Artist Interview: Mert Acar ‘Traditional and Idealised Landscapes via Photography’
“Since consumption has become the most important cultural activity in the present day, cities and structures in cities are shaped around this approach. In my opinion, concepts such as non-places and placelessness open an important gate at this point, making the underlying motivation behind today’s land use and architecture more defined.”
Senem Çağla Bilgin: You’ve been studying environmental degradation, climate change, and its impacts on the landscape through your practice. How did this interest start?
Mert Acar: I was a little depressed back in 2014 and wanted to retreat from my daily routine for a while. So, I started driving around for shooting landscapes. It was like a therapy. I was enjoying open space and nature, but at some point, I found myself questioning the places that I’ve been photographing. These short trips had led me to research about environmental degradation, photography and landscape which also became my MFA thesis project.
S.C.B: You photograph places that exists between the urban and the rural; creating a mundane spatiality of daily life in the age of consumerism through photography. The idea of consumerism and places is very interesting because it relates to the way in which we build a dialogue with our surroundings. What are your thoughts on consumerism via architecture/ landscape?
Mert Acar, Untitled (Ongoing Series), 2019.
M.A: Since consumption has become the most important cultural activity in the present day, cities and structures in cities are shaped around this approach. In my opinion, concepts such as non-places and placelessness open an important gate at this point, making the underlying motivation behind today's land use and architecture more defined. It is possible to see the mundane places between the city and the countryside within the concepts mentioned above. Motorways, gas stations and billboards look as disconnected as possible from local indicators and look the same almost everywhere in the world. Therefore, it seems that the dialogues that can be established with all these consumption-oriented spaces are limited, but these spaces where the border between culture and nature are uncertain also provide a basis for creating new dialogues on all the destructive and constructive possibilities of the transition from one to the other.
S.C.B: Photographs have the ability to bring about an instant visibility of a certain situation and inspire people, corporations, and even governments to alter their course. Photography also can use all mediums, especially the internet, to reach global audiences about issues such as climate change. What kind of role do you think that photography can play in a big issue like climate change?
M.A: In my opinion, documentary photographs showing the dramatic consequences of climate change are very effective in increasing the sensitivity of the masses. But the pollution of the millions of images on the Internet is becoming less and less powerful. Because the number of images on social media is constantly increasing, visuals or texts that are really important flow into users in clutter with junk ones. What is important at this point is not the role of photography, but to make our consumption habits on the internet more conscious.
S.C.B: Turkey emits about 500 megatons of CO2e q of greenhouse gases every year and has no plan to lower emissions. Over the last decade, the five countries contributing the most to growth in global emissions were: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and South Korea. I’m also from Turkey, and I was wondering how does your background – being from Turkey – effect your perspective on climate change in your artistic practice?
“I try to make visible the traces of climate change and environmental degradation in my artistic practice, I do not do this by visualising the dramatic effects of climate change. It is more important for me to come up with approaches that can open up different areas of thinking instead of showing things directly.”
M.A: In developing countries, environmental and climate issues are at the bottom of the list and this is a big problem. Everything will continue to get worse, unless the authorities make it a top priority. Because, instead of short-term profitable investments, no one approaches to long-term environmental investments. The reason for this is that making a quick profit is more important than protecting the environment.
Although I try to make visible the traces of climate change and environmental degradation in my artistic practice, I do not do this by visualising the dramatic effects of climate change. It is more important for me to come up with approaches that can open up different areas of thinking instead of showing things directly.
Mert Acar, D-750, 2019, Lenticular Print, 18 x 21 cm, eds. 30 + 1 A.P.
S.C.B: How is your relationship with sustainable life as an artist? Is there anything specific that you do to reduce the use of the Earth’s natural resources and personal resources?
M.A: I'm trying to consume as little plastic as possible. Choosing products in glass bottles instead of plastic bottles greatly affects your plastic consumption. Because of my artistic practice I have to drive, but I try to do it as effectively as possible. When electric cars are more accessible, I'm sure we will breathe cleaner air. But another important issue is where electricity comes from. Using electric energy generated by burning coal only changes the location of the released gas. Apart from these, it is important not to catch up with the consumption trends, we do not have to use the latest model of each product.
S.C.B: Your work refers to ideas around non-places, traditional landscape and placelessness. What do you think the medium of photography can contribute with in understanding these terms?
M.A: Most photographers see photography as an area where they can create their own language. Therefore, they do not actually need words. Because when you try to move something created with photographic language into words, it becomes a translation. In the meantime, a shift or loss of meaning occurs. In addition, I think photography can be a way of thinking or research. In my own works, I examine the features of non-places and placelessness such as monotony and disconnection from the local in a conceptual perspective. This is not a visual library, but rather a form of visual research.
S.C.B: You speak about traditional and idealised landscapes and romanticised nature. What does beauty and aesthetics mean to your practice?
M.A: This is a very difficult question. Although I don't work on the basis of aesthetics or beauty, people often say it's beautiful when they like my works. In fact, there is no such thing as avoiding these concepts because in any way, someone can find your work aesthetically or beautifully. In my way of producing work, what attracts me is the atmosphere I usually feel at the moment. My goal is not to produce objects that are pleasing to look at. The way I look at the world and organise it into pieces is my practice. In my installations, I use photography to build a web around certain concepts, and the results often create situations that feed these concepts.
S.C.B: “I believe that these hybrid lands hint about humanity’s future better than romanticised nature or utopian modern cities.” You talk about the city as a constructed reality, and hybrid lands as a gateway between the city and nature, that resonate better with the collective anxiety around climate change. Do we need places like the ones you depict in order to understand our current global situation? What are your thoughts on landscape, authenticity and the contemporary moment?
M.A: In the traditional context, our view of landscape and nature is often romantic. When we look at nature through culture, we often see a peaceful escape place. Although cities are structures built to escape the challenges of nature, we think to flee to nature again as they create new challenges. The transitional landscapes between the city and nature do not arouse any interest. Therefore, these places offer us a land that is not affected by the artificiality of our gaze of the city and nature. For me the more effective the appearance of a colossal dumpster, the more effective the appearance of a plastic bottle thrown onto the highway. In these places, the landscape contains various anomalies in the context of the relationship between man and nature, and in the environmental context it can present interesting views about our future within the present.
S.C.B: You make an explorative investigation into remote areas, rural land-use, and the relationship between people and their natural or lived environments. What experience stood out for you during the expedition?
M.A: In places where I go to take pictures, there is mostly nobody. Rarely, when I meet someone, they ask why I take pictures of such boring places. They count the beautiful places that come to their minds and tell me to go and take photos. Once I had stopped at a place with a security guard, I had in mind just to take pictures. He offered tea, we sat and talked of Turkey's problems. After 1 hour, I left without taking pictures, but it was quite enjoyable. It was a very humane experience for me because normally I don't like to communicate with people around while taking photos. Sometimes being on the road, communicating with people and experiencing places can become more important than the photos I take.
Mert Acar, Place-Holder Series, 2015-2018.
S.C.B: I’ve been reading a book by Thomas Hylland Eriksen ‘Tyranny of the Moment’ recently, and there was a part that also made me think about photography, and its function in order to understand global warming. “The consequences of this extreme hurriedness are overwhelming; both the past and the future as mental categories are threatened by the tyranny of the moment. This is the era of computers, the Internet, communication satellites, multi-channel television, SMS messages (short text messages on GSM phones), e-mail, palmtops and e-commerce.” Do you think can we include ‘photography’ in this statement? What can be the good and bad impacts of photography’s speed-function on a crisis like a climate change?
M.A: The photography may not be included alone. But we can say that it is the internet and social media that shape our visual consumption habits. It is also possible to say that this changed the way we look at the photography. Even if the devastating effects of the climate change crisis are documented by visuals that will create global awareness, it turns out to be a show for many people that is no different from science fiction movies on television. Assuming that we have an Internet habit that consumes reality and fiction at the same time, it dulls our reactions to real events and facts. Then one day we learn that the house we live in was built on a creek bed and the whole neighbourhood flooded.
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