Anja Sijben about her minutes in Istanbul

Anja wants to show the everyday things in a new dimension. She zooms in into daily actions and rituals. You can find the result in her contribution of three minutes Istanbul. The city, previously shown by colleague Osgur Ascioglu as a ‘city with two faces’, is according to Anja Sijben like a jawbreaker.

Anja Sijben was asked to film for City One Minutes in Istanbul by Teike Asselbergs. As an artist she’s abroad more often to film. She always chooses cities where she already knows people, so she can experience the real daily life. Luckily she knew some people in Istanbul because she had been there before for three days.  ‘Previously I was totally lost in Istanbul. I couldn’t find anything. Now I was with someone who lived there, so it was easier to orientate myself.’

Three minutes about Istanbul. ‘It has opened my eyes a little bit.’ Anja Sijben shows the things everyone has seen a hundred times already, in a new way. ‘It’s the randomness that causes wonder!’ Like we see in one of her minutes: fishermen at the bridge from east to west Istanbul. ’It’s something everyone knows. I took a shot from down upwards, only the rods and the air are visible. It’s everyday but different.’

For Anja Sijben it was the first time she made such short films. According to her it was difficult but also very challenging: to tell in one minute what you want to tell.

At first Anja Sijben searches for recognizable daily actions. Once she collected the footage, it undergoes several changes to make it to the final product: the element where she wants to zoom in to. For the audience it creates a new reality.

Anja Sijben mostly works from a fixed position. She chooses to enlarge the movement of the action, not the movement of the camera.

During her stay in Istanbul Anja was invited to smoke a water pipe. The ceremonial way the smoke was blown out  was so intriguing to her, she made a minute about it. ‘I slowed down the motion to  focus on the development of the smoke. Again something daily shown in a different way.’ The result is the film ‘Smoking’, her favorite minute.

In the third film we see the massiveness of the people and  traffic in Istanbul. Anja shows the audience a ferry. ‘It was one big chaos when people entered and left the ferry.’ Anja Sijben tried to enlarge the image of massiveness and chaos by speeding up the film. ‘All the people together look like ants. When the boat leaves the shore, it looks like a toy boat almost overturning by the amount people.

The extreme materialistic  wealth and the conservatism in Istanbul would be another challenge for Anja Sijben to fit into one minute. Maybe a next time!