ARTER MUSEUM İSTANBUL EXHIBITIONS: NURİ KUZUCAN - PASSAGE,
SARKIS – ENDLESS & IN ITS OWN SHADOW
NURİ KUZUCAN: PASSAGE AT ARTER
NURİ KUZUCAN: PASSAGE AT ARTER
01.06.2023–31.12.2023
Curator: Nilüfer Şaşmazer
Arter, Gallery 1
Nuri
Kuzucan’s solo exhibition Passage brings together a selection of the
artist’s earlier works and new productions within a site-specific architectural
setting. The exhibition centres on both cognitive and perceptual fluidity and
transitivity by featuring works that revolve around dualities such as
chaos/order, light/shadow, emptiness/fullness, surface/depth, and
interior/exterior. Passage creates associations between the transitional
space the exhibition resides in and the pictorial space through the
architectural, literary, and metaphorical connotations of the word
‘passage’. The exhibition
curated by Nilüfer Şaşmazer will be on view at Arter’s 1st-floor gallery
between 1 June 2023 and 31 December 2023.
Passage invites
visitors to explore the paintings and the space from multiple standpoints by
referring to their past experiences and activating their imaginations; rather
than works that guarantee a fixed and singular experience, it offers a myriad
of images that keep reinventing themselves while aiming for each work to
interact with the space and highlight one another, instead of merely being
viewed from the static locations where they are hung. Thus, the exhibition reimagines the whole space as a pictorial
composition and facilitates a distinctive experience of a ‘painting-space’ or
‘spatial painting’ in which visitors can navigate. The intricately woven
spatial setup whose architectural design was undertaken by Duygu Doğan and the
lighting delicately tuned to suit it also contribute to this experience by
heralding new ways of looking and seeing.
In
his artistic practice spanning more than twenty years, space has always been a
focal point for Kuzucan whose initial works featured multi-coloured interiors,
evolving to depictions of streets and urban landscapes, to bird’s-eye
renderings of the city, and finally, monochrome architectural structures that
fragment into abstraction. The artist’s most recent paintings integrate
fundamental architectural elements with primal geometrical forms and offer a
wealth of abstract associations as studies of space and open works.
THREE WHITES,
ONE RED, 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 4
pieces; 55 x 50 cm each [p. 97]
REDS ON WHITE
OR WHITES ON RED, 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 4
Pieces; 1 Piece: 210 x 195 cm,
3 Pieces: 84
x 66 cm each [pp. 47, 48, 115]
28 UNITS (WOOD,
FABRIC, PIGMENT, LIGHT AND SHADOW), 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 28
Pieces; 69 x 56 x 12 cm each (framed)
[pp. 9, 50,
53 (detail), 79, 96, 115]
IMPRESSION I,
2020
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 210
x 195 cm
Alp Şenbay
Collection [pp. 5, 87, 93]
MAQUETTES FOR
PASSAGE I–IV, 2023
Marker on
Glass, Wood
Dimensions: 4
Pieces; 55 x 50 x 9 cm each (framed)
[pp. 4, 49,
82, 92, 94-95]
RELIEF I, II,
2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 4
pieces; 40 x 40 x 6 cm, 40 x 40 x 4 cm,
40 x 40 x 8
cm, 40 x 40 x 2 cm
RELIEF III,
2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 3
Pieces; 40 x 40 x 6 cm, 40 x 40 x 2 cm,
40 x 40 x 4
cm [pp. 88, 91 (detail), 93]
IMPRESSION
II, 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 220
x 195 cm [pp. 4-5, 83, 85]
CALLIGRAPHY,
2023
Collage With
Paper
Dimensions:
12 Pieces; 55 x 55 cm each (framed) [pp. 51, 55, 114]
FAÇADES FOR
PASSAGE I–VI, 2023
Acrylic on Paper
Dimensions: 6
Pieces; 60 x 30.5 cm each [pp. 30, 78, 80-81, 88, 93]
NO. 2, 3,
2021
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 55
x 50 cm each
Selin Süter
Collection [pp. 8, 30, 74, 79, 88]
WHEN THE SURFACE BECOMES
SPACE BY TARKAN OKÇUOĞLU
In his book titled
Perspective as Symbolic Form, Erwin Panofsky expounds the meaning of the Latin
word perspectiva by referring to its definition as advanced by Albrecht Dürer’s
definition of perspective is concise ‘’seeing through’’. One of the fundamental
aims of the book consists in the study of the various definitions of
perspective as propounded by artists and art theorists, from the Helenistic
ages to the early modern period. Panofsky studies how an understanding of space
predicated on perspective took shape through a series of examples which create
the illusion that, while looking at the surface of a painting, we are almost
contemplating the space that extends behind a window. In his book, Principles
of Art History3, renowned art historian Heinrich Wölfflin, on the other hand,
expounded the language of form and what it means to see through such concept
couples as linear and shady, and plan and depth. Both authors produced seminal
works, investigating the history and techniques of the production of illusion
on the surface of paintings, as well as their symbolic values and iconographic
interpretations. Over the course of the past decades, through the alternately
empty and crowded zones which he generates with colour stains on the surface of
his paintings, the variegated ways with which he uses light reflections and
linear perspective, and the contrasts and depths which he creates through his
choice of colours, Nuri Kuzucan has tackled some of the most fundamental issues
raised by the abovementioned authors’ writings. As a matter of principle, he
keeps clear of curved lines; the fundamental elements of his practice consist
in straight lines, geometrical colour stains and shapes, and patches of
brightness, obscurity and shadow. A chronological glance at his oeuvre allows
one to witness the evolutions undergone by his practice, wherein perspective
and visual illusions pervade.
The straight lines which
sometimes constitute the entirety of his works, and empty areas encompassed
between them, are both interconnected, and form independent spatial areas. What
I mean by independent areas has todo with how these areas, which my gaze is
caught by when looking at the painting as a whole, create a modulation,
stemming from cubic or rectangular prisms. Such a bearing bestows upon the
viewer the king of delight that an explorer would experience. Essentially, the
‘’geometric schemes’’ merely consisting of lines and colours, spark our
imagination, leading us to see what we would like to see on the painting’s
surface, make sense of the shapes according the the forms stored in our
memories, and experience a feeling of reminiscence. I could also account for
the above as follows: the surfaces of Kuzucan’s paintings present us with a
spatial plane consisting of both numerous and distinct singular units.
Occasionally, the artist pulls off an element from within his paintings, which
at times give me the impression that he generates a whole through the accretion
of singular spaces, and recreates it in such a way that summons up one of its
modules. The square or cubic modules
which he outlines in some of his paintings by means of colour and linear
perspectives, slowly fade out within darkness and disappear from sight. On
other accasions, the modules that strecht across the canvas are reinterpreted
as a single small – scale work. When reframed and regrouped, these fragments,
pulled within a massive structure, recreated and left alone, are transformed
into a gigantic canvas in a sense.
As though a live exposure
meter, Kuzucan uses the possibilities of light to the fullest. We witness as he
often roams across the various parts of the city, constantly in motion, follows
light and shadow wherever he goes, registers them in his mind on a daily basis,
and how this very roaming and transitivity constitutes a primary element of his
creative process. I have witnessed countless times how, while walking across
the city in his company or during our coffee break conversations, his eyes would be caught by the shadows , shifting
over time on the surrounding buildings’ facades, and excessively bright light
reflections coming from the windows, how his unique gaze would allow him to
identify these patterns over and over and how he would immediately capture a
record of them on his phone. The visual change undergone by urban space, and
the objects that pertain to it, over time, and the spectacle, the contemplation
of this change – which have become on almost unconscious reflex of his – have
grown to become Kuzucan’s daily practice. He sometimes even determines in
advance how the light that emanates from the street will translate into his
works, and places the light in interaction with them the exhibition space,
causing the works to evolve as the light changes in a sense, and allowing for a
whole range of visual experiences. As a matter of fact, light transitions are
so operative in the artist’s works that he will even calculate how the shadow
of the light that strikes the thick frames he sometimes uses will fall onto
another frame, leading the work to stir so to say, and assume different shapes
and new levels of meaning.
It seems reasonable to
look for the cradle and source of inspiration of Nuri Kuzucan’s masterful
variations on light and perspective somewhere by Adnan Çoker’s workshop, which
he attended when studying at the Fine Arts Academy. One would be inclined to
consider that the years which he spent there allowed for the artist to
internalize his experiences on geometry, light and shadow, and the initial
formation of his thought and gaze education, later to evolve over the years
into its current state. Kuzucan’s painting -
if not from the point of view of style at least thought-wise- present a
strong kinship with the uncanny compositions created by Çoker through the use
of forms which fade and disappear into darkness under the effect of mysterious
light sources projected on a various shapes, and colour transitions. The
spatial and dimensional system created by Kuzucan in his paintings occasionally
articulates relatively explicit references. For instance, we may distinguish,
here, the outline of a city, fading away behind the shadows and darkness of
night. There, the city, almost entirely swaddled in tones of black, may give us
a wink, in the shape of a pink spot, befuddling the viewer. On the other hand,
when looking from a certain distance at these lines, shadows and colours
evocative of cityscapes, we may experience the illusion that the painting
repeatedly collapses and re-form over and over. The image of the city becomes
blurred. This very haziness is a wiggy feint, a trick played upon us by the
artist. Far from requiring a steady posture, the work demands that we rove
within labyrinth of the compositions; the viewer will soon notice that every
image which they might have believed to be stable actually lead them to another
tunnel. Depths without a single focal point, and consisting in a variety of
points of view, extend in all directions, sometimes fading away, yet
reappearing inexpectedly in some corner of the canvas.
The anachronism aside,
the perspective fields which Kuzucan projects onto the surface of his paintings
out of various vanishing points at once remind me of the dynasty history books embroidered
with miniatures, produced in ottoman courts in the 16th century.
Indeed, the miniature masters who produced these works implemented the
‘’multiple viewpoints’’ technique, whish they derived from Iranian paintings,
instead of a perspective technique transcribing a single viewpoint; as a
result, the same picture represents the constructions scattered across the
urban space simultaneously fro above and up front. Within the playful mind frame
espoused by miniature art, which disregards naturalism, perspective as a tool
is subject to arbitrary uses; as such, it heralds hierarchic conceptions that
generally appear in Middle Ages painting. For instance, by choosing to
represent, amid the constructions that encircle the palace’s wide courtyard,
only the ruler’s throne in linear perspective, the miniature master pushes the
hierarchy that prevailed at the sultan’s
court onto the surface of the picture. Unlike the Renaissance master,
the miniature master didn’t aspire after identically reproducing the world by
means of such tools as perspective, and light-shadow; rather, he would use
perspective in the amount and fashion that suited their intentions, and aim to
represent the world anew, as they comprehended and fancied it. For instance, in
the same depiction of Istanbul, a fictitious perspective is applied, implying
several vanishing points of different nature at once, resulting in the
representation of the Galata area from up front, while the historic peninsula
is depicted from above. As it instates several points of view at once onto the surface of the picture, this
fictional world also entails a perceptions of the floe of time. As a result, the
viewer goes through the imaginary feeling of seeing the city from various
temporal and spatial viewpoints, and as a whole, all at once. One might be
tempted to say that the West’s illusion appears as the East’s imagination. The
contemplation of the picture, as is the case with Kuzucan ‘s paintings, sparks
the imagination; as the viewer meanders across the depths of the picture, and
also experiences the temporality that is concealed within. The eastern
conception of painting bears other resemblances with Kuzucan’s creation.
Despite a certain wariness as to the connection between painting and
mathematics with regards to perspective, one of the distinctive approaches to
surface decoration in the East regiments geometry into an aesthetic standard,
through mathematical model. When applied on the surface of the picture, the
geometric patterns consisting of interwined tetragons, hexegons and octagons
summon of infinity. As the day advances the light that strikes the chiseled
wooden panels and surrounding gridded walls scale up, and add further depth to these
images. Used to create illusion in the Western, perspective, in Eastern
painting, gives birth to geometric schemes that conjure up a range of
associations in the mind of the viewer as the latter watches. Every new glance
cast at these intertwined polygons prompts the viewer to discover a new
pattern, and to mentally visualise stars and wheels of destiny, symbolizing
cosmic laws. In eastern art, more than a mere teaching instrumental in the
picture’s conception, geometry forms the image itself. On the other hand, this
pattern also awaits for the viewer to decipher it. The metallic grid that
shields the windows of an idle fountain, which we may unnoticingly glance at
every now and then in the oblivious flow od daily life, the tarnished tiled
frontispiece of a tomb from the Middle Ages, or the chiseled adgestones
surrounding the monumental gate of a derelict madrassa, all leave their mark in
our memories, without our notice. Thereupon, Kuzucan’s works conjure up the
visual patterns concealed within the depths of our memories, and crack open the
door to the seal consciously or unconsciously fastened with the past.
Naturally, I am not
claiming that Kuzucan operates in direct interaction with the compositions and
geometric decorations of Ottoman miniature, allowing for several viewpoints to
coexist in the picture, or that he projects them straightforwardly into his
paintings. However, the fact that his works often hint at various periods and
geographic areas of art history should not be overlooked.
As we begin to reflect on
Kuzucan’s works, in all likelihood, our mind will make numerous stop overs down
art history’s timeline; and our imagination will strecht across an extensive
space and time range, running from West to East. The occasionally plain, yet
regularly thoroughly complex spatial scheme which he produced through his
paintings over the course of his artistic career spanning more than twenty
years, inevitably intersects with major art history issue. Kuzucan’s effort at
measuring up with such an immemorial issue as the creation of depth onto the
surface of the painting – running from Antiquity to current times -, and the
courage he showed in ceaselessly interrogating the same issue, is yet another
mark of the profoundness of his works’ value.
https://www.arter.org.tr/publication-detail/nuri-kuzucan-pasaj/64
Nuri
Kuzucan’s solo exhibition book name is Passage. You may read conversations with Nilüfer Şaşmazer and
Nuri Kuzucan and other essays from Duygu Demir, Asuman Suner and Hakan Tüzün
Şengün to buy a book. If you may want to buy the book Passage to click above link.
CUBES, 2017
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 200
x 190 cm
Serdar
Bilgili Collection [pp. 75, 77]
BLACK
TRIPTYCH (TRIANGLES, WHITES, LINES), 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 3
Pieces; 55 x 50 cm each [pp. 31, 36, 45 (detail), 47, 92]
DIAGRAMS,
2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 195
x 185 cm [pp. 37, 39, 40, 83]
BLACKS, WHITES
AND SOME FORMS, 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 210
x 195 cm [pp. 5, 42, 83]
BLACK CUBES,
WHITE GAPS, 2020
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 210
x 195 cm [pp. 5, 43]
NINE FORMS,
2023
Acrylic on Canvas
Dimensions: 220
x 195 cm [pp. 31, 35]
NURİ KUZUCAN
Nuri Kuzucan(b. 1971, Zara) completed his BA in Painting and MA in Social Sciences at the Mimar
Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. The artist has participated in various
solo exhibitions in Istanbul, Basel, Berlin and Dubai since 1993 and has held
solo exhibitions in Istanbul, Hong Kong and Shanghai since 2004. Kuzucan’s
works are included in institutional collections, including the collections of
Pera Museum, Istanbul Modern and Arter. Following the book published in the
context of ISTHK | HKIST ( Edouard Malingue Gallery, 2013 ),
the artist’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, an extensive publication
accompanying Kuzucan’s solo exhibition Passage, curated by Nilüfer Şaşmazer at
Arter in 2023, is also being prepared with textual contributions by Duygu
Demir, Tarkan Okçuoğlu, Asuman Suner and Hakan Tüzün Şengün. The artist lives
and works in Istanbul.
CURATOR NİLÜFER ŞAŞMAZER
Nilüfer Şaşmazer (b.
1986) works as an independent curator and editor. She curated the
exhibitions Petrified Dreams ( Galeri Nev Istanbul, 2022 ) and Fugue ( Evliyagil Museum, Ankara, 2019 ); and
co-curated the exhibitions Dark Deep Darkness and Splendor
( Galerist, 2017 ) and La Ventura ( Ark Kültür, 2016 ). She also
co-curated Füreya (2017), the most comprehensive retrospective of Füreya Koral,
one of Turkey’s first contemporary ceramic artists, while also co-authoring and
co-editing her monograph.Şaşmazer also co-edited FüsunOnur: Once Upon a Time…, the monograph of Füsun Onur who
represented the Pavilion of Turkey at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Among
her recent editorial works are the publications that accompanied the group
exhibition You Know Who ( Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion, 2022 ), The Seventh
Continent (16th International Istanbul Biennial, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud
in 2019).
ABOUT ARTER MUSEUM
At its new building, Arter continues to be a sustainable, vibrant
cultural hub, making its broad range of programmes accessible to everyone.
Having presented 35
exhibitions from 2010 to 2018 at its building on Istiklal Street, Arter moved
to its new building in Istanbul’s Dolapdere district in September 2019. At its
new building designed by Grimshaw Architects, Arter continues
expanding the range of its activities beyond exhibitions to performances and
events across many disciplines.
Arter’s building
has 18,000 square metres of indoor area and features exhibition galleries,
performance halls, learning areas, a library, an arts bookstore, and a bistro.
Arter brings together artists and audiences through celebration of
today’s art in all its forms and disciplines.
COLLECTION & EXHIBITION
Instigated in 2007 and
conceived on an international basis, the Arter Collection values and welcomes
novel ideas, discourses, and tendencies in contemporary art, embracing all
formats that might be considered unconventional.
The Arter
Collection comprises more than 1,400 works by around 400 artists as of 2022 and
brings together various contemporary expressions, positions and practices from
all around the world. The collection includes works from the 1960s to the
present, covering a broad variety of media ranging from painting, drawing,
sculpture, print, photography, film, video, installation to sound, light and
performance-based practices.
Incorporating a plurality of themes, concepts and
gestures, the Arter Collection offers an inspiring source for the practice of
exhibition making and contributes to the programme. Alongside the exhibitions
drawn exclusively or primarily from the collection, Arter also presents curated
non-collection solo and group exhibitions in order to re-contextualise and give
visibility to works both from within and outside the collection.
EVENTS
Arter’s multi-disciplinary Events Programme features outstanding and
innovative examples of performing arts, classical, contemporary and electronic
music, film, performance and digital arts.
Placed in dialogue with the collection and exhibitions
where possible, the events are not limited to Arter’s two performance halls,
the Sevgi Gönül Auditorium and Karbon, but are
also held in different parts/spaces of the building. Collaborating with local
and international artists, curators and various institutions, Arter commissions
and co-produces new works.
https://www.arter.org.tr/about-us
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SARKİS: ENDLESS
04.05.2023–04.02.2024
Curator: Emre Baykal
Arter, Gallery 2
The exhibition titled ENDLESS brings together
Sarkis’ selected works from the Arter Collection in the same gallery space for
the very first time, endowing them with a new life and new experiences.
Covering a wide period of time in the artist’s production, ENDLESS features
works from the 1980s to the 2010s, including Respiro – an installation
first exhibited in the Pavilion of Turkey at the Venice Biennale in 2015. In
addition to concepts and themes frequently encountered in Sarkis’ works, such
as warming, burning, camouflage, memory, traces, atelier and home, ENDLESS
emphasises the crucial role played by light, colour and music in his artistic
practice.
Conceived to coexist with a space, to embrace
spatial references and associations, or to forge a different space altogether,
the works of Sarkis are reinterpreted and transformed by the artist on every
occasion they are exhibited. The exhibition titled ENDLESS, presented on
Arter’s 2nd floor, brings together a selection of the artist’s works from the
Arter Collection in the same gallery space for the very first time, endowing
them with a new life and new experiences.
ENDLESS spans a wide period of time in Sarkis’
production, from the 1980s through to Respiro – an installation exhibited in
the Pavilion of Turkey at the Venice Biennale in 2015. In addition to concepts
and themes frequently encountered in Sarkis’ works, such as warming, burning,
camouflage, memory, traces, atelier and home, ENDLESS emphasises the crucial
role played by light, colour and music in his artistic practice. In the
exhibition, Sarkis restages works charged with memories of different pasts and
places – such as Icons of Istanbul (1986–2023), Elle Danse (1990),
Transflammation (1996–2001), Mixed Retrospective (2001), Calling (To the Bees)
I (2013), as well as the mirrors and neon lights from Respiro which were
donated to the Arter Collection in 2021 – and reinterprets each of them within
a larger body they construct together in their current setting. ENDLESS mainly
consists of existing works drawn from the Arter Collection, but also features
two new pieces welcoming visitors as they enter the space. Sarkis requested
staff members working on the exhibition setup to leave black fingerprints on
the wall, calling to mind an era burdened by political upheavals, natural
disasters and loss. Just beside this dark circle, a wheelchair adorned with
white feathers looks ready to move at any moment and leads us to the lights and
colours of Respiro, paving a way for hope.
Sarkis also sustains his dialogue with other
artists, both his predecessors and contemporaries, through the works presented
in this exhibition. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 127 and Dmitri
Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 15 resonating from the works installed at opposite
ends of the space, converge with the music composed for Respiro by Jacopo
Baboni-Schilingi, transforming ENDLESS into a staging for three independent
textures of sound orchestrated by the artist. The works of Ali Kazma and
Domenika Kaesdorf, included in ENDLESS at Sarkis’ invitation, further enrich
and broaden the world Sarkis builds in the exhibition.
ENDLESS brings together Sarkis’ works produced
in different mediums and times in order to stimulate new relationships among
them and expand their distinctive memories on a new journey he sets up in the
exhibition space.
As part of Arter Publications’ Close-Up series,
Emre Baykal, the curator of ENDLESS, wrote a comprehensive book titled Çaylak
Sokak, which was released in September 2019. The publication offers a
multi-layered reading of Sarkis' works, including some featured in ENDLESS, by
placing them in various contexts related to political and cultural history. The
book focuses on Sarkis’ iconic installation Çaylak Sokak, which is regarded as
one of landmarks in the history of Turkish contemporary art.
SARKIS
ENDLESS
Curator: Emre
Baykal
Exhibition
view Arter, 2023
Photo: Hadiye
Cangökçe
SARKIS
TRANSFLAMMATION , 1996–2001
Film (colour,
sound), watercolour, wooden blocks Watercolours:
17 pieces,
34.5 x 41.5 cm
Each Film:
16’05”
Wooden Blocks:
Dimensions variable
Watercolours
and film: Arter Collection Installation with wooden blocks and film:
Courtesy of
the artist and Galerie Nathalie Obadia
Photo: Hadiye
Cangökçe
WHEELCHAIRE
WITH BIRD FEATHERS , 2023
Dimensions: 86 x 63 x 103 cm
Courtesy of
the artist
SOOT BLACK
FINGERPRINTS, 2023
Lamp black
watercolour fingerprints
Dimensions: 300 cm ø
Courtesy of
the artist
Photo: Hadiye
Cangökçe
MIXED
RETROSPECTIVE, 2001
Photographs,
table, fluorescent, newspaper bales, flower in a vase Table:
Dimensions: 119 x 240 x 76.5 cm
Arter
Collection
Photo: Hadiye
Cangökçe
SARKIS
The works of Sarkis (b. 1938, Istanbul), who moved to Paris in 1964 following his graduation
from the Department of Painting at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts
(IDGSA) and maintained his ties with Turkey ever since, deal with the concepts
of memory and time as well as alluding to art history, daily life, and his own
life story. In the 1960s, the artist’s production mostly consisted of paintings
made with gouache and watercolour. In the 1970s, Sarkis began producing
sculptural works, using various elements such as tar, metal, electrical current,
resistance wiring, heat, water and neon. Presenting a cultural and historical
accumulation for the audience to explore through objects, sounds, images and
scenes, the artist re-examines the relationship of his works to one another and
to the space in which they are located on every occasion they are exhibited.
Sarkis’ works have been presented in established
institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Guggenheim Museum
(New York), Muséed’ArtModerne de la Ville de Paris, Kunst-und- Austellungshalleder Bundesrepublik Deutschland(Bonn) and Museé du Louvre (Paris), as well as the
biennials of Venice Sydney, Shanghai, São Paulo, Moscow, and
Istanbul. Following the exhibition Sarkis: Interpretation of Cage /
Ryoanji, curated by MelihFereli at Arter in 2013, Sarkis’ seminal installation
Çaylak Sokak was also presented in Arter’s group exhibition What Time Is It?,
curated by Emre Baykal and Eda Berkmen in 2019.
CURATOR EMRE BAYKAL
Emre Baykal (1965, Istanbul)received his
undergraduate degree from the department of English Language and Literature at
Boğaziçi University. He worked as Associate Director (1995–2000) and Director
(2000–2005) of the Istanbul Biennial and as Exhibitions Director at Santral İstanbul
(2005–2008). In 2008, he joined Arter’s team as Exhibitions Director and
Curator. Appointed as the curator of the Turkish
Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, he has been serving as Chief
Curator of Arter since 2016. Baykal curated the exhibitions This Play (2022–2023), Füsun Onur: Opus II – Fantasia (2021–2022),
Precaution (2021–2022), Ayşe Erkmen (Whitish, 2019–2020), What Time Is It?
(with Eda Berkmen; 2019–2020), Ali Kazma (timemaker, 2015), Füsun Onur (Through
the Looking Glass, 2014), Volkan Aslan (Don’t Forget to Remember, 2013), Envy,
Enmity, Embarrassment (2013), Mona Hatoum (You Are Still Here, 2012), Deniz Gül
(5 Person Bufet, 2011), Second Exhibition (2010–2011), Tactics of Invisibility
(with Daniela Zyman; 2010–2011) as part of Arter’s exhibition programme and
contributed to various publications.
IN ITS OWN SHADOW
19.10.2023–07.04.2024
Curator: Emre Baykal,
Gizem Uslu Tümer Arter,
Gallery 0 & -1
Arter presents a new
exhibition titled In Its Own Shadow drawn from its collection. The group
exhibition curated by Emre Baykal and Gizem Uslu Tümer will be on view as of 19
October 2023 at Arter’s entrance and -1 floor galleries.
Drawn from the Arter
Collection, the group exhibition In Its Own Shadow is conceived around thematic
dualities such as inside and outside, public and private, presence and absence,
memory and oblivion, void and body; and seeks out the grey areas that arise
from the interplay between these notions. The exhibition, which comprises works
by 25 artists, consists of two complementary sections that spread across
Arter’s entrance and -1 floor galleries.
Embodying qualities
implied by the exhibition’s title such as invisibility, uncertainty,
concealment, and ambiguity, the works that form In Its Own Shadow act as an
invitation for the viewers to pursue the traces that take shape in their minds,
to search for what remains in shadows, and to engage in an exhibition
experience that will be enriched by their own mental and emotional
participation.
Often starting off with
ordinary, everyday materials, objects, or situations, yet transforming them
with unconventional and unexpected interventions, these works favour shadow
over light, the unknown over the obvious, and the fragment over the whole.
Through methods such as veiling, reduction, repetition and displacement or
through the interactions and affinities they establish within the space, the
works in the exhibition lead us into a misty field of perception for the
pursuit of new meanings.
Artists: Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Mirosław Bałka, Pedro Barateiro,
Michał Budny, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Jae-Eun Choi, Cevdet Erek, Terry Fox, Hreinn
Friðfinnsson, Bilge Friedlaender, Deniz Gül, Mona Hatoum, Rolf Julius, Nadia
Kaabi-Linke, Šejla Kamerić, Borga Kantürk, Mohammed Kazem, Inge Mahn, Ferhat
Özgür, Seza Paker, Pinaree Sanpitak, Chiharu Shiota, Yaşam Şaşmazer, Hema
Upadhyay, Nika Zupančič
NADIA KAABI-
LINKE
BUTCHER BLISS,
2010
Porcelain,
Chrome Plated Metal Hooks, Metallic Bar Metallic
Bar: 220 cm,
Porcelain Pieces: 35 × 32 cm, 70 × 46 cm,
37 × 30 cm,
43 × 33 cm Ed. 3/3
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
PEDRO
BARATEIRO
FINALLY...,
2011
506 Golden
Coated Oak Graphite Pencils
Dimensions Variable
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
MONA HATOUM
KAPAN, 2012
Mild Steel, Glass
5 Pieces; 156
× 300 × 300 cm, 114 × 45.5 × 55.5 cm, 135 × 46 × 55 cm,
127 × 46 × 55
cm, 154 × 57 × 65 cm, 143 × 56 × 65 cm
Photo:
Flufoto (Barış Aras & Elif Çakırlar
CHIHARU
SHIOTA
STATE OF
BEING (CHAIR), 2012
Chair, Metal,
Black Threads
150 × 70 × 60
cm
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
BORGA KANTÜRK
IN THE MIDDLE,
2011
Photography
24.5 × 102 cm
(framed)
Exhibition View:
Arter, 2023.
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
HEMA UPADHYAY
BEAUTY AND
DECAY , 2013
Long Grain
Rice, Ink, Arches Paper, Glue, Wooden Shelf, Magnifying Glass
2 pieces;
186.5 × 117.5 cm each (framed)
Exhibition View:
Arter, 2023.
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
HEMA UPADHYAY
BEAUTY AND
DECAY (DETAIL), 2013
Long Grain
Rice, Ink, Arches Paper, Glue, Wooden Shelf, Magnifying Glass
2 pieces;
186.5 × 117.5 cm each (framed)
Exhibition View:
Arter, 2023.
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
DENİZ GÜL
CUT GLASS,
2011 [2023]
Riva Decor
234 x 538 x
1,5 cm
Exhibition View:
Arter, 2023.
Photo: Flufoto
(Barış Aras and Elif Çakırlar)
CEVDET EREK
SSS – Shore
Scene Soundtrack, 2007
SSS Booklets,
5 Original Drawings From the SSS Booklet,
Marker on Paper,
Synthetic Carpet
Carpet: 101 x
201 cm
Booklets:
SSS – Shore
Scene Soundtrack: Theme and Variations for Carpet, BAS, 2008 (Turkish–English)
SSS – Sawt
Sura Sahilliya, Kayfa ta, 2014 (Arabic)
SSS – How to
Imitate the Sound of the Shore Using Two Hands and a Carpet,
Sternberg
Press and ta, 2017 (English–Arabic)
Photo: Sena
Nur Taştekne
ROLF JUKIUS
RAIN, 2010
Japanese
Paper, Video Projector, Wire, Pedestal,
Video
(Colour, Sound)
Paper: 78 ×
105 cm, video: 38”
CURATOR EMRE BAYKAL
Emre Baykal (1965, Istanbul)received his
undergraduate degree from the department of English Language and Literature at
Boğaziçi University. He worked as Associate Director (1995–2000) and Director
(2000–2005) of the Istanbul Biennial and as Exhibitions Director at Santral İstanbul
(2005–2008). In 2008, he joined Arter’s team as Exhibitions Director and
Curator. Appointed as the curator of the Turkish
Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, he has been serving as Chief
Curator of Arter since 2016. Baykal curated the exhibitions This Play (2022–2023), Füsun Onur: Opus II – Fantasia (2021–2022),
Precaution (2021–2022), Ayşe Erkmen (Whitish, 2019–2020), What Time Is It?
(with Eda Berkmen; 2019–2020), Ali Kazma (timemaker, 2015), Füsun Onur (Through
the Looking Glass, 2014), Volkan Aslan (Don’t Forget to Remember, 2013), Envy,
Enmity, Embarrassment (2013), Mona Hatoum (You Are Still Here, 2012), Deniz Gül
(5 Person Bufet, 2011), Second Exhibition (2010–2011), Tactics of Invisibility
(with Daniela Zyman; 2010–2011) as part of Arter’s exhibition programme and
contributed to various publications.
CURATOR GİZEM USLU TÜMER
Gizem Uslu Tümer (1987,
Istanbul) completed her undergraduate studies at the Department of Design and
Management, offered both by Parsons Paris (France) and Parsons School of Design
(USA), following her graduation from TED
Istanbul College. She gained her master’s degree in Contemporary Art from
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York. From 2009 to 2010, she worked as Artist
Liaison at Galerist, 2011 to 2013 as Programmes Coordinator at SAHA
Association, and 2013 to 2015 as Associate Director of Rampa Istanbul. She
joined Arter’s team in 2015 and continues her duty as Exhibitions Manager.
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