UNLEASHING

In his video, Özmen narrates a story about a black and white photograph, which is the only photograph from his childhood. The photograph was given to him only recently by his childhood friend "Assyrian Ferit," who made an unannounced visit to his exhibition in Germany. In the early 90s, during a sudden police raid at Özmen’s family home, despite his mother’s persistent resistance, the family album—among other things—was seized never to be returned. Alongside the family album, Özmen’s visual links to his childhood vanished. Under the ongoing effects of this impactful memory, the artist talks about the fact that he has no memory of his childhood likeness other than this single photograph that he received only a couple of years ago. For Özmen, "the extorted image of the artist" indicates the damages of colonialist domination in the Kurdish region.