
Istanbul’s 5533 Presents Nazlı Khoshkhabar’s “Around and Round”
By Global Art Daily’s Editorial Board
Published on May 6, 2022
Organized by 5533, an artist-run independent art space located in the Istanbul Textile Traders’ Market (İMC), as part of the SENKRON event, Nazli Khoshkhabar's solo exhibition Around and Round is on view until May 14, 2022.
The exhibition consists of a fragmented narrative of the artist’s childhood in Iran reconstructed through dozens of videotapes recorded by her father. In the footage, viewers witness moments of celebration and mourning as well as those in the daily life of the artist’s family.
Khoshkhabar establishes a connection between learning about Turkey – the country she currently lives in – as a child from the satellite channels banned by the Iranian state and remembering her childhood via the videotape footage. “Satellites broadcasting the Turkish TV channels had an important role in my childhood, because I spent a lot of time in front of the TV,” says Khoshkhabar. “Years later, when I found the videotapes of my childhood, I realized this: I was watching them like I was watching TV. Because I didn’t remember most of the moments, it was like watching a whole new thing. I was comparing — how the language and the clothes have changed, how the TV has become more and more influential in our lives. I thought there was a connection between the satellite channels and the videotapes.”

At the center of the exhibition space is a satellite-like structure that consists of mirrors and legs made with scraps of adults’ sports equipment. The use of mirrors comes from a discovery Khoshkhabar made while researching how a satellite functions – that it is actually a mirror. Speaking of the legs that carry the mirrors: “Initially I wanted to use junks from playgrounds. Then I stumbled upon scraps of adults’ sports equipment. I liked that the scraps belong to tools made for adults to use in parks, where children also spend time.” Together, the structure, “indicate that there has been a change for better or for worse, that a new system has arrived.”
A constellation of images from Khoshkhabar’s childhood are projected on the structure and wall from a single a single channel, and the familiar gravitates to the remote, what is lost is attracted to the present, reflecting towards a different orbit.
Nazli Khoshkhabar's solo exhibition "Around and Round" is currently on view at 5533 until May 14, 2022, between 12:00 and 17:00 from Wednesday to Saturday.
Visit the exhibition: İMÇ 5.Blok no: 5533 Unkapanı.
Follow 5533 on Instagram.
Nazli Khoshkhabar was born in Tabriz/Iran in 1992. She studied Film and TV at Istanbul Bilgi University and continued her education in Film Studies at University of Sussex. She became interested in first person filmmaking, archive footage and home movies during her master's. In her first solo exhibition at 5533, she brings together her family archive in a video installation format.
5533 is an independent art space for research and exhibition of contemporary art located in the Istanbul Textile Traders’ Market (İMÇ). The space was founded by artists Nancy Atakan and Volkan Aslan and is currently directed by artist Can Küçük.
SENKRON Synchronized Video Exhibitions is an annual event that brings together art institutions and organizations across Turkey to bring visibility to video art. The 2022 edition took place between April 15 - 30.
Photography by Zeynep Fırat; Translation by Ekin Tümer.
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