Cihad Caner: Parroting The Parrot

• Date: 06 June - 13 July
• Location: 1646 - Experimental Art Space

In Parroting The Parrot, Caner follows the story of Cem Sultan, an Ottoman prince exiled to Europe in the late 1400s, accompanied by his parrot. While mainstream narratives usually portray historical figures as true heroes, this project presents Cem as an anti-hero, challenging traditional representations of history.

In Canner's new video, the protagonist becomes Cem's parrot, who guides and accompanies him during the years he is away from home. In a playful way, the parrot's perspective shows us how entertainment can help sustain the way history is told. Through its lens, the project delves into the complexities of storytelling and the risks of reinforcing singular perspectives. It also makes us wonder whether alternative voices can offer new ways of understanding the past and question the ways history is constructed and disseminated in our time.

Much of the exhibition is inspired by historical artifacts, such as the tapestries The Lady and the Unicorn at the Musée de Cluny in Paris. These tapestries, with crescent motifs associated with the Muslim world, serve as a visual anchor for the project's blending of myth and reality. Caner combines true facts with fiction.

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The video works in this exhibition contain excerpts in Ottoman-Turkish, contemporary Turkish and Dutch, and include English-language subtitles. No Dutch-language subtitles or audio description is currently available.

Accessibility note: The passage to the back room is 60 cm wide and therefore unfortunately not accessible for wheelchair users. Lighting in the exhibition space is intentionally kept low, which may affect visibility, especially when moving through the space.

For questions or more information about accessibility, please contact us at welcome@1646.nl, or visit our accessibility page.

About Cihad Caner

He is an artist who lives and works in Rotterdam and Brussels. His work explores the politics of the image through video, photography, music, motion-capture and CGI. Caner's research-driven practice revolves around (re)presentation, language, marginalization and alterity. His fictional CGI characters are often multilingual protagonists in nonlinear, metaphorical narratives that use humor, absurdity and poetry to critique the status quo. His recent exhibitions include Akademie der Künste, Berlin; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; TENT, Rotterdam; Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel; Nest, The Hague; Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; Július Koller Society, Bratislava; Kunsthal Mechelen, Mechelen; Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam and İstanbul Modern, İstanbul. Caner was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2021-2023).

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