The Question of Transmission and Artistic Representation of Political Death: Witnessing the 2015/16 Curfews in Turkey

Throughout the hostile political transformation that began in 2013 in Turkey, a number of massacres and mass murders remained untraceable. The Curfews period of December 2015- February 2016 in South-Eastern Turkey was a time of collective violence in multiple forms, among which Cizre Basement Massacres are the most known. Some social media material shared from the basements in the region, such as phone calls by representatives of the Kurdish party, caught international attention and provoked artistic as well as political responses. In this article, I will first provide an overview of the key events during the Curfews period, then analyze the artistic work of Songül Sönmez, with whom I have worked during the conceptualization of the sound work of her installation Forensic Body (2015-2020). Based on one-to-one discussion and participant observation, I will then discuss her witnessing and her creative process regarding these serial events of mass violence.