Sonder was a collaborative exploration between filmpro associate artists Michael Achtman, Caglar Kimyoncu and Zeynep Dagli. (Sept-Oct 2025)
"Lives caught in passing or forgotten. Portraits of people and spaces. The traces we leave behind."
Image description: A grid of four images includes a vintage sepia photo of two young women; a black and white photo of a building facade with a sign reading Creative Nails and a man in a cap visible through an upper storey window; a painting of two young boys in sailor suits, the older one with sepia coloured skin and the younger one with green coloured skin; and the back of an unaddressed postcard with a handwritten salutation in Yiddish.
Initiated by a curatorial invitation from Zeynep Dagli, the project invited Michael Achtman and Caglar Kimyoncu to explore the connections, resonances and tensions between their practices through a process of creative exchange.
The resulting exhibition brought together works shaped by distinct approaches to image-making and observation. Michael’s paintings revisited family photographs and archival imagery, while Caglar’s photographs emerged from encounters with people, places and cultures experienced in passing. Together, the works created a conversation between different relationships to time, attention and seeing. filmpro worked alongside the artists throughout the collaboration, offering practical support and helping sustain the space for dialogue, experimentation and public sharing. Audio description was embedded throughout the exhibition, including introductions, artist biographies and descriptions of individual works.
Sonder: The feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles. The term was coined by John Koenig for his The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of invented words for emotions that are difficult to express.
Caglar Kimyoncu is a London-based transmedia artist and the director of filmpro, a disabled-led organisation of digital artists based in South London. His previous transmedia projects, funded by Arts Council England and the British Council, include COnscription (Truman Brewery, London) and What Make You Who You Are? (PSBK, Jogjakarta).
Michael Achtman is a writer, filmmaker and visual artist whose work spans narrative and non-narrative genres. He is also an audio describer and access consultant. For the past decade, he has collaborated with Deaf and disabled artists to create work that explores accessible artistic practice. His short films include Pessoa, sift.simmer.shred, Orin & Anto, and the award-winning Awake, available on BFI Player.
Zeynep Dagli has been interested in the negotiations and meditations of internal and external struggles, and traumatic experiences in relation to death, dying, suffering and madness. In their previous work they have researched, examined, speculated and/or analysed how dark and painful experiences have revealed themselves by way of reflection and in artistic formulation. It’s been a personal journey as much as an academic one.
Paintings, vintage portraits and original photos by Caglar Kimyoncu and Michael Achtman. Curated by Zeynep Dagli
The exhibition took place in September–October 2025.
TWO-PLUS-TWO – ACME Glassyard
276 Oak Square, London SW9 9AW
Gallery has a step-free access with accessible toilets.
Audio description provided.
closest tube: Brixton/Stockwell
Sonder Exhibition - Audio Descriptions
Introductions and Biographies CLICK HERE to listen
Michael’s work CLICK HERE to Listen
Caglar’s work CLICK HERE to listen