Artist Cihad Caner investigates current mass migration by focusing on the role of water in an exhibition in Valletta.

The world is witnessing some of the largest refugee flows since World War II.  Water crises are highlighted as one of the most pressing global challenges. In this context, migration and refugee flows are increasingly explained in terms of water scarcity perpetuated by climate change.

Cihad Caner

For example, the drought of 2007-2010 in Syria is said to be one of the main causes of the ongoing uprising and subsequent civil war, and the Mediterranean sea is becoming a subsequent mode of passage for the people who had to flee.

The project will reveal the ecological as well as political aspects of water.

Caner lives and works in Rotterdam and Istanbul. He works primarily with photography, video, CGI and sculpture.

His recent work focuses on the subjects of image culture; on ways the ‘other’ is portrayed and the utilisation of objects in daily life, and different circumstances, such as war, resistance and immigration.

Recently, he has exhibited at V2_Unstable Media, Hong Kong Arts Centre, AMNUA Museum, National Gallery of Iceland, Mother Gallery London, Bohai Galerie and EYE Film Museum. Last year, Caner graduated with a Masters in Media Design and Communication, from Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam.

Caner is the recipient of the inaugural Portfolio Review Blitz Residency Award, a new collaboration between Blitz and Portfolio Review, which takes place at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf as part of Düsseldorf Photo Weekend. Through its residency programme, Blitz is offering a one-month residency as part of the award programme for Portfolio Review in 2017 and 2018.

Blitz director Alexandra Pace attended Düsseldorf Photo Weekend in early February as a member of the award selection jury and for the curator tour of the Photo Weekend.

Each year emerging artists from all over the world get selected to present their work to an international panel of curators, critics and editors working in the field of art and photography. The presentations are public, offering both specialist and general visitors to the Photo Weekend an insight into the artist’s process and methods.

“I believe that the residency will provide an exceptional opportunity and environment to develop my research and finish it within the form of exhibition. As an island in-between all these incidents related to my subject, Malta becomes a crucial component of my research, and therefore Blitz is a great place for me to make this project happen,” said Caner.

The Blitz Residency Programme is supported by the Valletta 2018 Foundation. Blitz is supported by Arts Council Malta through a Cultural Partnership Agreement.

Today, Caner will will share his processes and work carried out during his three-week residency in Valletta at Blitz, 68, Santa Luċija Street, at 4.30pm. The gallery will be open from 3pm to 6pm. For more information, send an e-mail to contact@thisisblitz.com or call 2122 4992.