On a school trip to the Louvre Museum, Belgian artist Gülşah Ayla Bayrak encountered the famous oil painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, La Grande Odalisque. Bayrak immediately recognised the references to Turkish culture present in the painting through the textiles, the jewellery and the sensuous figure of an Ottoman court lady. This sexualised and stereotypical representation of her Turkish ancestry made the artist feel uncomfortable. Even more so considering that this painting is part of the classic canon of Western art history. The friction created by this encounter fuelled her creativity and wish to create works that deal with the interplay between East and West.

The Start of Something explores this friction through the concept of Orientalism. The term refers to the way cultures of the East are perceived or imagined by Western writers and artists. It comes from the idea that the West is perceived as the norm or the standard to which the rest of the world is compared. Bayrak draws inspiration from paintings and uses collage or staging to add unexpected layers to her images. A new visual language is created by combining pop and internet culture with cultural symbols. Her work invites the viewer to explore a place where East and West meet as equals: Eurasia.

The second workshop is inspired by the topic of reinvention. Fire is the element of passion and creativity. Through the act of burning something, it is believed that negative energy leaves the body and change is possible, as well as transformation pointing at a new beginning. To conclude her project, Bayrak wanted to let go and reinvent herself, so she followed this quite literally and set herself on fire. How can reinventing oneself be visualised in images or video? The workshop Al Kiz invites others to help answer this question. In this online collaboration between the artist and the audience, she challenges participants to make 1-minute videos where one reinvents themselves.

Dates and registration for this workshop will come soon.