'Torn' is about Didem, a friend of Nilbar Güreş' who was continually discriminated against and aggressively pursued being queer. She was brutally dragged into a car in Istanbul, robbed and almost murdered when they slit her throat. She was lucky to have survived.

 

Güreş dedicates a video and an installation to her. She filmed and photographed Didem in their hometown of Izmir. For the photograph taken on a balcony overlooking the city, she positioned Didem in front of a piece of patterned fabric that frames her as if she were in a portrait painting. The background is provided by a section of urban Izmir with a striking minaret pointing right alongside Didem. The installation consists of the photograph and the fabric cut by Didem, in which she used scissors to cut a large, elongated hole in the shape of the scar on Didem's neck. Both the photograph and the fabric hang on a standard washing line of the kind found attached to the outside walls of houses. For Güreş, Torn has a particular socio-political relevance — particularly regarding queer people: Cut in the cloth "references the violent emptiness of a society that tries to cover itself up through its victims.