Of Dice and Men

Working with the fluctuating rhythms of everyday life OF DICE AND MEN is an essayistic video diary punctuated by moments of subjective consequence and markers in a shared history. Presented in dialogue across two screens, the work mainly come from London and Istanbul, two cities which Pekün’s life straddles - and is torn between. It includes footage of the Occupy movements that began in London in 2011 as well as Istanbul’s Gezi protests in 2013, interlaced with more joyful and elusive experiences: boys diving into the Bosphorus or a first encounter with a feat of nature.
Attuned to the differing neoliberal conditions, dynamics and pressures of these contexts, Pekün mediates moments of rupture and violence in day-to-day life.
Indeed, Pekün originally picked up her camera hoping to capture and make sense of a present that she felt was shifting around her – palpable in both the events unfolding in these cities, but also in the emergence of a new political subjectivity that was awakening from its slumber. In the film, her diary entries are each given different formal and linguistic treatment - a new essay, reflecting on ideas and issues that arise from the events the dice throws. In this sense of dice and men is a reflection on how we react to and negotiate the unfolding present – where subjectivity and political agency are brought to bear.