Kutluğ Ataman: Journey to the Moon

Multimedia artist Kutluğ Ataman visits San Francisco State to screen his film Journey to the Moon, followed by a discussion with Gary Garrels, SFMOMA senior curator of painting and sculpture. Ataman is an Istanbul-based filmmaker and multimedia artist, whose work has been seen internationally, including at the 2015 Venice Biennial. At the 2004 Carnegie International, he won the top award and one of America's highest honors in art, the Carnegie Prize. In the same year he was one of the four shortlisted artists for the Turner Prize, the U.K.'s most prestigious visual arts award. Ataman has also won numerous awards for his feature film work. Free.

Schedule

6 p.m.: Film screening, A Journey to the Moon

8 p.m.: Conversation with Ataman and Gary Garrels, SFMOMA senior curator of painting and sculpture

Journey to the Moon

Set in a remote village in Erzincan province, Eastern Turkey, Journey to the Moon follows the quest of four villagers to travel to the moon, documented with the use of found black-and-white photos and the aid of a local narrator. Established Turkish intellectuals offer their views of the events that took place in 1957. The resulting film curiously becomes an in-depth study of contemporary Turkish culture, rather than an historical documentary.