M HKA Ensembles

Video, 00:07:13.

Collection: Courtesy of Şener Özmen & Erkan Özgen.

The video Road to Tate Modern by Şener Özmen & Erkan Özgen depicts the tale of the two artists endeavouring to reach Tate Modern, the museum of modern and contemporary art that has come to exemplify the globalisation of art that began in the 1990s. Emulating the characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza from Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel, we see the artists riding on a horse and donkey respectively through the West Asian landscape of Kurdistan, in search of the grand cathedral
of international art. Ironically referring to the situation of the Western artworld opening itself up to other regions of the world, particularly to practices that are subordinate to its Western perspectives, our protagonists seek to take their opportunity to enter the global artistic clique. Eventually they encounter a country dweller, and ask him “Where can we find Tate Modern?”. We leave our two characters still searching for their impossible dream.