MeNFT

Beginning with memories of steamy childhood hammams, an oil wrestler retraces the personal history of his hidden desire. A black-and-white fantasy of Oriental male strength turns into a satire on the façade of progressiveness in European queer culture and the art world. This essay film searches for sexual liberty where it is least expected, transforming a national emblem of virility into a fragile choreography of intimacy.

Video, 2025, 10'

Text, video and editing

Nadir Sönmez

Music

Mert Kocadayı

Maurice Pialat’s Pehlivan was a key reference for this film, provoking me to look at “my” culture and influencing the visual aesthetic of my work.

The images came from videos I had originally recorded for my own voyeuristic pleasure during a local oil wrestling tournament. The text began as a monologue I wrote for a municipal theatre in Istanbul, but it was censored and removed from their program. In response I decided to give the text a new platform through these images, reversing the effects of censorship by delving into the sensual world of muscular bodies and intimate contact between male wrestlers.

This work is part of a broader body of videos in which I defend my sense of sexual freedom within Turkey, a country that appears highly conservative at first glance yet conceals rich and exciting cultural codes of sexuality.