Didem Pekün

Of Dice and Men

Of Dice and Men is a video diary-essay: in it, Didem Pekün’s daily life and political events are intertwined, just as they are in our individual realities. Displayed on two screens, the video brings us back and forth between London and Istanbul from 2011 to 2016, the two cities the artist inhabited at the time. Dice are thrown repeatedly throughout the video, each time triggering the occurrence of fleeting moments – sometimes very common, sometimes very violent. What will happen next, we wonder? Will we witness a beautiful sunset above Istanbul’s roofs, admire the green vegetation of an English park, or participate in one of the many protests that occurred during that time? Of Dice and Men is a testimony to the hope and optimism that the Occupy movement and Gezi protests brought to an entire generation. Among them, Pekün not only takes notes on history in the making, but also contributes to writing it. Primarily a documentarist, the artist emphasizes the use of a first-person lens, affirming the significance of subjectivity in reporting on public and collective events as a way to give them meaning and consistency. But Of Dice and Men is also a reminder of the value of small things: by putting images of her daily life on the same level as major political issues, Pekün asserts that this is what we fight for, as it is both proof and witness to our individual existences. As the film progresses, it intensifies, moments of rupture multiply and daily life is caught in a spiral of violence. Then, it ends, leaving us, almost ten years later, with the memory of what did not occur and wondering if this wave of history has passed or if we are riding its lowest point.