Nilbar Güreş, 1977

Nilbar Güreş works in a variety of mediums, including performance, video, sculpture, photography and mixed media collage on textile. She interprets subjects related to the lives of individuals—based at times on autobiographical experiences—and deals with concepts such as gender, identity, and justice. Her works offer an expressive language that makes it possible to evaluate them from sociological, political, economic, and feminist perspectives. When composing her work, Güreş uses personal objects, habits, and rituals of everyday life.

“Body in Closet” reflects the artist’s investigations into traditions, habits, and female sexuality. People and everyday objects are accompanied by images related to nature, which the artist applies to fabric in a spare style. This work by Güreş is an example of her striking works that question the historical and cultural definition of the body and especially the norms created by the patriarchal social order by way of the body. The bodies painted by Güreş, who constructs interlocking scenes in the work, are fluid as if they want to burst out of the forms in which they are imprisoned; they rebel against the boundaries set for them. “Body in Closet” carries a spirit that disrupts structures of normative femininity that society seeks to fix; it challenges and demands the freedom of bodies.