Interview with Burhan Özgün Sen

q )Walk us through an intimate day in your life

a)Well i wake up mainly mainly early in the morning but depends on my projects because many nights in a week i prefer to work 
in the nights so i dont sleep and i automaticly wake up early  Then just check my project calendar and start to work.. I like to 
meet with friends also in the middle of day in my studio or in one park to drink couple of beer in a day.. Actually i dont have any 
organised life schedule because of my producing mode. Many days i dont touch any paper if i dont feel good for painting and i'm losing
some projects because of this reason but i dont like to force myself to produce because to keep my style in that way,i should see,touch
talk and when i hae enough to reflect ,i like to draw it. I guess its my big problem to think on professional way. But my days are mainly 
passing thinking on my actual project or drawing on my actual project.

q) Where did you grow up/where do you live now and how does that contribute to your art?

a)I grow in Eskisehir/Turkey. I studied also for a while there then i move to Berlin before i finish my university. I was planning to stay 
in Berlin to study but then i moved to Zaragoza/Spain for some reasons. Then i decided to continue my education there and i studied Illustration
there. In 2012 i lived both in Spain and Berlin because i was working here and i was studying there. These journeys teach me many things for
comunicating with the people and mix this different cultures. Because i was thinking in Turkish, producing in the Spain and selling in
Germany. I learn the differences of this cultures and how can i mix this different cultures in one vision. I learn also i dont need 
any special atmosphere or special place to produce because i was running to catch my school and work deadlines and mainly i had a time to work just in the airports or to one friend’s home where i can stay for a couple of weeks. Now i have my studio here in Berlin and i' m sharing
the place with one bike designer,one artist and some fashion designer. This is also teaching me how to design in another disciplines and i really
like to learn this kind of way id design because for me, its more important to have way of thinking then how or what you design.

q) How do you wish for your art to be perceived?

a)Actually i'm also wondering this because mainly people give so strange reactions to my paintings but i dont have any expectations from the 
people. If its one illustration for my clients, i just use some elements to give the message but i would like to give them secretly
because for me subliminal messages are more effective and more personal. If its my personal project,i'm mainly focus on my feelings
because people see whatever they can see they want to see. Depends on their subliminal way of thinking and subliminal perceptions. Some people tought my illustrations are really scary and some people think they are funny drawings. Its just up to their memorial subconscious.

q) What do your internal dialogues sound like?

a)Mainly my psycology is between black and white. Many days i'm so optimistic about the life but its kind of one pair of scales. If i'm 
super positive a couple of weeks, then another part of the scale is going so down and to keep my balance ,i'm getting a bit dark. I guess
the life is like this, our black parts always need the white parts and our worlds just sharing around it. I dont like to have totally
bright world, i should be sad and negative to keep my ego based balance because my work is just reflection of my psycology and i cant see the white parts of the life if there is now black around it.

q) Do you feel that there are limitations to what you want to create?

a)Well , actually sometimes i'm getting bored from Azuldecobalt character because after a while i started to think like azuldecobalt, and
in his style. Many times i'm trying another styles or another way of reactions but i'm blocking myslef immediately because i saw its not
azuldecobalt's style. Azuldecobalt started to pass in front of my real character and actually i'm planning to create one new character like
azuldecobalt because its like acting all of your life in the same tv serial. I would like to learn and evolve myself with another visions
another way of think. Hope i can success on it if azuldecobalt let me one day .

q) Do you feel art is vital to survival and if so, why?

a)For me art is really important for our lives and for humanities future and past. Humans are like some softwares of the world 
and each one have their own codes and its like open source codes which we can add and delete some parts and in this 
point art is taking the control of everything . if humans can create and evolve, their biggest supporter is art because
humans learn their creative ability when they see, hear or feel any art work. If humans cant understand this ability , 
they have to live in a standarts rules and lives and somebody who can imagine will create their world for them. For me art is 
platform where people can create without any rules and learning to create is always shape their world. Life is also shaping with
our feelings and our way of thinking and if learn to control ,we can learn to shape our lives.

q) Describe a world without art.

a)I cannot describe it or i dont want to describe it because if there is any life in one world, it means there is art here. World is 
shaping day by day with new buildings,new fashions, new politic systems and humans are doing them all with their creativity and 
imaginations.

q) Tell us a secret, and obsession.

a)Well i'm obsessed for the details of the scenes. Its may times work for me but many times its disturbing me. Also i'm obsessed to 
calculate the id numbers of the car. It started when i was in high school because i was scared from the math lessons and i'm still 
doing this without control. I guess, i'm still scaring from the math. 

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)My website is again in underconstruction but people can visit my blogs and Steyoyoke Recordings web page. Actually whole pages 
in the google named 'azuldecobalt' is mine.

www.behance.net/azuldecobalt

azuldecobalt.daportfolio.com

www.steyoyoke.com/graphics

Interview with Silviu & Irina Székely

q) For the people who don't know your work - how would you describe it?

a)What we do at the moment is described generally by the words photo-montage or photo-collage. We would briefly describe the results of our activities as paradoxical and plurivocal juxtapositions and reconstructions of displaced and vandalised fragments of reality. Everything we produce is made by hand using scissors and glue.   

q) What are the key themes running through your practice?

a)We are less concerned with meaning and psychological effects when it comes to producing art. Our message, if there is any at all, is composed by a plurality of micro- and pseudo-messages and stances that are critically and ironically aimed at certain standardized artistic behaviors such as the total subordination of the title to the visually perceivable work, or the overwhelming mass-production of pictorial works totally dependent on public exposure and technological assistance.

q) Your favourite place on earth?

a)The most desirable place on earth would be a little stone house in the French countryside surrounded by lavender, blue sky and olive trees.

q) What influences your work?

a)We are influenced by the sudden change of our inner tonality and by the impersonal amplitude of our immediate surroundings. As a direct consequence, we witness and we are subjected to an activity of movement, sound, light, contemplation and hand gestures in order to preserve the healthy lawlessness of a sign-image that has no legs to stand on.

q) What music are you into right now?

a)Traditional African music and Scandinavian jazz.

q) Describe your thought & design process...

a)We cut, we look around, we cut again; our gestures are extremely gracious and unrestrained. The excess of thought is strictly forbidden and the final design does not match the unperceivable replica of its own beginnings. We put together undesired fragments only to disseminate them father and farther away into a glued compound strictly limited by the margins of a possible interpretation.   

q) Which emerging artists are you looking forward to seeing more of?

a)As there are so many talented artists nowadays, it would be unjust to pick only a few.   

q) Favourite place on the internet?

a)Internet is just a tool. We can’t find anything interesting in particular about it.

q) Do you have any upcoming projects/exhibitions we should know about?

a)We have our solo exhibition at Leeds College of Art that runs until the 9^th of March 2013. Also, we’ll be taking part in a group exhibition hosted by CES Contemporary in Laguna Beach between 16^th of February – 21^st of March 2013.

q) Tell us something we don't know - but should...

a)We should all know that we know nothing.

q) Where can people see more of your work on the internet?

a)On our Tumblr (http://deuxbricoleurs.tumblr.com) and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/silviundirinaszekely).