We recently connected with Lara Kamhi and have shared our conversation below.
Lara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
I think it is a human being’s main drive; wanting to be understood. And I also think that being or feeling understood is paradoxically impossible. Art flourishes from a state in which it is either a question of expressing your most authentic self or death. I am obviously pushing my words here, but the vulnerable act of true expression is not really an artist’s choice, but rather its way to survive. The artistic act starts when mere conversations and actions appear to be in vain. By creating transcendent realities, we create our own systems, words and universes in which we finally feel understood.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I was born into a multi-cultural family incorporating Turkish, Spanish, Ukrainian and Romanian members. I guess this was the main element which brought me to my current multi-faceted practice. As a student, I was a vey curious one. I have studied Theatre, Film and Television, Visual Communication Design and Media Arts. This curiosity morphed into a multi-layered practice in which with time, I first became a media artist, then a filmmaker, writer, lecturer and curator. In 2014, I have co-founded an independent art initiative named Prizmaspace, where I have nationally and internationally curated an exhibition series focusing on site-specific, immersive and cinematic approaches with emerging & established artists coming from filmmaking backgrounds. Then in 2017, I have started writing for Psikesinema and Psikeart, bi-monthly published prominent film, art and psychology magazines – for which I am also still contributing as a part-time visual content and cover editor. From 2010 onwards, I exhibited and screened my works in galleries, museums, festivals and public spaces – nationally and internationally. I enjoy my parallel routine of regularly creating video-essays and giving seminars about history and futures of cinematic experience design, perception studies, semiotics, virtual reality and transcendence, immersion, affect and the moving image. My recent proud project was Prizma Expanded: Poetics of Perception, an Expanded Cinema exhibition I have curated for Akbank Sanat in Istanbul, showcasing prominent names from Turkish Cinema such as; Reha Erdem, Florent Herry, Zeynep Dadak, Çiçek Kahraman, Deniz Tortum and Alican Çamcı. This project was also accompanied by a series of amazing talks, presentations and screenings. I am currently multi-tasking between film, video and writing projects to be released in the coming months and years.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I think that society’s view of art and critical thinking should change from its core. Small interventions won’t really be functional. for this one, the best answer was given by Plato; roughly 2500 years ago: “Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils.” But clearly, not much has changed since.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I use my art as a way to communicate with the invisible and intangible elements of life. This truly is an ethereal practice which incorporates attempts to understand, translate and then transcend the human experience. I would not call it a goal or mission, because it has no end point really. This rather is my main drive.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.larakamhi.com
- Instagram: @larakami @prizmaexpanded
- Other: https://vimeo.com/larakamhi
Image Credits
1) Prizma Expanded: Poetics of Perception exhibition 2) Tutsak Music video Shooting Backstage 3) Pi, Multi-Channel Video Installation 4) Prizma Expanded: Poetics of Perception exhibition 5) Idios & Koinos Kosmos, Multi-Media Installation 6) Tutsak Music video Shooting Backstage 7) Prizma Expanded: Poetics of Perception exhibition 8) Beta Nova, Multi-Media Installation