Coming to terms that my friends and I are just a chaotic bunch but we keep pulling up for each other & make it work with the resources at hand, silly laughs and endless love 💘 Here is the proof with improv press pics for lubunya queen @csaner & look at this hot outfit 🥵🔥🧯🚒
anneciğim, canım, canan'ım.
gün geçtikçe kendimde ne çok seni görüyorum. kendimi bildim bileli saçlarımı pek ortadan ayırdığımı hatırlamıyorum. ama bir süredir bunu yapar halde bulunca kendimi, senin yansımanı görüyorum kendimde her seferinde bir daha, bir daha. nasıl bir his bilmem tarif edemeceğim sanırım hâlâ.
dün doğum gününde yanında olup da öpemedim ama saçlarımı ortadan ayırdım, döndüm kendime, sonra da sana baktım.
seni çok seviyorum, iyi ki varsın, iyi ki doğdun, iyi ki o canım ellerinle, beni ben yaptın.
I have received Neukölln Art Prize 2024 in February and I am still processing it 🌀
Here is a collection of moments from that day but also before and after that day to commemorate the embrace I have from my peers, loved ones, my chosen family, my kins, my muses.
Witnessing all of you having this much of joy for my work to be recognized was my actual win. All of the love I managed to foster with you in this brutal city will always be my prize.
Thank you for the collective care, love and joy you have offered me. It surely and always takes a village and I am grateful to all of you who are my village. Some of you are not even in these images, but as I always explain my work, even if I am not visibly seen in many of the frames I took, you can find me in each of them if you look at them closely.
Thank you once again, for letting me see you, thank you for letting me be seen.
and Mom, anneciğim, sen o gün benimle orada olamadın, ama bak ben yalnız değildim.
Finally I would like to note down one of my answers to our curator @sandra.teitge 's interview questions about "Inside The Ring" in the exhibition catalogue here:
Who do we see in the pictures?
We mosty see the people that my past, current, and future selves want to remember. People that I have felt connected to, found a belonging with in whichever way in different spheres of Berlin. Some of whom were destined to be strangers, some of whom are acquaintances that I had gravitated to, some of whom I Iearned to let go of, some of whom are still in my close circles and are close to my heart and some of whom have become my chosen family and are my kins that I carry within myself. At last, a few of the people we see I have never actually met but nevertheless are traces of my experience. Through all of them, we actually see me and the multiple facet of my persona.
-
PS: I could not tag all of you in the images in this post because IG has a limitation on tags in one post.
photo in 1st, 3rd and 7th slide is by Benjamin Renter
video in 2nd slide is by @melissa.selbst
video in 4th slide is by @akakelzz
video in 6th slide is by @legion_se7en
video in 8th slide is by @demipilates
#insidethering #cerensaner
GAZE AND SKIN
Meet the Artists: Ceren Saner (@csaner ) with her series „Can’an“
Opening: Mi, 13. Mai // 19:00 // LANGER.
Can’an is a tribute to the matriarch who is the reason for who I am.
My father passed away when I was three, and I came to know him only through photographs. This created a bond first with the frame, and later with the camera itself -something that would guide me years after. In 2025, I began using my father’s old analog camera, originally sent to him from Almanya*.
And my lens -almost immediately, maybe instinctively- turned toward my mother: 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘯, and our relationship.
It happened during a time of many transitions, including ones I did not yet know were coming, like leaving Türkiye.
Looking back at her allowed me to see I had been holding onto an idealized childhood hero I never met, while the real heroine had always been by my side. With all her strength, held in her smile, tears, hands and vulnerability. Can’an is about that shift for me.
A selection from 𝘊𝘢𝘯’𝘢𝘯 will be exhibited for the first time in Germany as part of GAZE AND SKIN.
*𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢: 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺.
Ceren Saner (she/her) is a self-taught lens-based artist and cultural producer. Her work engages queer and diasporic narratives across photography, moving image, installation with community building central to her methodology. Through socio-autobiographical storytelling she investigates the visibility and opacity of intimacy and kinship. Her works have been presented internationally across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Türkiye. In 2024, Saner received the Neuköllner Kunstpreis in Berlin for her on-going work „Inside The Ring”.
Portrait photo: Eden Jetschmann (@jetphoto )
GAZE AND SKIN - Über Identität, Repräsentation und Selbstbehauptung
Mit Arbeiten von Sarah Ungan (Ayıp!), Samet Durgun (Come Get Your Honey) & Ceren Saner (Can’an)
OPENING: Mi, 13. Mai 2026 // 19 Uhr
mit Artists Talk & Live-Music Performance
LANGER. Space for Photography, Mannheim
Gesehen zu werden ist niemals ein neutraler Akt. Was, wenn man sich durch die Wahrnehmung anderer fremd fühlt – in einer Kultur, innerhalb familiärer Strukturen, im eigenen Körper? Was heißt es, nicht-binär, nicht-normativ, nonkonform zu sein?
GAZE AND SKIN widmet sich der Frage, wie gesellschaftliche Normen, Narrative und moralischer Druck das Selbstbild, das Verhalten und die Sichtbarkeit von Menschen prägen — insbesondere im Kontext muslimisch geprägter Migrationsbiografien und queerer Lebensrealitäten.
Die Künstler:innen entwerfen ein visuelles und emotionales Panorama postmigrantischer Erfahrungen — zwischen Fremdzuschreibung und Selbstermächtigung, Sichtbarkeit und Intimität, Verletzbarkeit und Widerstand.
GAZE AND SKIN
On Identity, Representation and Self-Determination
Group exhibition with Sarah Ungan (Ayıp!), Samet Durgun (Come Get Your Honey) & Ceren Saner (Can’an)
OPENING: May 13, 2026 // 19:00 // LANGER. Space for Photography
To be seen is never a neutral act. Every gaze carries expectations, projections and narratives about who we are supposed to be. It can make us visible, but it can also expose, define or confine us.
GAZE AND SKIN explores the space between self-perception and external attribution. The exhibition asks what it means to feel out of place — within a culture, within family structures, within one’s own body — and how identity is negotiated when it does not conform to binary, normative or dominant expectations.
Focusing on Muslim-shaped biographies and queer realities, the artists explore how social norms and moral pressure influence not only how people are seen, but also how they move, behave and understand themselves. Shame, vulnerability, adaptation and resistance emerge as central points of tension.
Here, the “gaze” becomes both a force of projection and a site of artistic response. Skin is understood not only as a physical surface, but as a boundary, a memory, a place of exposure and protection. The question is not only how one escapes imposed images, but how one can reclaim them — through ownership, self-empowerment and acts of visibility.
Through the photographic positions of Sarah Ungan (@ungan.studio ), Samet Durgun (@hi.sametdurgun ), and Ceren Saner (@csaner ), GAZE AND SKIN brings together three distinct approaches to these questions. Their works unfold a visual and emotional panorama of post-migrant experience — moving between external perception and self-determination, vulnerability and resistance, visibility and intimacy.
Curated by Sarah Ungan, Elisa Berdica (@be.elissa ) and Arthur Bauer (@artem.bur )
Live music by Peter Hinz (@peter.hinz.perc ) & Eleanna Pitsikaki (@eleanna_pitsikaki_kanun )
🫶🏼
Heute stellen wir euch unsere Projektassitenz Ceren @csaner vor 💐 Willkommen im Team! 💐
Ceren Saner (sie/ihr) ist eine autodidaktische bildende Künstlerin und Kulturproduzentin. In ihren Arbeiten beschäftigt sie sich mit queeren und diasporischen Erzählungen in den Bereichen Fotografie, Bewegtbild, Installation und Kulturproduktion, wobei der Aufbau von Gemeinschaften im Mittelpunkt ihrer Methodik steht. Im Jahr 2024 wurde ihr der Neuköllner Kunstpreis verliehen.
Ceren Saner (she/her) is a self-taught lens-based artist and cultural producer. Her work engages queer and diasporic narratives accross photography, moving image, installation, and cultural production, with community building central to her methodology. In 2024, she was awarded the Neuköllner Kunstpreis.
Foto: @jetphoto
call for solidarity with our friend and comrade Lila
Our refugee friend Lila was targeted by transphobic hatred in the neighborhood where she lives in Berlin and, as a result, was unable to return home for a long period of time. During this time away from her home, and even before, the increasing restriction of refugee rights, the multiple forms of discrimination she has faced in institutions and on the streets, as well as the burden of housing and other living expenses, have pushed Lila into a debt crisis that urgently needs to be resolved.
Lila needs all of our support to be able to overcome these debts.
We know that Lila, like many others with similar intersections, is first and foremost in this position because of the system, and we raise our voices against it.
In solidarity with Lila
🗓 January 30th, Friday at 7:00 PM
📍 Biergarten Jockel @jockeleventhall
Suggested minimum contribution: €10
we will start with a poetry night with @nanayfanzin
and continue with live performances from
@xbergkizmeslekkorosuofficial@mavisguneser@adir_jan_@emrahgoekmen
and finish with dj sets from
DJ Ruru @oya_bar and @ccrystalnev
there will also be food available at the venue that can be purchased done by Lila 💘
looking forward to being with you 🫂
nasıl her köşede, her bahaneyle, halaya durup hiç usanmadan hadi gel oynayalım diyorsun :)
ne güzel öğretiyorsun o emekçi yüreğinle el ele, omuz omuza, göz göze olabilmeyi, ama gerekirse birbirimizi düzeltmeyi, sonra bir daha, bir daha sevmeyi, oynamayı, gülmekten usanmamayı.
göçte nasıl buldu o güzel kalbin beni, nasıl kesişti yollarımız? iyi ki böylesi kısmetmiş diyorum her defasında, iyi ki, iyi ki, iyi ki...
gözlerimi dolduruyor oyunbaz gülüşüne geri dönüp bakabilmek, dahil olabilmek.
gözümün nuru, canımın içi: Omê 🧿
1st image: " halaybaşı Omê " from inside the ring series, analog photo, 2025
2nd image: " Sabuha and Omê in Newroz halay " from inside the ring series, analog photo, 2025
3rd image: " Omê and Kekik dancing " from inside the ring series, analog photo, 2025
💚BLADE 2025 - Ceren Saner💜
Liquids is an autobiographical photo-series from 2014 centering queer intimacy, sensuality, and fluidity—particularly from a femme gaze. It explores the liquids of love—sweat, tears, blood, and memory—passing through the body as rivers of care, desire, heartbreak, and grief. Liquids is part of the permanent collection of the Schwules Museum in Berlin.
Ceren Saner (b. 1991, Istanbul) is a Berlin-based, self-taught lens-based artist working with socio-autobiographical storytelling through image and installation. Her works have been shown internationally at renowned venues, and she recently won the NK Art Prize 2024 in Berlin for her on-going body of work ”Inside The Ring”
Material credits:
Site-specific installation/intervention across the festival site’s barrier fences using transparent inkjet textile prints (produced in collaboration w/ @alexis.mermaid ), 2025.
Come experience Cerens world at BLADE 2025💜
Credits
Design: @janukrohm
#QueerArt
#FemmeGaze
#QueerIntimacy
#QueerSensuality
#Fluidity
#AutobiographicalArt
#SocioAutobiographical
#QueerStories
#SweatTearsBlood
#MemoryAsArt
#BerlinArt
#QueerBerlin
exhibiting " Inside The Ring " at Milk Cafe as part of Kaynaş Club at the beginning of Feb was such a healing way to start this year for me ✨
thank you all the cuties and chosen family for making sure to showing up to the artist talk and for all the love and thanks once again to dear @fleuriekloostra for the invite 🧚🏼♀️
an old university friend, @cemaltinoz :), that was there for the festival who later ran into me told me that when he saw my self portrait in the exhibition, he thought I must be making a reference to dear @nangoldinstudio 's self portrait, to that I said probably the blue walls in the background are also playing into but I am, as always, honoured to hear that my work reminded Nan to him 🌊
& this was only one of those moments from this weekend that touched my heart deeply, the rest I will keep it to myself for now 🧿
| photos from the 1st, 4th, 6th and the 9th slide is by Joyce van Doorn
