NOTES ON 54TH VENICE BIENNALEToday’s Mediterranean is a scene of political and economic crisis, of war conducted with high technology and what is more a scene of anonymous victims of terror, whose number is not even mentioned. Yet, in the coming six …
Viewing 1 to 19 of 19 items
‘Emploi Saisonnier/Seasonal Work’
‘Emploi Saisonnier/Seasonal Work’ project, proposed by Veronique Collard-Bovy and Celenk Bafra, is based on the research and exchange on and/or in the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, Antakya, Diyarbakir, Paris and Marseilles since 2008. The starting point was to have a closer look on the urban, social and cultural issues in the Mediterranean cities, and more specifically Turkey, together with the characteristics of the artistic practices nourished from them. This research, focused on multi-layered social and cultural problematics of the cities, on modes of collective production as well as the artists that try to stand together by various systems of exchange, resulted as a program composed by three art projects that were developed or invited from Turkey.
It was especially crucial for the artist-in-residency programme to invite artists from Turkey that are familiar with collective ways of living and working. This is why four artists from Izmir, third biggest the city of Turkey and an important sea port in the Aegean Sea, leading figures of major artist initiatives in Izmir, namely K2 and (-1) are invited in Marseilles to live and work. Even though their work, questioning on everyday life and its modes, has outcomes as individual artist works, a common approach and a certain spiritual affiliation exist due to the shared back-ground and city. The process of their residency and works contributed to the development of the exhibition ‘Arrangements’ together with the invitation of invaluable artists and artworks from Turkey supporting the theme of arrangement related to the issues of everyday life by their own approach and position.
Regarding ‘Die Weisser Stadt’ project following the residency of four members of Xurban collective, as a collective working in different parts of the globe on urban issues since 2000, it was indispensable to invite them to produce a new project on cities with a focus on Marseilles. In a city where urban transformation is harsh and controversial, Xurban comes up with new proposals by revisiting their own research and questions on contemporary politics and ideology.
A strong proposal from the city of Diyarbakir by Sener Ozmen, a city with deep political and social conflicts in the south-eastern region of Turkey, was invited as the third project to fulfill the approach of ‘Emploi Saisonnier/Seasonal Work’. Video and photography works from Diyarbakir by three artists, often making collaborations alongside with their individual artistic practice, present a common understanding on the difficulty to find a common front to agree nowadays in Turkey and the strategies of resistance in every possible way and field including the art world.
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The 11th Istanbul Biennial
What keeps mankind alive? This question, posed in 1928 by Brecht and Kurt Weill in their song from The Threepenny Opera, was the catalyst for the 11th Istanbul Biennial. In their introduction to the catalogue, Zagreb-based curatorial collective What, How and for Whom (WHW) outline their intention for the Biennial to re-function it as a facilitator to renew critical thinking, and to discuss, analyse and scrutinise the problematic issues of the capitalist order so as to trigger real social change in light of Brechtian principles. With its directly anti-capitalist and anti-globallsation statement speaking to memory and intellect through serious and even tragic issues from the present and the recent past, this was undoubtly the most radical among all Istanbul Biennials.
Istanbul Biennial has been consistently engaged with the local in its 22-year history. Unexpectedly, this exhibition was not about the host city. Rather, it chose to extend its sight from the local to the surrounding territories, to that ‘hot’ portion of the globe that is being more and more traced and acknowledged, but often overlooked by both Western and Eastern mainstream in terms of artistic, cultural and social formations. The curatorial agenda enquired the dense ideological, social and cultural strata of the Middle East, ex-Soviet Union, the Balkans and Turkey as a way to scrutinise the widespread topics of the ‘new world order’, its current failures and deteriorating effects on human life. Unsurprisingly, 45% of the 70 participating artists (half men and half women, and most of them under 40 years old) came from these Eastern countries and most were unknown to the Western art world. Only 22 out of 70 had galleries.
Marxism, along with the Brechtian excerpts, sprinkled throughout the exhibition spaces stood as a ‘rhetorical armour’ (a pertinent definition previously given by Daniel Miller on Frieze July 09, in response to the curating agenda) which could have easily resulted in incompetence making either the thick statement or the actual exhibition seem ancillary. WHW resolved the riddle by including enough politically oriented works with overtly shared Marxist and collectivist principles. Indeed, there was something slyly humorous about this exhibition. Upon wandering around, one was guided by signs with Cyrillic-derived fonts directing to the left.
The Biennial as a whole felt quite easy to pin down. Arranged as a conventional white-cube exhibition, the main space at Antrepo No.3 was light and well-designed. It incorporated well-combined pieces with some stronger ones carrying the whole. Most art works involved strategies of repetition, distribution and reproduction as in reference to the current trend of copying, gathering and accumulation in contemporary art. Tashkent-based Soviet conceptualist artist Vyacheslav Akhunov’s work exemplified this mode of production. Fly-Beat Revolution (1977), was an installation work of collage-drawings which took a collection of designs for fly-swatters as its space. Drawings featuring portraits of Communist hero-figures, state signs and symbols were each placed on the large end of a fly-swatter. Another work provided by the artist was titled 1 m2, in which small-scale re-productions, drawings and plans, extracted from the artist’s sketchbooks between 1976-1991, were filled into matchboxes brought together in an installation of one square meter. The work at once combined a visual archive of fragments of Soviet propaganda ambigously pushed to its limits and a comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work.
Tracing the everyday reality from Beirut was Mounira Al Solh’s two-channel video installation The Sea is a Stereo (2007-09). The work delved into the daily habit of swimming, obsessively developed by a group of Beiruti men, who would accomplish their activity everyday no matter the daily condition: rain, wind or war. The story gave an uncanny twist when the artist gave her voice to the men. As the story went on, the ‘apparent’ normality of the event would gradually fade away making the real motivation behind this obsessive ritual perceivable: resisting to the difficulty of pursuing an ‘ordinary life’ in the country.
Focusing on the everyday rituals was also the work of Istanbul-born, Istanbul and Vienna based artist Nilbar Gures. Gures was present at the Biennial with Unknown Sports (2008-09), a series of collages, drawings and photographs thematising female identity and gender discourse in contemporary Turkish society. The photographs were staged performances showing a group of women in a gym, while recreating the ideas from the artist’s drawings: waxing, styling, dressing up, vacuum cleaning etc. The series explored rituals of an exclusively female world yet the staged character of the work presented the problem of accepted gender roles.
Three other pieces worth mentioning are Lisi Raskin’s Control Room (2008), a room-size installation of paper and styrofoam sculptures resembling an empty science-fiction set of a workstation; Deimantas Narkevicius’ For The Role of a Lifetime (2003), a documentary yet poetical film-work composed of various overlapping spatio-temporal layers, with an interview with film director Peter Watkins on the role of the artist, process of filmmaking and the importance of critical thinking extending throughout the film as the main narrative thread; and Trevor Paglen’s Celestial Objects (Istanbul) (2009), a series of photographs mapping military intelligence sattelites in the night skies over Istanbul.
One realises how complex the task posed by WHW was when it came to resist the system in which the Biennial also found itself, a task likely to exceed orthodox exhibition formats. To this effect, the curators wanted to take a critical and self-reflexive look at the Biennial itself as well as the global biennial circuit, uttering within the exhibition some internal curatorial decisions and production details to the budget distribution, status of works on loan and distribution of artists for their countries of origin, age and gender. Despite all the positive intentions, the sense of transparency it strived for felt just too contrived.
After all, amid endless debate about art’s increasing lack of critical relevance and abundance of individual stories and subjective mythologies in recent contemporary art production, this exhibition proved something of an ease. Unfolding in interlaced themes and interests, single art works were combined into a meaningful whole which simultaneously questioned the role of art and awakened a worldly awareness without falling into nostalgia nor a spectacularised effect. Still, one cannot help but leave with a missing feeling – a feeling which derives from the constant seeking out the inherent appeal of art’s ability to present something else to the imagination; a sense of its famous ‘enigmaticalness’1.
1 See Theodore Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, London: Continuum 1997.
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Artist Fikret Atay’s ‘Batman vs. Batman’ at Outlet art space
The exhibition brings together two of the artist’s recent works, “Goaall!!” and “Batman vs. Batman,” both produced this year. Added to these is a selection of Atay’s earlier works, including “Spring Fever” and “Holiwuut.” Atay, who is currently presenting a video titled “Theorists” at the ongoing 10th Lyon Biennial, will also participate at the Alexandria Biennale this December, where “Gooaall!!” will be shown to an international audience for the first time.
In his videos, Atay makes reference to “country matters” through cultural, social and geographical connections. His work deals with traditional lifestyles that are marked by Western influences. “As a Turkish artist who has gained worldwide acclaim at an early age, Atay’s success is rooted in his ability to discover the universal aspects of supposedly local concerns and his ability to reflect on these,” the Outlet art space said in a written statement.
In “Batman vs. Batman,” Atay depicts the comical homonymy between the city of Batman and the superhero figure as a contention that is taken seriously by local authorities and which led to a lawsuit. Whereas internationally the case was neither taken seriously nor derided, Atay turns the event into a superhero story, similar in style to the Batman movies. The mayor of Batman mutates virtually into “The Dark Knight.” Atay’s documentary-style inquiry is meshed with snippets of the “Batman” series, thus involving the audience in a spirited and playful displacement. In “Gooaall!!” Atay delves into asphalt roads, which are billed as prime symbols of “modernism.” Atay depicts children experiencing modernism, consciously or not, as they play soccer barefoot on the asphalt road.
Born in the southeastern city of Batman in 1976, Atay has lived and worked in Paris and Batman since 2003. The artist focuses on symbols, the codes of symbols and the relationship between the concepts of identity and geography as well history in his work. Atay’s work is found in major public collections including the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal and the Museé du Luxembourg.
“Batman vs. Batman” can be seen until Nov. 26 from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. Outlet//Independent Art Space is located on Boğazkesen Cad., Kadirler Yokuşu, No: 69 in the Tophane neighborhood.
13.11.2009
Arts & Culture
TODAY’S ZAMAN
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Open Studio Day/Platform Garanti 5th floor, Studio 3
Saturday, November 07
1 p.m.-6 p.m.
http://platformgarantilinks.blogspot.com/
Platform Garanti CAC hosts an open studio day to share the work of current Istanbul Residency Program artists: Jesper Alvaer, Vangelis Vlahos, Witte van Hulzen & Sander Breure, Francesco Mattuzzi, Kalle Brolin, İnci Furni, Barbara Musil, Atılkunst, Soren Thilo Funder, and Sofie van der Linden.
Atılkunst
Platform Garanti 5th floor, Studio 3
4:30 p.m.-4:50 p.m.
Atılkunst will present a new video work titled “Agenda Exercises”. They will also make a sticker intervention on a daily newspaper.
Atılkunst is an artist collective run by three women artists since 2006. The main activity of Atılkunst focuses on current events, and the agendas of the day. They send out one e-mail every week with the subject “Surplus of Agenda”, consisting of one image called “Decal” which is inspired by political topics that have been raised throughout that week.
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On Schirin Kretschmann’s work
Schirin Kretschmann conceives works for particular sites and situations. She works with a variety of media from drawings to video projections; and uses materials – both found and constructed – such as colored ice blocks colored with pigment, lashing straps, boxes, plastic bags and battens among others. Often combined into temporary installations, Kretschmann’s work takes up the aspects of the space in which they take place, and reveal her ideas as a new interpretation. Alteration of space – and existing structures – not only brings forth an alteration of its perception thus revealing an art that is intimately concerned with experience; but the work holds as well a conceptual dimension.
Her ice-pieces consist of bags and boxes, filled with coloured ice-lollies. They are placed in the exhibition space just before the viewer is expected to visit. As the ice melts and seeps out, a coloured stain spreads over the gallery floor. The architectural features of the gallery as well as the temperature conditions inside the space affect both form and span of the work to such an extent that they become part of the actual installation. Kretschmann’s implementation of the architectural aspects of the space, makes it possible for what is normally ignored or considered as the backdrop on which the real work is displayed, to gain peculiarity and poetic resonance.
Yet, Kretschmann’s overall practice is driven by an epistemological interest in the construction of image. This research is developed through artistic construction of the idea of painting. However contradictory, painting here holds a processual becoming in time, its limits are stretched up to the liminals of the space in which the work is conceived; and rationally-controlled-constructions of pictorial composition and bi-dimensionality are abolished in favor of chance mechanisms, tri-dimensionality and multiple viewpoints. In various installations, ice-blocks are just left on the floor to let the painting occur. In other words, the work is let by the artist to generate itself on a repetitive basis producing its own language.
Kretschmann makes work that solely happens in the present moment, but which can be re-constructed in the memories of the beholder at any time. Almost as a recovering agent, Kretschmann lets time become image. After all, time only that becomes image -thus gains form and visibility- can be hold and re-constructed in memory. Yet, absence of any explicit narrative manifest in the artist’s work and purely visual interventions in given structures of a space, remind Gordon Matta-Clark’s conceptual preoccupations. Although Matta-Clark pertains to a time still not totally defined by gentrification processes and institutionalisation –the age which enabled him to practice his idea of the entropic and the gap in order to reveal spaces ‘in-between’ as potential settings for new relationings, – his practice still remain an important influence for many contemporary artists. When Matta-Clark has made his building-cuts as well as his time-based installations, he basically applied a deconstructive method in order to reveal a re-conceptualisation of existing structures, and preconditioned roles and relationships. When he made his ephemeral installations of organic components titled Museum, he suggested a rethinking of form both of the artwork and the institution meant to show it. Kretschmann’s practice seems to track a critical vein of a similar sensibility, yet being intrinsically engaged with the contemporary conditions she belongs to.
Battens she uses to ‘measure’ the space are at the same time exhibited as sculptures in the space. Fluctuating between function and pure form, communication and its total absence, Kretschmann’s installation reveal areas of uncertainty which provoke thought. Following a generation of conceptual artists among which an important influence is Ayşe Erkmen, Kretschmann’s work manifests new forms of critique in relation to salient questions regarding art’s limits and critical power, its function and value today within the long since institutionalised conditions of its reception and display.
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Cynthia Lim : Silent
CYNTHIA LIM : Silent October 16th – 31th 2009 Opening : October 16th 2009 // Saat : 19:00 Mtaär Party : 21:00 Arkaoda – Dj: Datafobik // Şenkardeş Mtaär , gladly presents Cynthia Lim’s first solo exhibition. Cynthia Lim was born in Germany, she studied illustration at CABK Art Academy in Holland. ‘‘…My work is [...]
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"Benim Kentim" Konuk Sanatçı Programı
Türkiye’nin İstanbul dışında diğer kentlerinin ve farkı kültürel yapılarının Avrupa’da tanıtımına olanak sağlamayı ve karşılıklı kültür alışverişini desteklemeyi hedefleyen ”Benim Kentim” projesi, British Council’ın Avr…
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ENG / SPACES BETWEEN SPACES by ADNAN YILDIZ (RES, april 09)
SPACES BETWEEN SPACESBy ADNAN YILDIZ In Spielberg’s movie, “Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, there is a short conversation between the spooky character of the story, Oxley (John Hurt), and Indy Jones (Harrison Fo…
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01.04.09 Oreet Ashery
Please scroll down for the English text
Oreet Ashery
Sabetay Sevi ve Diğer Egolar / Shabbtai Zvi and Other Alter Egos
Sanatçı Konuşması / Artist Talk
01.04.09 Çarşamba / Wednesday
18:30 / 6.30 pm
http://www.oreetashery.net/
PiST///
Dolapdere Caddesi
Pangaltı Dere Sokak
No 8 A/B/C
Pangaltı 34375
İstanbul TR
pist@pist.org.tr
Londra’da yaşayan sanatçı Oreet Ashery 1 Nisan 2009, Çarşamba günü saat 18:30’da PiST’te çalışmalarıyla ilgili bir konuşma gerçekleştirecek. 27 Mart-7 Nisan tarihleri arasında projeleriyle ilgili araştırma yapmak için İstanbul’da bulunacak ve PiST’in ilk misafir sanatçısı olacak.
Oreet Ashery, farklı medyumlar aracılığıyla interaktif ve performatif sanat etkinlikleri düzenleyen, video, 2 boyutlu isler ureten, obje, metin ve interneti kullanarak çalışan bir sanatçı. Ashery uzun zamandır Musevilik, ırk, cinsiyet ve Arap/Müslüman dünyası üzerine işler üretiyor. İşlerinde sıklıkla farklı karakterlere bürünüyor. Bunlardan bazıları tavşan, siyah adam, Norveçli postacı, şişman çiftçi ve Arap adam karakterleri.
Son olarak Ashery 17. yüzyılda yaşamış Sahte Mesih Sabetay Sevi’yi de performanslarında yeni bir karakter olarak kullanmaya başladı. Oreet Ashery‘nin Sabetay Sevi ve Diğer Egolar* başlıklı konuşması için 1 Nisan, Çarşamba günü saat 18:30’da hepinizi PiST’e bekliyoruz!
*Konuşma İngilizce olacaktır.
———————————
London based artist Oreet Ashery will give a talk* about her work at PiST on April 1st, 2009, Wednesday at 6.30 pm. Ashery is the first artist-in residence at PiST who will stay in Istanbul for her project research.
Ashery is a context- responsive visual artist working across mediums in interactive performance art events, video, 2-D image making, objects, text and the internet. Ashery’s practice looks at personal politics and its complex relationship to social and political realities, notions of identity and subjectivity, and at the nature of what an art practice might be.
Ashery has an ongoing interest in the intersections between Jewishness, race, gender and the Arab and Muslim world. The project Welcome Home that started in 2004 is an investigation into the Palestinian Right to Return and other projects within an anti-Occupation remit.
Frequently Ashery will produce work as a character. Her characters include a rabbit, a black man, a Norwegian postman, a fat farmer and an Arab man, among others. Marcus Fisher, an orthodox Jewish man is Ashery’s most consistent character. Recently Ashery developed a new character based on the controversial 17th century false messiah Shabbtai Zvi. Throughout his life Shabbtai conducted a series of ‘Strange Acts’ akin to much performance work, like walking with a fish dressed in baby clothes in a pram, he converted from Judaism to Islam later on in life.
Ashery’s work has been shown extensively in the UK and internationally in museums, galleries, cinemas, biennials, festivals and site-specific locations. Most recently at the: ZKM | Tate Modern, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Brooklyn Museum, Pompidou Centre, Liverpool Biennial, EDS Gallery, Mexico City, Freud museum, OK Centre for Contemporary Art, Linz.
Ashery’s work has been published and discussed in numerous books, academic and art publications in many languages including: Bidoun, Frieze, Art Monthly, Art Forum, Contemporary, Time Out, the Village Voice, Circa, Flash Art, Dazed & Confused, Map, Heeb, Sleezenation among others. And in books including Art Tomorrow, Art in the Age of Terrorism, Blasphemy and Biographies and Space.
The book Dancing with Men, charting ten years of interactive performance work, published by the Live Art Development Agency and the collaborative graphic novel, the Novel of Nonel and Vovel with the artist Larissa Sansour, published by Charta, will be available in Spring 2009.
Ashery has been given public talks about her works at the ICA, Whitechapel, Gallery, Tate Modern, Royal Academy, Goldsmith College, Chelsea College, to mention a few.
Ashery has been engaged with educational work for years, including public art projects and community based projects, as well as teaching in academic contexts. Ashery currently holds a creative fellowship in Queen Mary University Drama department.
We look forward to seeing you at PiST on Oreet Ashery‘s talk about Shabbtai Zvi and Other Alter Egos. On April 1st, 2009, Wednesday at 6.30 pm.
*The talk will be in English.
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Artist Talk: Larissa Sansour
Friday, February 27 at 6:30 p.m.
Platform Garanti CAC
Istiklal Str. no:115A
Beyoglu/Ist.
5th Floor
Larissa Sansour current resident at Platform Garanti supported by Danish Arts Council since January will speak about her work and current projects.
Larissa Sansour’s work tackles difficult political situations through unorthodox means. During the talk, she will introduce some of her videos that deal specifically with the situation in Palestine.
Sansour will also be joined by Oreet Ashery to talk about their latest book project, “Nonel and Vovel”. The book is a collaborative work in which Ashery, an Israeli born artist and Sansour, a Palestinian born artist engage in a surreal dialogue that addresses issues ranging from art and politics to the problematic nature of their collaboration. The book is a graphic novel in which both artists contract a virus that gives them super human powers yet rids them of their creative creativity. The adventure lies in the dilemma of such a scenario and the consequences of the artists’ decisions.
Born 1973 in Jerusalem, Sansour studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York, and earned her MA from New York University. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue and utilizes video art, digital photography, experimental documentary, the book form and the web.
Sansour’s work has been exhibited worldwide in galleries, museums and film festivals. Her most notable shows include the Tate Modern in London and the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Her work was shown in last year’s Third Guangzhou Triennial in China, the Contemporary Art Biennale in Nîmes, France and the Busan Biennale in South Korea. Her latest film “A Space Exodus” was nominated for the Muhr Awards for short film at the Dubai International Film Festival. In 2009, Sansour will launch the graphic novel “Nonel and Vovel” which she is working on with artist Oreet Ashery. She will also have her first oneiperson exhibition in New York.
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ENG / On Selim Birsel’s artistic practice ‘Sometimes something seems to appear’ (Selim Birsel 2009 “Backyard” Catalogue)
On Selim Birsel’s artistic practice ‘Sometimes something seems to appear’ by Adnan Yıldız I am planning a text on Selim Birsel’s artistic vision and his work based on the common projects we participated on together….But I don’t k…
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Artist Talk: Jeremiah Day
Contact Improvisation / News Animations
The work of Steve Paxton and Simone Forti
Wednesday, January 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Postmodern dance emerged in a unique moment of interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange in American arts – composers like Terry Riley, Steve Reich mingled with sculptors like Richard Serra, and visual artists like Robert Morris and Walter de Maria worked in dance. This unstable moment produced new forms and models in all of the arts, but the underlying shared assumption that there would be some new relationship to the public was ultimately proved wrong – we still go to theaters and white cube galleries. With the brief exception of Earthworks, really only one art form was able to break away from “the art world” – Steve Paxton’s invention Contact Improvisation.
In this informal presentation, Jeremiah Day will show videos of Contact Improvisation and discuss Steve Paxton’s artistic evolution. Also, he will present the work of Paxton’s peer Simone Forti. Forti’s work differed from the rest of her minimalist peers in that she ultimately returned to the problem of “subject matter.” Day will show a few examples of her “News Animations” which offer a unique model for engaging politics in art.
Platform Garanti
Contemporary Art Center
Istiklal Cad. No: 115A, Beyoglu
Istanbul, 34430, Turkey
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CONTEMPORARY ART IN BAKHCHISARAY
PRESS RELEASE: CONTEMPORARY ART IN BAKHCHISARAYCAPTIVATED BY BAKHCHISARAY/ ZACHAROVANI ___________ / PLENENNYE BAHCHISARAEM / _______________ ___ ____________ / BAHÇESARAY’A TUTULDU /Bakhchisaray State Historical and Cultural Preserve 28.09 2008 – 2…
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Ali Kazma
Ali Kazma,
sunum&söyleşi presentation&talk
12 Nisan Cumartesi On Saturday 12 April
14:00 at 2:00 p.m
5533
IMC 5. Blok
no:5533
Unkapani / Istanbul
ALI KAZMA
“dexterity of mind/hand/eye
creates highly refined finished products”
.
Born in 1971 in Istanbul, Ali Kazma graduated from Robert College in 1989. In 1993, he completed his undergraduate studies in the United States. After briefly studying photography in London, in 1995 he returned to the United States to study film. He received his MA from the The New School in New York City where he worked between 1995 and 1998 as a teaching assistant. In 2000 he returned to Istanbul, opened a film production company, and between 2001 and 2003 taught part time at Bilgi University. After settling in Istanbul, he has produced not only art films, but also commercial products and a full-length documentary. Among others, he has exhibited his work in 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001), Tokyo Opera City (2001), Platform Garanti Center for Contemporary Art (Istanbul, 2003), Cetinje Biennial (2004), Istanbul Modern (2004), 2nd Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibition (2005), 9th Havana Biennial (Cuba, 2006), San Francisco Art Institute (2006), 10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007), and has opened a solo exhibition at the Francesca Minini Via Massimiano (Italy, 2008). Presently, three of his videos are being shown on Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoglu, in a group show, “Oditoryumda Sanat” sponsored by the Vehbi Koc Foundation.
During the 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Kazma presented an installation consisting of four videos, Ceramist Studio (2007), Clock Master (2006), Brain Surgeon (2006), and Slaughterhouse (2007), projected simultaneously side by side in the bottom floor of IMC. Unlike most of the other video work shown in IMC as a part of the “World Factory”, Kazma’s videos were optimistic. In contrast to many of the other films shown, he did not choose work places using informal labor. He did not show exploitation or poor working conditions.
At the “Oditoryumda Sanat” exhibition he is exhibiting again Brain Surgeon (2006) and Slaughterhouse (2007) while showing Jean Factory (2008) for the first time in Istanbul. Jean Factory emphasizes the detail and craftsmanship used to produce the seemingly simple jean hanging in shops around the world. Every crease, every wrinkle, every gradation of color is highly thought out and calculated. In his seemingly obsessive exploration of contemporary human production and activity, he also made Rolling Mills (2007), showing a steel factory and Household Goods Factory (2008), a film about a factory in Italy owned by Alessi . This series of films cannot be seen as documentary and socioeconomic issues surface only indirectly. The films consist of a series of close-ups, fragments, and glances at sophisticated use of skills. While highly sophisticated technology is present, the skilled hand is still important. In his videos, the gruesome becomes beautiful and the mundane becomes complicated. While viewing highly skilled workers in different contemporary environments, we are reminded of the subtle aesthetic and technical skills required to produce a contemporary high quality work of art. All require dexterity of mind/hand/eye, and ability for cutting/sewing/reshaping, to make a highly refined finished product, a masterpiece. All the places and activities chosen share almost allusive similarities even though they are totally unique.
Marcus Graf, Volkan Aslan, and Nancy Atakan are pleased to have Ali Kazma as a guest on April 12 at 2:00 p.m. at 5533. We find it significant for him to return to IMC and make a presentation about his artistic viewpoint, discuss his artistic practice, and explain the direction his most recent work is taking.
Nancy Atakan
April, 2008
Ali Kazma
5533 te Sunum
‘Zihin, göz ve el becerisiyle
yaratılan sofistike üretim’
1971 İstanbul doğumlu Ali Kazma, 1989 yılında Robert Lisesi’nden mezun oldu. 1993 yılında ABD’de lisans eğitimini tamamladı. Londra’da kısa bir süre fotoğraf eğitim aldıktan sonra 1995 yılında tekrar ABD’ye film eğitimi almak için döndü. 1995-1998 yılları arasında New York’ta The New School’da master programıyla eş zamanlı öğretim elemanı olarak görev yaptı. 2000 Yılında İstanbul’a dönerek film yapım şirketini kurdu. 2001-2003 yılları arasında misafir öğretim görevlisi olarak Bilgi Üniversitesi’nde ders verdi. İstanbul’a yerleştikten sonra sanatsal filmlerinin yanı sıra kendi kurduğu yapım şirketinde belgeseller ve reklam filmleri çekti. 7. Uluslar arası İstanbul Bienali (2001), Tokyo Opera Şehir (2001) Platform Garanti Çağdaş Sanat Merkezi (2003), Cetinje Bienali (2004), İstanbul Modern (2004), 2. İstanbul Yaya Sergileri (2005), 90. Havana Bienali (2006), San Francisco Sanat Enstitüsü (2006), 10. İstanbul Bienali (2007) ve kişisel sergi Francesca Mimini Via Massimiano İtalya (2008) Ali Kazma’nın katıldığı sergilerden bazıları. Bu ay içerisinde İstanbul’da Vehbi Koç Vakfı’nın desteklediği “Oditoryumda Sanat” başlıklı projede üç çalışması gösterilmektedir.
10.Uluslararası İstanbul Bienali’e Ali Kazma İMÇ’de Seramik Atölyesi (2007), Saat Tamircisi (2006), Beyin Cerrahı (2006) ve Mezbaha (2007) isimli dört video yerleştirmesi ile katılmıştır. “Oditoryumda Sanat” başlıklı sergiye ise Beyin Cerrahı, BlueJean Fabrikası (2008) ve Mezbaha ile katılmıştır. Ali Kazma videolarında çağdaş insanın üretim ve aktivitelerini tutkulu bir şekilde ve derinlemesine araştırır. Bu araştırma serisi bir belgesel değildir. Toplumsal ve ekonomik konuları dolaylı bir şekilde ele alır. 10. İstanbul Bienali sırasında İMÇ’ de “Dünya Fabrikası” başlığı altında sunulan çoğu eserin tersine, Ali Kazma’nın video eserleri iyimser olup, sunduğu dört film kötü çalışma koşulları ve sömürü ile ilişkili değildir.
Filmlerinde yakın çekimler, parçalanmış sahneler, ani geçişler ve sofistike beceriler görülür. İleri teknolojinin imkanları ve el becerisi Ali Kazma filmlerinde yan yanadır. İtici, iğrenç ve korkunç sahneleri güzelleştirdiği gibi basit olanın da çok karmaşık olduğunu gösterir. Ali Kazma’nın filmlerinde insan, el becerisi ve teknolojinin yardımıyla güzel bir ürün yaratırken eş zamanlı olarak sanatçı da aynı yöntemle sofistike filmlerini ortaya çıkarır. Hem sanatçı hem de filmlerinde bulunan figurler zihin, göz ve el becerilerini kullanarak keser, birleştirir ve bitirir. Sonuç olarak her ikisi de ortaya bir eser çıkartır. Filmlerde seçilen mekan ve eylemler eşsiz olmalarına rağmen derin bir benzerlik ve birlikteliği içerirler.
5533 adına sanat mekaninda, Marcus Graf, Volkan Aslan ve Nancy Atakan, 12 Nisan Cumartesi saat 14:00’te sanatçı Ali Kazma’yı ağırlamaktan mutluluk duyar. 10. İstanbul Bienali sırasında da İMÇ’de bulunan Ali Kazma’nın bu mekana geri dönerek yeni projelerinden bahsedecek ve video sunumu yapacak olmasını 5533 olarak anlamlı buluyoruz.
Nancy Atakan
Nisan, 2008
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