Kutlug Ataman

Kutlug Ataman's work is poised on the boundary between documentary and fiction. It uses storytelling to explore the fragility of a person's identity. His subjects are individuals who have become dislocated from conventional social categories, and feel compelled to reinvent themselves. In the 40-channel video installation Küba, Ataman creates a portrait of a town through interviews with 40 inhabitants of the squatter's camp on the outskirts of Istanbul. Unincorporated by the city or state government and barely policed by its authorities, Küba is a place where thieves, prostitutes, murderers, transvestites and revolutionaries live by their own rules of cooperation and tolerance.