belit sag, Artist in distribution, Turkey, 1980
belit sag (1980, Nazilli-Turkey, she/they) studied mathematics in Ankara and audiovisual arts in Amsterdam.
Her moving image practice is rooted in video-activist groups she co-founded in Turkey. They were an artist in residence at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2014/2015, Amsterdam) and International Studio and Curatorial Program (2016 and 2019, New York City). Her research-based artistic practice focuses on archival visual representations of political violence and female, queer, and migrant solidarities.
They have presented works at documenta14, MOCA Taipei, Toronto/San Francisco/New York/Rotterdam International Film Festivals, Eye Filmmuseum, and Flaherty New York City, among others. LIMA distributes her moving image works. They are thesis supervisor at the Ecologies of Transformation Department (MFA) at Sandberg Institute, tutor and a team member at the Critical Studies Department (MFA) at Sandberg Institute, and taught as a core tutor at the Master of Film Artistic Research in and through Cinema Department (MA) at Netherlands Film Academy.
short bio
making videos,
based in Amsterdam, often in Turkey,
currently in Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, finishing soon, not so keen on being defined as an artist, have a mixed practice, studied mathematics in Turkey, and art in The Netherlands.
My video background is rooted in alternative video-activist/artist groups in Ankara and Istanbul, where i co-initiated groups such as VideA (video collective) and Karahaber (video-activist atelier – http://karahaber.org/ ) and produced video works individually and in collaboration with other video-makers, artists, activists.. My work has been exhibited in many international exhibitions and festivals including EYE Film Institute + International Rotterdam Film Festival (The Netherlands); Salt + Tutun Deposu + Damascus Visual Arts Festival (Turkey); DMZDocs Documentary Film Festival (Korea); Chinese European Art Center CEAC (China); Leipzig Ladyfest + videobits screenings (Germany); Art Lacuna Film Festival (UK).
‘Violence of images’ can be taken as an over-arching theme and interest especially in my video work. Most of my works deal with media representation and visibility. In my works, i often try to find ways to deal with larger political issues and topics in a personal way, to make them more accessible for me and for others.
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The overarching themes in belit sag’s recent work are the ‘violence of images’ and ‘images of violence’. Most of her works revolve around the role of images in the media and issues of representation and visibility. sag tries to address larger political issues in a personal way, making them accessible to a broad public and playing with their proximity to daily life.
belit sag is a videomaker based in Amsterdam. She studied mathematics in Turkey, art in the Netherlands, and recently completed a residency at Rijksakademie. Her video background is rooted in alternative video-activist and artist groups in Ankara and Istanbul, where she co-initiated projects such as VideA, Karahaber and bak.ma. sag’s work has been exhibited in international art spaces and festivals including EYE Film Institute and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Salt, DEPO and the Visual Arts Festival Damascus, Turkey; DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, South Korea; Chinese European Art Center, China and Art Lacuna Film Festival, United Kingdom.
