Larissa Araz
b.1990, Istanbul
Anna Larissa Araz, focuses on alternative histories, non-human witnesses, and denied evidences. Through personal narratives, she researches documents, archives, belongings, ruins, silences, traces, and memories that are not included in, or kept hidden from social memory. Between reality and fiction, she tries to discuss possible futures and unrevealed pasts using mythology and rituals. She uses different mediums in her practice but mainly focuses on text and image-making. She collaborates with different cultural producers such as independent radio stations, local newspapers, sound engineers, graphic designers, perfumers, and so on.
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She is also the other half of palimpsest (with author Ekin Can Göksoy) which departs from the ancient belief that nothing is as it seems. With an approach far surpassing the modern conceptualization of the archive, where historical records are brought together and classified. palimpsest attempts to create an archive of the annotations on the margins of manuscripts, the decorations crumbling from the walls of buildings, the written messages behind found photographs, and the testimony of what is no longer there.
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Araz founded PoÅŸe Artist Run Space in April 2018. PoÅŸe is conceived with an urge to establish a community. It is a physical and mental open-space for those who feel the need for dialogue and critique. PoÅŸe has displayed many exhibitions including solo and group productions along with public programming and other content.