At the Atelier with Burak Dak

The atmosphere to which Burak Dak’s paintings invite us, at first glance, evokes the symbolic scenes of the depictions of heaven and hell in medieval paintings, and collective subconscious collages. At the center of this symbolic language, ranging from pop art to surrealism, which he created with the elements he chose from today’s world of images and included in these scenes, there are human bodies that are randomly divided into parts, but painted with incredible care and meticulousness. This act of dismemberment, which contradicts the attention he shows to the depiction of the body, and the surreal scenes he weaves around these fragmented bodies, evoke the psychological, social and physical violence against the human body since its existence.

Burak Dak places these body metaphors, which he created by feeding on a wide scale from mythological half-human half-animal creatures to popular figures, in surreal decors with the collage technique. The resulting compositions reveal different expansions and dimensions of the same story each time. The meticulous and detailed act of drawing in body descriptions, the elements in composition and collage setups, the relationality between centered bodies and compositional elements, all of which are in constant repetition; but with the potential to produce a new and unique poetry each time.

Shooting, Editing: Naz Tansel