Pinar Ogrenci

Inventory 2021 (2021) Pinar Öğrenci Selected by Video-Forum, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.)

Inventory 2021 is a remake of Yugoslavian director Želimir Žilnik’s original Inventur – Metzstraße 11 from 1975. In the 1970s, repression by the Yugoslav government drove Žilnik into exile in West Germany, where he shone a light on the living conditions of the so-called “guest workers”. Similarly, artist and filmmaker Pınar Öğrenci had to migrate to Germany in 2018 due to repressions of the current regime in Turkey. For both Žilnik and Öğrenci the stairs of a building with multiple apartments are a collective space where tenants meet. Whereas Žilnik filmed the residents of a house in Munich, Öğrenci’s work is set in Chemnitz and depicts the anti racist struggles of people living there. In the original film, where most of the interviewees had arrived under West German “recruitment agreements” as ‘guests’, they are seen coming down the stairs. Öğrenci’s version shows the protagonists walking up, going to their apartments. It turns out that Öğrenci depicts Chemnitz as a permanent space rather than a temporary home for the migrants. They talk about their life histories, their connections to the region and their commitment against racism as well as the everyday experience of discrimination in its structural and its individual forms.

Video-Forum, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.):

Solidarity often begins on a small scale and unfolds its strongest impact in local structures. A house community or neighbors can contribute to making people feel at home. Knowing that your actions are embedded and resonate within a network and that there is a shared interest can foster a sense of sustained and enacted empathy and collectivity. Pınar Öğrenci’s work provides an insight into the complexities and different motivations that lead people to build up a new home in a different place. While media coverage often emphasizes negative or extreme incidents and tendencies, Inventory 2021 paints a positive counter-image of a community of solidarity that emphasizes what we have in common and thus gives hope.