Kutluğ Ataman

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Kutluğ Ataman (born 1961) is a Turkish contemporary artist and film-maker, whose pieces in photography and video art have won him much critical praise.

Openly gay himself, Ataman's work often explores sexual identity and gender. In 1997 he filmed Turkish opera diva Semiha Berksoy, and his piece Women Who Wear Wigs featured four Turkish women - a revolutionary whose face remained obscured, well-known journalist and breast cancer survivor Nevval Sevindi, an anonymous devout Muslim student, and an activist and transsexual prostitute.

He was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1961 and graduated in 1985 with a BA in Film from the University of California. He completed his MFA in 1988. As of 2004 he lives and works in Istanbul, London and Barcelona.

Ataman was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2004 for his contribution to the Istanbul Biennial 2003, and for various exhibitions in 2003-2004.

Ataman is currently working on "The Coat", a feature film he has written and will direct, for Scala Productions. Although the project has run in to many difficulties and lost several partners along the way, the film is scheduled to begin production in early 2007.