 he co-founded the project space bi`bak in Berlin-Wedding where he works as project manager, artist and curator.