Summary

Hüzün is a Turkish word originating from Arabic. It barely describes a collective form of melancholia. Many novelists and translators claim it to be untranslatable. Turkish literary figures differentiate hüzün from melancholia with the emotion’s collective characteristics. Hüzün is a tranny name is shot in collaboration with a Turkish trans-activist, sex-worker, artist and writer Gani_meth. The video tackles the mourning and melancholia in the queer community of Turkey while aiming to subvert the meaning of hüzün in a direction that reflects on the violence that the marginalized face every day. The video is shot in parallel to an archival work around Hüzün run in collaboration with Koc University’s Kuar Lab and curator Inez Piso.