MILK Muur: Inside The Ring

'Inside The Ring' is an ongoing photo and video series that began in 2016, following the artist's migration from Istanbul to Berlin. Rooted in her experiences as a queer migrant femme, the series evolved from a personal journey into a visual diary of belonging, identity, and finding one’s place. Here, image-making becomes world-building—an act of archiving "our-stories", offering a fluid, plural, and evolving counterpoint to the rigid, binary, and cis-hetero-patriarchal framing of history. In doing so, it challenges dominant narratives, carves space for representation, and resists historical erasure.

Engaging with the multiplicities within queer, migrant, and marginalized communities, the artist is centering authenticity and care in her creative process. Inside The Ring serves as an emotional map of existence, survival, and community-building in a cityscape that often remains hostile to those it portrays.

Recently, Ceren Saner was awarded the Neukölln Art Prize 2024 in Germany, receiving first place for ‘Inside The Ring’. The jury praised her work for drawing connections between the everyday realities of life across generations and communities, uniting worlds that exist side-by-side yet remain unknown to one another.

This exhibition is part of the Kaynas Club Festival.
 

Discover more of Ceren Saner

Image credit header: 
'kuntyklub having dinner' from Inside The Ring series, 2022, analog photo as Hahnemühle Fine-Art paper Alu-Dibond in Shadow Gap Frame, 55 x 80cm.

Images below: 
1. ⁠'sucuks und shishas' from Inside The Ring series, 2016, digital photo, fine art Hahnemühle print in a shadow gap frame, 70cm x 43cm
2. 'self with a swollen eye on November 2024' from Inside The Ring series, 2024, analog photo, fine art Hahnemühle print in a shadow gap frame, 35cm x 24cm
3. 'celebrating Magda and Abdoui' from Inside The Ring series, 2024, analog photo, wallpaper, 190cm x 128cm