Birgit Jürgenssen Award 2016
Cana Bilir-Meier
Award winner

“Already her present, fascinating oeuvre gives evidence of a highly intelligent, conceptual art making that deals with symbolic, analytic and semiotic ideas.
Cana Bilir-Maier also demonstrates that — as wondrous and frequently surprising as it may be — immediacy and liveliness of expression are indeed possible. Art succeeds in prevailing within a tiny intermediate space, not despite but because of our world.
Her film ‘Semra Ertan’ shows in a world in which the drama of the present becomes the threat of the future — empathy, ruthlessness and indispensable artistic attitude.”
—Peter Noever

Jury Members

Carola Dertnig, Vanessa Joan Müller, Peter Noever,
Constanze Ruhm, Gabriele Schor

Semra Ertan
Film

HD Video | 16:9 | Colour, B/W | Sound | 7:30 min.| 2013

Semra Ertan was born in Turkey, 1956 and moved to her parents to the federal republic of Germany in 1972. She worked as a construction draftswomen as well as an interpreter and wrote over 350 poems. 1982 Semra Ertan burnt herself in Hamburg to give a sign against xenophobia and racism in Germany.

Semra Ertan - OV /w english subtitles