Şükran Moral (born in 1962 In

Terme Terme (formerly spelled ''Termeh''; Ancient Greek: Thèrmae, Θέρμαι) is the seat of Terme District, Samsun Province, Turkey. Terme is located on Terme River, about 5 km from its mouth, on the eastern end of the Çarşamba Plain. Term ...

, Samsun) is a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

artist, best known for her performances, videos and installations. During the 80's and 90's, she wrote poetry and worked as a journalist and art critic in Turkey. Moral currently lives and works in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Early years

Şükran Moral was born in 1962 in

, Samsun. She has three brothers and one sister. Her father refused to allow Moral to attend middle school, insisting that she works in a tailors shop. However, with her mother's help, she secretly started attending middle school. Moral graduated from high school despite having to deal with

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

and peer pressure. Moral graduated from the Department of Fine Arts in the Faculty of Education at Ankara University. In 1989, she moved to Italy and studied again at the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...

, where she graduated from the painting section in 1995.

Artistic career

Moral's area of interest have mostly been the negative effects of religion on women, the mentally ill and disordered and the alienation and exclusion of immigrants,

Transsexuals Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

, and Prostitutes. In 1997, she made a performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop Sapienza University of Rome, with the title "Museum & Morgue", where she transformed the museum into a morgue. She has performed works at a women's asylum in

. One of her most famous works was "Hamam", performed in the men's section of a

Turkish bath A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

in Galatasaray, Istanbul. It was exhibited in 1997 as a part of the International Istanbul Biennial.

"What's scandalous here is not the nudity," she says, "What's scandalous was the fact that here I was, an intellectual woman, who proposes doing something scandalous. If I had really been a whore, it would have been no big deal. Just being a female avant-garde artist is scandalous."

In Press

In 2005, a book about Moral's work, titled ''Apocalypse'', was published by the Italian publisher Gangemi, curated by Simonetta Lux and Patrizia Mania.

References

External links

Official website
* http://www.sukranmoral.net/
Interview with Inside Art Webtv (in Italian)

Şükran Moral on eskizozluk.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moral, Sukran 1962 births Living people Turkish contemporary artists 20th-century Turkish women artists 21st-century Turkish women artists People from Terme