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Selfportrait 

Copy of original passport of Nasan Tur.

Year: 2000 / 2018

Pencil on paper, laminated fine-art print 

Edition: 50 

Unframed: 67 x 84 cm 

Inquiries: studio@nasantur.com

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Applying for a German passport, Nasan Tur let his moustach grow over several months, fitting the cliche of the Turk in Germany. This small alteration in his appearance led to a complete change in perception of and reaction to him from the outside world in his daily life.In  the circles in which he normally moved he was suddenly no longer welcome, was seen more an embarrassment, and from a female point of view, unsexy, whereas he was greeted with "Salem Aleykum" when walking past Turkish cafes and reaped enthusiastic compliments from aunts and uncles. Nasan Tur had a photo taken with his Turkish moustache and gave it to the authorities for his German passport. Now Tur is the owner of a German passport with a photo of a cliche-Turk, which he actually is not. Tur thematises in this work how far one is pushed into certain socially defined identities which one must then fullfil. The German passport that accompanies him on his travels presents him thus at each passport control.