Berat Işık was born in 1976 in Diyarbakır, lives and works in Diyarbakır. Berat Işık has generally used video as medium after the 1990’s. Adopting a critical and ironical language on subjects such as immigration, culture, social problems, and social identities, the artist’s videos demonstrate their performative quality and utopic vision.
Işık’s videos are often underpinned with black humour,
questioning the influence of popular culture on the collective memory. He views contemporary society with a critical eye and highlights the sensitive position in which the minority in Turkey finds itself. As though refusing the hegemony of the industry that imposes an aesthetic that is too picture-perfect, Işık does not correct certain technical “flaws” in his videos. These elements intentionally left on the tapes highlight the resistance that the artist manifests against the micro managing of culture, as well as the urgency and necessity with which these works are produced.
The forms created in various mediums in addition to the videos are monitored as manifestations of the layers of social memory which interlace with the individual identity
and personal memory of the artist.