Proletarier Aller Laender

Serkan Ozkaya is a conceptual artist who uses interactive and novel media to work outside of traditional gallery spaces, creating artworks that question the nature of art making. Ozkaya is especially interested in art appropriation and reproduction - issues concerning the true authorship of works.

Many of Ozkaya’s works take a political stance, such as Proletarier Aller Laender, an installation made up of hundreds of tiny plastic foam figures stuck to the floor of the gallery space. The figures may be stepped on but they always bounce back to their original position, making the work a comment on the working class as either downtrodden or resilient depending on the viewer’s perspective.

Bring Me The Head Of...

Another work, Bring Me The Head Of… saw the artist serving a meal of various foods shaped like teddy bear heads. The “viewers” of the work participated in the making of the work by eating the bears, both creating the work conceptually, and destroying the physical object. I enjoy the subtle existence of this work, and the way that it forces the participant to contemplate their own actions. 

Homo Practicus (installation view)