Diyarbakır.Tourism Romanticism.Activism

Nadir Sönmez
Jun 15, 2022
2 min read

Updated: Jul 20

Nadir Sönmez narrates Kurdish LGBTIQ+ activism in Diyarbakır; through autobiographical performance, essay film and documentary theatre. On one side, there is a gay francophone Turkish artist. On the other side there are Kurdish LGBTIQ+ activists. Queer visibility and solidarity seem to function differently in their lives.

This is aesthetically felt in the use of light and darkness. Under the brightness of the projection light, Nadir Sönmez talks about how networking with gay artists make him advance in his career. The titles of his three short films are all fake names of discreet gay men he dated in Diyarbakır. Those central characters are physically non-existent in the images and the films are black & white. Then there are the stories of Diyarbakır LGBTIQ+ activists. Their voices are heard in the darkness.

Inspired by their movement and their social gains, Nadir Sönmez questions his intellectual power in activism and celebrates gay culture to reclaim public homosexual intimacy.

From the perspective of a tourist flirting with being a participant-observant anthropologist, he makes an autobiographic commentary on solidarity, networking and sex in gay culture.

His video works transport the audience into a black and white fantasy where his one-night stands with Kurdish men have the romantic status of heterosexual honeymoon memories.