"Live the questions now..."*

 H.E: Were there any documentary films that inspired you before or during this project?

S.K: The home movies of Jonas Mekas and Chantal Akerman's special films that combine personal stories and sociology began talking in my head. And there were also hundreds of classical music documentaries which kindly showed me what not to do! When I started working on the documentary, I only knew what I didn't want it to be. The process of documentary-making changes the director, and so the film also changes over time.

H.E: In your interview with Bora Gürdaş for PlakMecmuası, you stated, “There are similarities between [Jonas] Mekas’s passion for experimental cinema and İlhan’s for avant-garde music. They are both outspoken”. In my humble opinion, there are major differences between these two characters. For instance, Mekas spent months at Elmshorn labour camp, lived in displaced person camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel, he was arrested for his work... Yet when he died at age 96, he was a man carrying this eternal sunshine around him, as he himself stated in his work "Out-takes from the Life of a Happy Man" (2012). Whereas, Mimaroğlu seems to be on the other side of the coin, anti-social and reserved, with a peculiar sense of humour. So, my questions are: How close can we get to truly understanding and making sense of Mimaroğlu with this documentary? Is it ever possible to grasp a person’s inner world through their self-narrative (in this case, voice-recordings) and the recollections of others? To what extent do you think Mimaroğlu revealed himself in these personal recordings? Or is it simply an alter-ego with which we are confronted?

S.K: You are absolutely right. Apart from their passion for the avant-garde, they don't seem to have much in common. Mekas did not hesitate to use new technologies to make his experimental art. The move from 8mm to Video8 cameras had taken place. I think İlhan Mimaroğlu tries to be genuine in his articles and radio programs. In his day-to-day life, he was someone who enjoyed dark humour. But of course, we will never know how he felt inside. Humour was his way of communicating with life. In other words, the İlhan at home and the İlhan in the writings are close to one another. Maybe we can't see the romantic, loving or dark İlhan in his writings and speeches but all the conversations in the film are set up like an open-ended puzzle. For this reason, I have included different and contradictory views. My aim was to display a genius with multiple facets.

H.E: At the time İlhan and Güngör's free-spirited lifestyle as a couple was probably more acceptable in New York than it would have been in Istanbul. Probably even more so for Güngör, as she had a son (Rüstem Batum) from her first marriage and whom she left behind to be looked after by her mother in Istanbul. In the third and different part of the documentary, we are presented with Rüstem’s perspective and how hard it was for him to grow up without his mother by his side and to form himself. We also find out that Güngör could have had a child with İlhan but that she chose not to. In hindsight, she expresses a certain degree of regret. Would you say that the position of women in the arts or the position of women in relationships with creatives has not changed much in the last 60 years? Do women still have to choose one or the other? Motherhood vs. work/creation.

S.K: Güngör had a child at a very young age. She wanted to leave her baby with her mother and realize herself in the new world. She was a young woman who had an intellectual problem with the world. In those years (the 1950s), a woman in Turkey was expected to become a mother, and when she became a mother, she would be expected to forget all her dreams and ambitions in order to raise her child. Of course, modernization in the 1950s obviously created a positive change in both life and art. Today, at the end of the feminist struggle, women have opened up the conventional position of motherhood to discussion. There are many women around me who are mothers as well as artists. They observe the experience of motherhood and sometimes even allow it to contribute to their art.

H.E: So do you feel that the feminist struggle has come to an end?

S.K: The feminist struggle is very important in Turkey. I think that the feminist struggle will only become stronger across the world and I believe this is one of the things that will change the world in a positive way.

H.E: Would you say there is a greater following of electronic music in Turkey today? Has electronic music become democratized? Or would you say it’s still very much an underground scene?

S.K: Electronic music has been democratized; everyone can do it, even with their mobile phones. I also enjoy experimenting with music making apps. All over the world - from Berlin to Tehran, from Istanbul to Belgrade - there are young people expressing themselves through electronic music. Some dance to techno, others reveal their inner world with experimental and strange sounds. Electronic music is also popular in Turkey, but not as rap music. What was previously considered "underground" has begun to become mainstream. For example, electronic beats made by a child with headphones may resonate a completely underground feeling whilst getting a million and a half views on YouTube.

H.E: One of the things that drew my attention in "Mimaroğlu" was the behavioural and ideological contradictions. İlhan making electronic music and setting up Finnadar Records in 1971; Güngör being involved in left-wing protests and taking on a full-time job; or simply Güngör taking vitamins and consuming alcohol while sick etc. Is human behaviour contradictory in essence? In other words, supporting left-wing ideals and working in a highly capitalist order or to give a more contemporary example, being concerned /complaining about right-wing populism but watching populist shows on Netflix?

S.K: The couple's challenge was not limited to being in a new country or the music industry. They also faced the challenge of American capitalism. In the US, it is very difficult to make a living from your art. Even if you achieve this, you could still have the contradictions that are particular to Americans.