Series: The Dialogue Room

The Dialogue Room van TENT Online is an ongoing series of conversations with Rotterdam makers in the form of a long read. How can we make time and space to share thoughts, sources of inspiration and questions about the things that concern us and the times in which we live? This wish was the reason to initiate a continuous series of conversations with various Rotterdam makers. The Dialogue Room is the editorial platform on which we publish these conversations as longreads, and provide online access to related artist projects. At the same time, The Dialogue Room is an invitation, to those involved and to you as a reader, to slow down, to give time and to be fed by each other's insights and imaginations. Apart from specific exhibitions or events, the conversations in The Dialogue Room provide an opportunity to delve into the ongoing research, experiences, sources and reflections that are part of artistic practice.

1. The Dialogue Room # 1: Can the Monster Sing?
   In this first long read, Katayoun Arian enters into conversation with artist Cihad Caner:
   Their conversation explores the themes, research and narrative strategies in Caner's 'Demonst (e) rating the Untamable Monster', a two-channel video installation. Using motion capture technology, music and sound, two animated monsters speak, sing and hum a rhythmic and embodied tale of resistance, fear and hostility, addressing issues of representation and the right to speak. Three voices alternate between two monster bodies, taking upon themselves the task to reflect on the fantastical and fabricated category of the 'monster' - the so-called Other - and that which is known as the unknown and originates from the outside. In doing so, they remind us: Can we become hospitable to the monster? Can the monster sing? ”