Merve Ertufan occupies gaps in the mind and turns questionable sides of the self into new topics of inquiry by manifesting riddles, paradoxes and repetitions. She “mesmerizes” the viewers, so to speak, by pulling them intoan invisible spiral with a physical twist and by urging them into a loop with dilemmas and repetitions within the exhibition space. She seeps into the depths of our minds through random questions, language twists, semi-realstories and brain teaser riddles. I have conducted a delightful interview with Merve Ertufan on her solo show Waiting on a Scratch that brings together several installations, videos and text-based works from her few latest years. TOMRİS MELİS GOLAR: How would you briefly describe Waiting on a Scratch? MERVE ERTUFAN: Waiting on a Scratch is an exhibition that is made out of 6 works that I worked on 2016-2020. It is an exhibition that unfortunately demands the physical presence and engagement of the viewer with its 3 videoinstallations, a spatial installation, an interactive work and a book. (I say unfortunately, because the exhibition coincided with the second wave and the curfews.) In the exhibition I try to slow down the experience of time, and offer a space for acts of rest, reflection and evaluation. I investigate the processes, formations and discrepancies that are often concealed behind language,expressions and repeated actions of our day-to-day experiences, moving through inquiries on selfhood, cognition and consciousness. T.M.G.: Does the pandemic have an impact on the process of this exhibition? M.E.: Currently, we are in the midst of trying to translate the experience of the exhibition onto the digital space due to the pandemic. However, since the works were not conceived to be experienced through a personal computer screen, the works become unwatchable when repeated without alterations. For example, the work titled Can an answer be surprising? which is able to run for 22 minutes at a calm pace in its installed space, has to be sped uabout 75-80% for the flat experience of the screen. The viewer’s psychological and bodily experience behind a computer is distinctly different than the one in the exhibition space. With this exhibition, my intention was to remove life from its fast, focused, and unceasing flow; to create a space and distance that sets up a possibility for deceleration, deviation and reflection. I think the pandemic -without ourintention to do so- is forcing us to slow down, and confront certain topics that we have been avoiding. It makes for a powerful confrontation with the fundamentals of being human, alive and existing on this earth; things we usually keep out of sight and out of mind. In this way, even if the exhibition content hadn’t changed much from April to November, it is clear that the context we are in -hence the context of the works as well- has changed quitedrastically. I hope that the audience will encounter a companion of sorts with these works, one that contemplates on similar issues.  T.M.G.: In the exhibition there are works where you treat the profoundness of language, mind and subconscious. Though it is possible to trace such elements in your previous works, still the distinctness in your methods andyour language compels the attention. How do you see this change? M.E.: I think instead of the subconscious, the exhibition deals with the conscious and unconscious duality. Rather than psychoanalysis, the works delve into topics of language, mind and consciousness through the lens ofcognition and neuroscience. I guess I used to be more influenced by psychology in my previous works; those days I felt a need to support my works with documentary/evidential backing. For example, in works like Compliments or Sketch, I followed an artistic process of formulating rules for an environment, entering it andobserving how the said environment formed our actions that were belatedly made visible through the video camera. In these works there was a prevailing effort to gain distance on myself and/or the medium, an attempt to gaze fromoutside. Somewhat experimental, a curiosity as to what kind of psychology would take over if we were to place this and that limitations on the subjects, a process that would later be edited and presented to the viewer.However at the core of these works, there lies a belief -nevertheless doubtful- in the existence of what we call the ‘self’. In this regard, I think I was conducting a search for a true ‘self’ that would withstand all these trials indifferent environments. Instead, today I employ knowledge retained from cognitive and neurological perspectives, and completely accept ‘self’ to be a speculation. This has helped me shed the need to provide documentary and/or evidential backing. A change for which I recognize Home Workspace Program of Ashkal Alwan in Beirut as being the major catalyst. I no longer search for a ‘self’;  instead, Iaccept fictive narratives, and focus on medium oriented encounters mostly through text. Merve Ertufan, ‘Waiting on a Scratch’, 2020-2021, Depo, İstanbul T.M.G.: The article of the exhibition written by L. İpek Ulusoy Akgül mentions your drawing parallels to Thomas Metzinger’s ‘Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self’. Can we hear these  parallels from you too? M.E.: That is an extremely interesting and deeply challenging book actually. It is one of the two sources for the split I was just mentioning (the other is “Nihil Unbound” by Ray Brassier, especially the first three chapters).Philosopher T. Metzinger, in his quest to investigate his personal out-of-body experiences/phenomena during sleep from his youth, goes on to answer questions of what it means to be human, how do we experience ourselves, andwhat are these things that we call will, self, perception, etc. At the core of the work lies the fact that we are not able to see how we think, which is to say we don’t know how we operate, we don’t know how an idea comes or goes, how we perceive an object, or how we perceive a subject. At this point, where we are not able to open up our skulls and see how the neurons fire, this philosophy book talks about what kind of myths/legends take over to fill that void. It is a substantial work that takes part in the current whole post-human, inhuman, nonhuman, human and artificial intelligence discourse; and, -unlike Metzinger’s “Being No One”- this book is intended for a wider audience with a less technical language. Tumbling Down with Careful Steps, 2020; artist book Although, I’m not sure if it can be called drawing a parallel. I think these two books informed the workings of all the projects in the exhibition. T.M.G.: Although you said that you are freed from the feeling of grounding the themes on proofs and records, I still think that you have a tendency of keeping strong references. Apart from Metzinger are there any otherreferences that influenced you and this exhibition? M.E.: You’re so right. The works in the exhibition contain elements of what we may call anecdotal and autobiographical fictions, told in the form of first person singular. However, I don’t feel like it’s my place to present these as just my thoughts, because at the end of the day these topics have been treated for thousands of years in many different religions and languages. So, I don’t try to form a sense of ‘I’; instead, I consult the expertise of people that have researched these topics for years in order to understand what these auto- fictional elements entail within the scope of the exhibition. The exhibition has many sources. Some specific works were influenced bymore smaller and specific parts of different references; but as major influences that impacted several works at the same time, I can count these: Ego-Tunnel, T. Metzinger; Nihil Unbound, Ray Brassier; Insurmountable Simplicities, Thirty-nine Philosophical Conundrums, Roberto Casati & Achille Varzi;  The Infinite Image, Zainab Bahrani; Crow With No Mouth, Ikkyú; Forthcoming, Jalal Toufic. Apart from these there are many others that seep into separate works, but I believe that list would be very long and detailed. Maybe we can mention them if they come up during the chat on specific works. T.M.G.: The video installation called Orbit encapsulates the viewer into a spiral both visually and bodily while accompanying the hypnotizing effect that is spread throughout the exhibition as a whole. As the work becomessite-specific the above mentioned harmony delicately addresses the features of the physical exhibition space. At this point I wonder about your sequence of production. M.E.: The installation titled Orbit, imagines a video projection that circles a column, the viewer around the video and sphinx prints on the surrounding walls.  In the exhibition space (Depo), the columns are the dominant architectural feature, and exhibitions are often developed with regard to these. After the exhibition was confirmed, I visited this unique space and realized I wanted to do a site inspired work; and decided to make a work that puts a column in the center, rather than having all these columns exist in between works. That’s why in this project, what I had imagined as a cone in the beginning ended up becoming a semi-pseudosphere (somewhat like a trumpet’s bell); the shape came before everything else. I went many ways before making up my mind on what to put on this shape. For a while, I thought I’d put an animation of a cheetah running, another time I thought of making a video inspired by the zoetrope. The content got sorted once I realized I wanted to put the sphinx on the walls to encircle the wholeproject. Sphinxes are mythological characters that guard the threshold, often placed at the main gates of cities to monitor and control who enters and leaves the city. In this work, the Alacahöyük Sphinxes are there due to their transientand ambiguous nature. They are partly made of woman, lion, eagle, and snake, but never can they become a whole woman, lion, eagle or a snake. They exist neither inside, nor outside, neither part of the architecture, nor free standing. They assisted me in thinking through hybridity and indefinability. In the exhibition, the spaces between two sphinxes repeat as white and black. It became a project through which I was able to think about the absolute and the ambivalent.T.M.G.: Why do these sphinxes stand there, can you reveal it a little bit more? ‘Orbit’ detail, 2020, two channel video installation, linoleum print on walls. M.E.: Sphinx has been accompanying me since the beginning actually. The exhibition’s starting point was language games and riddles; and one of the famous riddles takes place between the Sphinx and Oedipus. I got hookedfrom there, and sphinx is a very interesting character that seems to keep giving. Their double-ness opens up to infinity, their guarding of transitions and thresholds provide a strange concept of limit. Apart from these, things thatReza Negarestani and Z. Bahrani write about Lamassus seem adaptable to sphinxes to a certain extent. For example, Negarestani takes them as war machines, Bahrani writes about their transient existence and image power.However, the riddle I just mentioned is the real reason that sphinx is the most prominent image within the exhibition. The riddle has many versions, one of them goes like this: -Which creature walks on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? In  the story, the riddle was one which no one had answered correctly. But Oedipus answers right by saying “man”. And the Sphinx catches fire and dies. While researching this riddle, I came across a text titled, “Oedipus’ body & the riddle of the Sphinx”, published in 2006 at the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism by Rob Baum, an academician who deals with performance, drama and body. In her text, Baum mentions how Oedipus lived with a disability all his life, due to his feet being bound as an infant and getting abandoned after the prophecy. In addition, she talks about how the story was a legend long before it was a tragedy, and that one version of the legend takes place pre-language. In all probability, Oedipus is able to solve the riddle because of his disabled feet, and in this version where he can’t speak words, he answers the riddle bypointing at himself.  I think this is why I turned the lines in the video in the counter direction of therest, and placed the sphinxes at a height of the legs and knees of the visitors, possibly causing them to slightly lose balance/stability. T.M.G.: I must admit you played with my equilibrium! In the work called Copycat’s Strife with the Original you are bringing up the subject of authenticity and disparity between the copycat and the original. Furthermore the notion of time plays an important role between these two.At this point, where does inspiration stand for you? Is it possible to talk about an absolute originality? M.E.: An absolute original is difficult, it may be easier to think of an absolute copycat. At least, we may be able to get close to an answer to the question “is it possible?”. Although, an absolute copycat won’t confirm the existence of an absolute original. God seems to be the absolute original in monotheistic traditions, I’m not sure about the polytheistic ones. Outside of the religious discourse, it seems we have yet to figure out the sources of our thoughts,actions and even material compositions. I guess when we talk about absolutes, the quest becomes too big. So big that we can’t distance ourselves enough to see the topic at hand in its totality. ‘Copycat’s Strife with the Original’, 2018-20; printed A4 pages In specificity of the work; Copycat’s strife with the original is a text-work printed on a4 papers, in which an “Off-duty Copycat” compares him/herself with the original. In the exhibition we have 720 copies placed on top of eachother resembling a snake or a labyrinth. Each page has some section covered by the one above, and only in the one at the uttermost top can the viewer read the full text, which is also the one that came out of the printer first. In the text, the Copycat character seems to be obsessed with chronology; too aware of the fact that even if s/he were to watch with pure focus and repeat the Original’s actions as fast as possible, s/he can never actually besimultaneous with, nor precede the Original. The Original is free from the Copycat, proceeding with independent thoughts; whereas the Copycat is bound by the Original. I think this is why s/he tries to build self-worth throughthis text, which is written when s/he is actually off-duty. Since it’s not easy being a Copycat, can a complete imitation have a value on its own? T.M.G.: I believe there are so many details to touch upon within the work An echo too late. You are collating the tale of Khazar Princess and Narcissus with your own stories. While you tell the stories from others one can nothear any echo, however once you begin to tell your own story one can hear the belated echo of your voice. How did you set up this play of the self? M.E.: An echo too late is actually the work I worked on the longest in the exhibition. It started out as a sound work in 2016, which later extended to a much longer length and then shrank back to a 14 minutes video. The project starts from a moment in which the narrator fails to recognize herself. In this phenomenon/illness, termed as facial agnosia, one loses the ability to recognize faces. Although in the story of the video, this only lasts for a few seconds, it prompts the narrator to describe her facial features, draw up a personal history, and share with the viewer her thoughts on the mechanisms of our processes of formulating a self. Narcissus and Princess Ateh accompany the story, which is told in the singular first person tense, even though the voices are edited with echos from different sources. The appearance of these two characters are in fact related to the phenomenon of time in cognitive process. The conception of an acting “self” and an observing “selfhood” forms the basis of this project. Needless tosay, the observer follows behind, and tries to make sense of the actions of the “self” in a speculative manner. However there is a lag in between. The video argues that this lag exists within a very delicate balance and can easily be disrupted.  Here, Narcissus and Ateh are presented as cases in which this temporal difference between the action and the perception, (or in the case of this work) the real and the image becomes extreme. Narcissus is a widely used reference, however I approached this story through the idea that the lake in question is enchanted. Because of the spell, Narcissus’ image exists in sync with real time,  thus Narcissus is confined in an atemporal parenthesis between his gaze and the image’s gaze. So, he can’t remove his gaze, he turns into an absolute “self”, thereby transforming into a passive character with no agency.  He slowly vanishes in front of his image. Ateh is at the other end of the spectrum (Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavić). She is given two mirrors, on one of them the image appears after real time, on the other it appears prior to real time. Her eyelids were inscribedwith letters to protect her from the enemies during her sleep; letters that are deadly for those who read it. The spell makes itself visible to her through these two mirrors, and ends up killing the princess. Because; while one of themirrors shows the previous blink, the other one shows the latter. Ateh reads the letters between two blinks, and dies.  As you mentioned, in the video, stories of Narcissus and Ateh are narrated through a single sound from a central source, whereas the stories created and told by the narrator are heard through echoes, reflections and parallels. I made this particular choice, because I think that we can think more clearly and accurately while evaluating an abstract alternative or a phenomenon that is considered to be external. But actually, this is a project in which I try to go beyond reductive and detrimental binaries such as inside and outside, self and other, and reach towards a more global scale in relation to these questions.  T.M.G.: To me one of the most significant reasons for being impressed by this exhibition was; that it does not hold any concern of delivering a direct opinion about socio-political current world problems. The notion of artworks having to relate to or touch upon social or political situations has, in my eyes, become annoyingly persistent. In my opinion it is quite striking to discover such a self-oriented story as in Waiting on a Scratch  that at thesame time puts forth many existential topics tangling once in a while in our minds. Merve Ertufan, ‘Waiting on a Scratch, 2020-2021, Depo, İstanbul M.E.: I think the most important aspect of contemporary art -even the term is coined after the “contemporary”- is that it deals with the issues of the present day. But I feel like we sometimes define the issues of the day in a limitedmanner. When we define today -the time period we’re addressing- in a narrow way, we find ourselves confined in a restricted present. Almost like Narcissus’ gaze. Confined within its own parenthesis, stuck, like a flickeringlight beam. My intention was in fact to expand this parenthesis, to disrupt the gaze and enable other perspectives to manifest themselves. I don’t think it is necessary to address urgent issues of the day in order to engage with the sociopolitical realm. An artwork can be political through revealing the unknown, presenting utopias or reaching the masses; as well as through its aesthetic means; such as approach and methodology.  In Waiting on a Scratch, I worked on our perceptions of concepts such as the self, the body, ownership and agency that are constantly transforming along with technology- and perhaps they will go through many cycles oftransformation in the future. I guess through this exhibition, I was able to present the means I use while trying to disentangle these existential questions -those that help me- for the viewer. I think the methodology I took on enables encounters, makes space for empathy and intends to slow things down overall. ———————————————— Lamassu is a Assyrian protective deity of thresholds. It has a human head, the body ofa bull or a lion, and bird wings. Their main differences from the sphinx is that theyoften have male human heads and don’t have a known relationship with riddles. Even though he borrows the term ‘war machine’ from Deleuze and Guattari,Negarestani’s war machine is not a nomadic force of dissidence opposite (or outside)of the State. It is a tactical tool born from and devoured by the (Un)Life of War forstrategic advancement. Negarestani, accepts War as a radical outside, and not aswar-as-machine. He talks about how Assyrians develop Lamassus as new andimproved war machines to beat War (Cyclonopedia, 2008).https://journals.ku.edu/jdtc/article/view/3559 Exhibition credit: Merve Ertufan, Kafakurcalayan, Depo, İstanbul, 2020-2021. Photography credit: Ali Taptık, Onagöre. For more information;https://www.border-l-e-s-s.com/merveertufanMerve Ertufan – Waiting on a Scratch – Depo İstanbul (depoistanbul.net)

6 Good Ideas Between 179 Bad Ones, 2017, Aluminium on acrylic varnish Daniele Sigalot centers repetition at the core of his works. The artist departs from the impossibility of identical production in artistic production and in the line of crafting and gets the inspiration of discrepancy of these repetitions. He augments the objects that resemble and analogic to each other, by reinforcing his production through piling them side by side or one on other. He turns the progression of the old ideas replaced by the better ones and the creative writing process into a physical entity and by stacking metal crumpled looking papers on top of another which appears as a totem. In his works the paper finds a new dimension within metal meanwhile it exposes his critical and playful attitude. Sigalot conveys his criticism with a conceptual and humorous tone through an open letter written to art. The works of Daniele Sigalot, who adopts language, repetition, craftsmanship, play and creativity as his foreground, will meet his viewers at Gallery Siyah Beyaz between 01.12.-27.12.2017 with the ‘Brand New Repetition’ exhibition. MELİS GOLAR : ‘A Brand New Repetition’ is your first exhibition in Ankara bringing your major artworks together. Can you please mention your approach and artistic statement on behalf of this exhibition and in a broader scope?  DANIELE SIGALOT : If I have to look at the body of work, I usually end up crafting. I must admit that contrast is what interests me more. I always seek a strong difference between how an artwork looks, and how it is actually done, how people initially perceive it and how far it is from the idea that inspired it originally. I guess the title itself, being an oxymoron, pretty much sums it up quite well, as it describes properly my production, which is mostly done with multitudes of repetitions, which somehow manage to look every time completely different.  M.G.: How did your adventure with Turkey and Gallery Siyah Beyaz begin? How has your art progressed in the meantime and up until this exhibition?  D.S.: The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this exhibition, is that life sometimes is simply a wonderful series of coincidences. Cause I met Sera and her mother during the fair in Basel, where their booth was literally in front of the booth of the Italian gallery I was with. And if we hadn’t been neighbors at the time, I wouldn’t be answering this question now. But apart from how life untangles itself, I guess this first solo show in Turkey is very important for me for many reasons. First of all it allows me to explore the use of a new material I am starting to become familiar with: stainless steel. Throughout the years I have mostly worked with aluminium shaped as the paper planes; they came out to be my signature and enabled me to travel all over the world. In the massive exhibition at the Royal Palace of Caserta in June 2017, I’ve introduced my first use of steel. And in Ankara I am taking some steps further on this road given I am exploring new sides of it, especially with the golden stainless steel self-portrait I’ll be presenting. I believe this work is the most complete one, I have done so far.  Inconsistently Logical, 2017, acrylic varnish on aluminium, R 330 cm M.G.: Repetition refers to imitating one act similar to another, yet it could not enable to copy identically. Does your implication seek to copy your idea repetitively and identically or does it appear more as a practice in methodology, a meditative work that requires a great dedication and patience? How would you describe repetition in your point of view?  D.S.: I guess I really like multitudes of objects. I find it overwhelming when they are all displayed together. The majority of my work is usually done by multitude of objects that resemble each other. A fleet of paper planes, a series of columns made of crumpled papers, thousands and thousands of colorful capsules. While as you mention it, the act of crafting, mere repetition does lead to a state of absent minded concentration (again in contrast…) that has something meditative.  M.G.: The repetition also evokes the autonomy and imitation matters and artists’ position over it. What is your opinion about autonomy in art?  D.S.: We live in an era in which there are more artists than trees, imitation becomes inevitable. We are all connected. We are all copying each other. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we must simply live with it.  M.G.: In the exhibition there is a self-portrait of yours which enables the visitors to see themselves. It is self-referential. At this point what do you think about the ego of the artist’s and its relation among other artists?  D.S.: The self-portrait entitled ‘If you show me your empathy I’ll show you mine’ is actually born from a reflection from art itself. I find it fascinating when people find an artwork touching or strong, it is usually because they see themselves in it. Therefore they actually see themselves in a stranger’s work. So I just wanted to literally translate this mechanism and thought the easiest way was to make them look at themselves through my own image. Concerning how ego driven is the art world and the artist, that’s undeniable. Yet in times of social media exposure everyone is overfeeding their own ego. At least artists usually do it using some undeniable skills (most of the times)  M.G.: In this exhibition you have the series of three open letters written to art, destiny and future with a very complaining, a little hopeless and negative tone. What do you expect from each?  Green – Yellow, 2017, Acrylic varnish on aluminium 100 x 100 cm D.S.: I don’t see them so negative. I’d rather say they make fun of art, destiny and future. I like not to take any of these seriously, especially art; which is always treated with too much respect, not to mention artists, who is a category that apart from a few exceptions, is honestly made by a lot of overrated, barely talented people who are more full of themselves than Russian matryoshkas. Also the letter with which I actually wrote to destiny is almost a motivational letter. I am basically just saying that everything is in our hands, that we do not need faith, and we shouldn’t rely on any sort of divine fortune to achieve whatever we want to achieve. We should always simply rely on our own forces. Then of course, chaos rules the universe, so apart from trying to build our own destiny, being lucky helps, but mostly what matters is not to be unlucky. For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/yepyeni-bir-tekrar

I Can’t Reciprocate Your Feelings Osman VII, 2017, oil on canvas 220 x 180 cm Ali Elmacı strengthens the concepts he frequently criticizes on government, media, power and popularity through a new discourse in his 4th solo show which will take place at Gallery Siyah Beyaz. This time, Elmacı explores authority through the concepts of manipulation and imitation. The artist approaches reality and imitation over the notions of past and future. He carries a critical discourse onto his canvas while referring to the ownership of the throne as a powerful symbol of authority in the past  and accuses the current governments for drawing a parallel to their  ancestors, a parallel that is no more than a bad imitation. He emphasizes that the ideology of the throne is mobilized through its imitation. In the exhibition, the artist identifies the chair as an upgrading tool, a portable object, a light material that can be accessed by anyone, with governments non-foundational, unqualified, light and compelling tones. The oil paintings of Elmacı which in his own words expose the ugliness; are gaining a new dimension over this exhibition. MELİS GOLAR : ‘The Chair That Walked All Over People’ is your fourth solo exhibition and the first in Ankara where you’ll be meeting Ankara artlovers. You’ve once again picked a striking title. Can you talk to us a bit about the context of this exhibition?  ALİ ELMACI : In this exhibition, I’ve criticized the people in power, through the context of manipulation and imitation. I’d like to make some definitions first.  Imitation: Trying to resemble or make something resemble a specific example.  Manipulation: The process through which people are influenced without their knowledge or against their will.  Throne: The big and ornamented seat on which rulers sit.  Chair: A piece of furniture with a single room seat, a backrest, four legs, and no armrests.  The exhibition “The Chair That Walked All Over People” is a pastiche to throne. The chair, which is a portable, mobile version of the throne, symbolizes the loosening of the ideology. I’m talking about how the severity of ideology has become a weightless, rootless, disposable mechanism that anyone can easily carry. The people in power hollow out the ideology in order to quickly disseminate it among their masses and ensure its consumption. It’s like instant soup…The behavior of the rulers is like the service of this foodstuff that, when you add water, instantly tastes similar to soup; but it’s diputable whether it’s healthy or not. I liken it to those pouches ready for mass consumption on supermarket shelves under the name of ‘Traditional Flavors’. It’s like how the original preparation time for these soups can take a half day; whereas the powdered soups in these pouches take 10 minutes, to become ready to serve at the dinner table… It becomes enough to simply carry the name of a traditional soup and a flavor that’s somewhat similar to that of the original to be accepted. The exhibition starts exactly at this point where the people in power carry out this policy of theirs; and with it, I try to expose and underline it for the audience. M.G.: If you would paint a portrait of humanity in a setting where authority and rulers don’t exist, would it still be “ugly”?  A.E.: I can’t think of a possibility where humanity exists but ugliness does not. There would definitely still be some ugliness to paint.  M.G.: We see that your artistic production has transformed over the years. Your paintings are bolder. Whereas in your previous series the characters reflected a dark and evil atmosphere with the locations they inhabited, the clothes they wore, their expressions, their gestures and other figures that completed the composition, it seems like in your recent productions there’s been an increase in exposing ugliness and evil… A.E.: In my paintings I generally try to nourish whatever is in the current news. So as we slip into a more and more evil and darker atmosphere, this is reflected directly in my paintings. My paintings currently are as you’ve described, but I’m not sure if that’s how things will always remain. Perhaps it’s just the actuality that’s put me in this state. Ali Elmacı, ‘‘The Chair That Walked All Over People’, 2017, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G.: I once read a former interview of yours where you’d said that you take the same characters in different periods and position them in your paintings in your different series. In addition to the main characters, you also use an idiosyncratic symbolism. Are the flowers, animals and objects that appear there repeated as well? Or does each have different functions in different paintings?  A.E.: Actually I can say that in general the symbols I use tend to carry the same connotations. They tend to mean the same thing but if we examine the paintings one by one there are some that carry different meanings.  M.G.: In almost all of your figures we encounter characters that turn their eyes towards us with tenacity. As the viewers look at the paintings you put them in a position as if they were being watched. What is the purpose behind this artificial locking of eyes?  A.E.: I want the spectator to feel the discomfort of being watched. When two people have a face to face conversation, they can’t talk while keeping constant unbroken eye contact. One of them will become uncomfortable and avert their eyes. I also make eye contact with the viewer in my paintings. Making eye contact with the figures is both enjoyable for the audience—because they have a smiling colorful figure in front of them—and it eventually gives them a sense of being watched and makes them uncomfortable.This same sense isn’t only present in my paintings, but everywhere. I want to remind this to the viewers. As long as we are not confronted with a pair of eyes in front of us, looking at us, we feel comfortable; but this doesn’t mean that we’re not being watched. With speed cameras, CCTV cameras at malls, we’re constantly being watched. This is supposed to make us uncomfortable but we tend to ignore it. The sense of being watched prevents people from loosening up. These observation mechanisms are said to be implemented to prevent crime which are actually a form of societal control. So I want the viewer to feel a continuous discomfort of being watched.  M.G.: In your paintings, could we say, in addition to the main characters, that you also do a modern twist on ornamentation and miniature painting in the background of and around the figures?  A.E.: Yes, actually, I’m deeply interested in miniatures. That must be one of my influences. I was born in a 34 domicile village in Sinop. We had one elementary school and only one teacher. I had a school bag, probably sewn by my mother. The bag had miniatures on it. I used that bag all through my childhood. The miniatures on that bag may be the images I saw most often of my entire life. I can still see the figures in my head. I can’t recall what they were doing but there were lots of men, carrying spears in their hands. They were up to no good, as I understand; I think they were in a battle. I both loved and was frightened of that miniature. If I would have encountered those figures in real life, I’d probably be afraid, but  it also had an aspect of pulling me in. Perhaps the strange atmosphere there sowed the seeds of my paintings today. M.G: Can you mention a bit about your production process?  A.E.: First I settle on the subject I’ll be working on, then I make some related sketches. After that, I photograph the figures in those sketches, possibly by myself. This requires a production. I buy clothes and objects and create some compositions. I create a collage from those photographs. Afterwards I use those collages as a jumping off point, but I do not stay completely faithful to them, then I complete the painting. I use oil paint. I usually use ink pens for the works on paper, though sometimes I use charcoal. Additionally I make sculptures. I generally see sculptures as canvas and paint onto them, and I always prefer oil paint there. Ali in Wonderland, 2017, oil on resin wood and mirror 155 x 60 x 80 cm M.G.: You went through a sad situation with your piece exhibited at Contemporary İstanbul 2016. As an artist who experienced such an incident, can you think of any other events or policies that you’ve been keeping up on that you believe to be controversial in the art world from our country or from around the world? If so, what do you think is the reason this situation is taking place? Where does Turkey stand in light of this example? What are some points that might urge us to think?  A.E.: There has to be a government policy that protects the art and the artist, one that will defend and provide the artist’s freedom of speech. There needs to be a law. But this doesn’t exist. The government policies are based around eliminating the artist and the creator. You can’t expect anything from any institution. Organizations in Turkey hang the artist out to dry. Ultimately it’s your kith and kin, artist friends, etc., who stand by you. There are some projects in Turkey concerning oppression. There are some artists’ residencies abroad that will take you in for a period of time if you tell them that you’re under oppression. To me, these solutions are insufficient. In the end, you just bounce right back into the fold after 3 months. I’ve made a sculpture as a summary of the things I’ve gone through since 2016. The piece, which you can see at the exhibition, is my depiction of the current country. It’s a piece that portrays how the capital and the artist are positioned in Turkey, how the artist is destroyed and how this destruction is made into a parade.  M.G.: Could we say that criticizing the current affairs again and again, and reflecting them back into the art is how you work things out?  A.E.: Yes, that’s my method. That’s how it must be for anyone who creates and they must go on no matter what.

Fırat Engin meets the audience through his interdisciplinary methods by underlining the issues of consumption society, globalization, market and politics of the culture and criticism of the socio-political order. Engin conveys the current traumas, injustices, manipulative discourses, oppressions and the human behaviors and psychologies that arise as a result, through the collection of individual stories in the exhibition ‘How Long Can We Carry This Load?’. Parallel to his past exhibition at which the artist was focused on the refugee concept, the artist refers this time to the tender contemporary problems in his exhibition by touching upon the concept of immigration, identity, memory, belonging, nation, family, home. These concepts, which have become universal problems, are interpreted through individual stories and traces instead of pluralist approaches such as nation, society and mass criticism. The artist who uses substantial materials and content vividly at his artistic production, welcomes his audience once again with this exhibition with a multifaceted dialect. He demonstrates his competence of transforming ready or found objects into a new material.  In the midst of the changing world dynamics he emphasizes that individuals ought to develop new awareness on the concepts of nation, race, gender, family while he suggests to find new ways to solve these current problems.  MELİS GOLAR : Can you mention the scope of ‘How Long Can We Carry This Load?’ exhibition? How did you form the ideology behind it?  FIRAT ENGİN : Opened last year (2016) my exhibition ‘Boats Filled with Soul, Water and Dreams!’  was on the concept of “refugees” which have especially emerged right after the Syrian civil war. The field work I carried out on this subject has led me to a radical change in my method of production in terms of content and form. As understood from this example, I always believe that an artist should destroy and rebuild himself. Since 2007 this approach has become a lifestyle for me. In this sense, every exhibition is mounted up one another and becomes a new channel, a new adventure both technically and contextually.  I think that the exhibition ‘How Long Can We Carry This Load?’ includes both all of the past accumulations and involves a brand new suggestion. The major notions such as migration, property, memory, ownership, nation, family, are manifestations of my internal feud. Up until  now I prefer to be involved in the themes of my works slightly distanced with an objective perspective but this time through this exhibition, I hold the works into a more singular and subjective area. Knock Knock, 2017, polyester kapı kolu yerleştirme M.G.: What kind of awareness do you want the audience to develop about the concepts you are touching upon within this exhibition? How does your advice to escape from this burden appear in the exhibition?  F.E.: Honestly, I can not tell you that I found a definite formula to redeem from this burden. However we are entering a new era in which the dogmatic and imposed definitions, the dictated concepts, fall apart, and the awareness increases against the oppressions. I think that this era was embraced in Turkey with ‘Gezi Park Protests’. I believe that our personal awareness has expanded where our awareness towards the concepts of nation, race, gender, belief, etc. has passed to a brand new phase. In this sense, I think we should move away from our ancient personal and institutional responsibilities so that we would be more capable of managing our will and allow ourselves to broach the freedom in our minds. The ‘load’ under the title of this exhibition is actually a metaphor. In this sense the concepts of memory, recollection, migration, identity, ownership, nation, family ect. must be transferred from a macro reality into a micro realm so that we could redefine these concepts in our own individuality instead of social interpretations. The communication in between the audience and the works could improve this type of awareness.  M.G.:  After having an exhibition ‘Boats Filled with Soul, Water and Dreams!’ in the context of refugees, do you this time draw a parallel through this exhibition by suggesting a new / utopian land in the model of the Seeland? F.E.: To me Sealand is a utopia of hope. We (as artists)  transfer from the given subjective world to a different reality through the art making and the viewer does that through communicating with it. Sometimes this transferred reality can actually get more real, so much so that the truth can leave a more striking, more impressive and lasting effect than itself. For instance, Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ tells us the brutality of war so powerful that we have shivers even mentioning it, so much that we may feel the tragedy of the war in our veins. Sealand can be taken as an art piece. Perhaps by a coincidence, or due to the compelling circumstances, Roy Bates unveils the delusion in his mind and founds the Sealand. At the moment, there are over 200,000 passported citizens, although Sealand has no legal validity and is completely ‘de facto’. In other words, this utopic existence of a country that has no place in reality, suggests a new possibility that we would want to believe. I think that this suggestion has given us the opportunity to be free from our ancient personal and institutional responsibilities that I have just mentioned, to manage our will and to broaden the freedom in our minds.  M.G.: In 2014, CI editions you transformed a simple hamburger box from dailylife into a fetish object by painting it in chrome colors. It was referring to the consumer goods produced as artworks in editions which appeared to be the striking point of this work. Similar colors can be seen in  ‘Breath’ , the window series… F.E.: As you have mentioned, the fetishization of an object from everyday life, the provocation of the consuming reflex, was among the targets of this work. Thus, a simple, single-use object belonging to everyday life, which is produced in many editions, has revealed an idea of high commodification value towards the audience. I used chrome colors in this piece parallel to this aim. In the series of ‘Breath’ I think that the waste windows suit well the memory and recollection themes, however apart from those, it also includes concepts such as individuality, family, life and existence. Besides these, there are some overlapping sides of this object with the American crime psychologist Phillip Zambordo’s ‘Broken Glass Theory’. According to this theory; when a broken glass is not repaired, it resurrects the feeling of abandonment so that it causes destruction in other glasses, or objects around it. The study carries all these notions within this object (the waste window) as the chrome painted broken areas seeks to integrate visitors into the work by reflecting them while repositioning them in itself which has been left in desolation. So that, it gives a new ‘Breath’ to the object and to the memory. Left: ‘Untitled’, 2014, poliester, chrome, 1/1 Whopper Burger BoxRight: ‘Breath Series  II’, 2017, found slum window, metal, chrome paint, varnish M.G.: You produced a work criticizing and questioning the art market in terms of its relationship between the value, artwork-market and the politics of pricing through a manifesto with the piece called Art-Money / Money-Art, exhibited in the Art Beat Art Fair in 2011. As an artist whose works are owned by significant collectors and who made such an art work; how would you evaluate Turkey’s socio-political status and the position in the art market?  F.E.: Since the early 2000’s, Turkey has been changing both socio-politically and artistically. I believe that Turkey has  socio-politically a vision and axial problem. It is very certain that these highly eccentric axes and political fluctuations are dragging such a  geography that has deep powerful cultural and historical roots, into socio-political ambiguity. One of the most affected sectors under these uncertainties is; the art market. It is impossible to obstruct, to shut it down or to restrain art in its production area; however it is possible to affect the arts market, disrupt the mood and make many people unemployed. In this line of thought, the art market needs to protect itself from these uncertainties. I think that this protection could be possible by avoiding everyday speculative mediatic tendencies. I think in Turkey both the viewers and the collectors have good intentions. On the other hand, I also see that we could not express well enough its intellectual extent. In this sense, current art institutions, art historians and artists have a great responsibility. Nevertheless, despite all socio-political negativities, the arts market still has a strong potential. We must institutionalize this potential by establishing new strong networks on an international scale. We no longer need to be introverted, we need outward-facing moves. M.G.: You have reinforced your criticism by exhibiting this work particularly at an art fair. You opened ‘Boats Filled with Soul, Water and Dreams!’ exhibition in a noninstitutional space. Apart from its 3 dimensional constraints, your works appear to be integrated into the institutional stance of the space when speaking of the notion of space is very significant to the sculpture. Can you elaborate your views further on this discipline?  F.E.: From architecture to photography, from sculpture to performance, from video to installation; space is a very important dynamic for artists from any discipline. In every period of art history, we can see that space is always an area of showdown for the artists. In fact, the search for placelessness in art shows us that space is an important factor determining the content directly. I do use the different features of the space in my work. These features sometimes manifest themselves over a specific work while having a direct relation of the sculpture within space, other times, as you have mentioned in your examples, they may create a semantic stratum with the socio-cultural-political features of the space regarding an exhibition or an art piece in itself. With this latter feature, beyond its introverted and passive effect of the space on the project, it shows that it undertakes a very active and completing dynamic role on the art piece. For example at the 49th Venice Biennial held in 2001, Maurizio Cattelan installed a Hollywood caption on the highest peak of Palermo, a mafia town in the south of Italy, where 22% is unemployed. This ironic and humorous installation location (Palermo) might be regarded as a dynamic completing the work with all its socio-cultural and political features, and forging its final content in a city sinking in crime, and economically in turmoil, contrary to Los Angeles’ reputation of fame, money and popularity.  ‘Generation’, 2017, 960 adet yumurta osb, 244 x 122 cm M.G: Are there any developments both in our country or from around the world, that you feel as controversial as negative or one that you find as an improvement, as positive, in terms of art politics? Why do you think that these situations transpiring in these days? Where does Turkey stand in terms of your example?  F.E.: I think we are in a new era where post-production is the dominant aspect. I can see this reality from the works such as  Ai Wei Wei, Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst and others  in Art Basel’s ‘Art Unlimited’ selection organized every year. In 2015, when I went to Art Basel I had the opportunity to see in the ‘Art Unlimited’ section, huge works produced, costing perhaps millions of dollars, many of which by big name artists in the art world.On the same date, not in the scope of the fair but again in Basel, I saw another work of Ilya Kabakov from 1998. This work is a woman’s glove, casted in bronze and painted in red (original color). The glove was placed in an area randomly on the street, as if it fell. When you try to bend it or to sweep away with a broom, you realize you can not move it and you realize that the glove is actually a piece of art. Then you can find 9 texts in 4 different languages that are placed there, and you can read the stories about the lost glove in each text. The power and poignancy of this humble installation was what I was most impressed with in Basel. We can not underestimate the fact that huge productions, shock effects, scandals will always exist in the art world. Sometimes this may even be necessary. However I believe that art is not just a matter of production, as the art field as whole must not surrender these tendencies. Because these trends are inevitably pulling the art to the daily, mediatic and popular zone. I think this zone is a dangerous and controversial one.  For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/bu-yuku-daha-ne-kadar-tasiyabiliriz

Horasan, ‘Serseri Örümcek’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Galeri Horasan’s exhibition titled ‘Bum Spider’ will meet the art-lovers of Ankara at Gallery Siyah Beyaz between 06.04 – 08.05.2018. The artist interprets the human body and nature in his distinctive style in the exhibition. In Horasan’s paintings, human, animal, plant and nature forms emerge in a grotesque manner. The compositions of the artist where his graphic discipline can be traced brought the randomness and fiction together at his amorphous and nested figures. Horasan reveals the intricacy of color, stain, shadow details in his work that inherently contain plenty of coding and concepts.  MELIS GOLAR: In your paintings, the distorted images of human body and nature sometimes give dark impressions, sometimes expose grotesque visuals or even sometimes evolve into a completely cynical style. In short, the works contain both grief and joy. The title of the exhibition, ‘Bum Spider’ gives me the same feeling. Mischievous and creepy… Are we going to meet these two extremes in the show?  HORASAN : I think this is bilateral. Like pain and joy, funerals and weddings… In Emir Kusturica’s films this theme is pretty common; you see a bit of drama and a little bit of enthusiasm. This is the state that I’ve been in for a long time while I am painting. You can conceive something totally dramatic. Sometimes what you do as a dramatic can become grotesque, or what you do as horrifying can appear to be very harsh. I frankly feel better when I can bring out the humor and sarcasm from those. I made artworks that were merely dark, however there were always a witty and sarcastic side in them as well. I’ve been doing this for a while. Actually it may be related to my character. Some things can be hard for us in life, maybe it is a way to comfort myself. Maybe that’s why these two are always together. What I can tell specifically for this exhibition is that, in the last 5 years we became very serious, in terms of society, individually, we are incredibly serious emotionally and psychologically. Everything in our lives is now so far away from fun. Because we are losing our hopes in the first place, and we start to worry about losing our sense for the future. Of course this situation affects me like everybody. That’s why on one side I try to make fun and laugh on the other side I try to stand even with the seriousness of the work I do. I am both a part of the situation that I am in and I also look from the outside, and I live with it while I mock it. So, in fact, it’s a way of coping with life.  ‘Untitled’, 2017, oil on canvas, 378 x 225 cm M.G. : The grotesque aspect can be seized in your deformedd figures. Do these figures also carry traces of legends, myths, gods and monsters?  H. : I do not have an intention to make these figures monstrous or beyond human. What I think is; the idea of every living being’s equality, equal vital apprehensions and equal freedom… We came to the cities and plundered many places. We ruined the natural life. We, as human beings, have declared ourselves so sacred that all living creatures apart from us come after us. This is not an acceptable understanding for me, neither can it be for the world. In fact, this is the point where we dragged ourselves by indicating superiority among the races and our constant assertion of one and only. We consume more, desire more, want more and we think that we are more valuable. Everything apart from us is worthless, nature is worthless, and other creatures are vain. What I want to say is; in fact we are no different than each other. In these geographies, in the sea, in the air, in every living place, every creature has equal rights. It is the man who broke the law. So it is us that determine this hegemony who go to Africa and plunder the most valuable animals there, kill the elephants, cut the fins of sharks just for food.  ‘Untitled’, 2016 – 2018, ink and watercolor on paper, 65 x 50 cm If we were to talk about monstrosity in this sense, we can really talk about humans, not natural life. Natural life continues its flow and everything is as it should be. However everything about humanity is beyond what it should be. I do not want to deal with the figure here by blessing humans solely. I do not want to see a body as a body in Greek mythology. I want to see that body within all the living creatures. That’s why; everything in that body, added to it, augmented or diminished in it, more than a grotesque attitude, is in fact a state of being all at one. This is my real concern. We always iconize the human. In fact, rather than humans we iconize the beauty of it, thus the social order today already emphasizes this. Everything is about beautiful, fit bodies, pretty faces are all referring to beauty. We are always in a mind state that we should evolve into that direction. Consequently, we are very much into consumption. Today the products of the world’s beauty industry and the position of the textile industry all are relevant to our desire to own them. While we are configuring, we are destroying something on earth as well and we do not want to see it. Because its consequences will arrive later on, we live by today. Is there also any fantastic world behind this grotesque story? There is. ‘If You Kill the Demon Inside of Me, You Kill the Angel Too’ (2010) exhibition was about this state of human’s ambivalency. The fact that man is not a single individual, the difference between evil and good in fact, is not really on the edge of a knife… I try to see both the good and bad aspects of humans all together, I try to stay neutral and not judgemental.  M.G. : You often express your source of inspirations from the art history and productions of other artists. Formerly, in your “Collision” and “Labyrinth” exhibitions you even presented your series of homage to the artists. The works I have encountered mainly were the ones you made references to foreign artists. Are there any names from Turkish artists that you have inspired from or worked on their work in this sense?  H. : My degree is actually in graphic design and I learned painting from painters. I have no academic education in the field of painting. I learned painting from other paintings. I learned it by taking photographs and making original prints. My interest in painting has started with the museum books my father bought me. It continued like a reflex. I learned by looking up, and constantly studying the books, I tried to imitate the paintings there. Actually I learned by copying. This is my way of learning to paint. Of course, there were no printed publications in our hands in the beginning. I’m talking about the 70’s. There were no printed publications in Turkish at all. There were no Turkish artists that could be seen. There were posters from the magazines called ‘Hayat’ and ‘Ses’ where I only could see the Turkish artists. I saw from there the old masters like Hasan Vecih, İbrahim Çallı, Hikmet Onat, Nazmi Ziya, but there was not too much from them. They were just posters. In short, while improving myself, I never neglect to be in a constant look. To me, learning from writers, poets, artists is a form of learning. I have not worked on homage to the Turkish artists, nor did I refer to them, which may be my weakness. When a book is being written it has to be built on the references. For us, ethically artists do not want to see any other contemporary artist in his/her own book. This is actually a problem. I do not know the reason behind it is perhaps related to our eastern society. Everyone is hiding their work area or material. They simply write mixed media on canvas and pass it over. However, when I look at the books in Europe, all of the materials are written one by one. I guess we tend to hide ourselves or tend to keep our secrets. There is this perception as if we are only looking to foreign artists and not looking at our own artists. Of course we all looked at our own artists. Perhaps we made works that we wanted to be like them, sometimes we even produced secretly, but I do not think anybody would unveil this truth. I now know that young artists can be influenced by my works as I was impressed by many artists; from both Turkish and foreign artists.  M.G. : What are the advantages and disadvantages of your education in graphic design?  H. : At the beginning it was a big disadvantage for me to have studied graphic design. When I started to participate in the competitions in the 80’s my production had a graphical base. At that time the approach to painting was totally contrary to the work I did. Because I do not use the paint like a painter, I use it as a graphic designer. I also use typography. All of these were first founded, very odd as they were graphic-based, so I was approached as eccentric. Being illustrative was used to be accused back then. Today it can not even be discussed or criticized. Having a narrative was despised. All of these were both positive and negative for me back then. If a person believes deeply in his work, respects, trusts in his work, does not have an understanding to find his/her direction according to the critics from the outside, then he/she prefers to act by his inner voice. I chose to conceive a story through my own inner world. Of course, it was not easy for me to get involved in the system in the beginning. It took 15 years to get into the system. The best part is; you are involved as a character within the system. But this is actually not enough for me. The wish to anchor me in a certain identity, blocks me and interferes with my personal space. It seems like a wall against my desire to produce and to innovate. Therefore I never give up trying. I do not care to carry a certain identity. Of course, one’s style is always there no matter what. Whatever you do, there is a ‘you’ very deep down. It always moves in some way, you can see its traces. There are certain situations in which you can not change the way you laugh, your intonation while talking, the way you walk. It accumulates. The advantage of getting educated in graphic design is that I get to work with a variety of different art disciplines. Photography, typography, print making… My works on paper gave me the opportunity to use many techniques at once. Actually, art has evolved to multi-disciplines and it is nice because you do not have to go with one discipline. You can make a sculpture and paint on it, or you can make an installation out of it, you can shoot a video or use lots of things side by side. There is always a time for every artist to be subjected to heavy criticism and not being accepted; that is a good life test. I think that the artist should decide whether to go on or not, in order to sustain his/her self-confidence, respect and desire to work. ‘Untitled’, 2010, ink an paper, 55 x 43 cm M.G. : In one of your interviews you were talking about your constant habit of collecting materials, drawings, memories, objects for your artistic production. I think when these collections mount up in an impulsive manner, they evolve into an exhibition. Do the works depleted for you after the exhibition? Or do you change to the new collections? Or do you prefer to hold on and observe the interaction for a while?  H. : The idea of exhibiting is a very exciting idea for me. There is not a single way for me. Sometimes, they may be composed of my periodic works.”Bum Spider” is such an exhibition. I can describe the spirit of the exhibition with a single name. Sometimes I can sit down and focus on a subject, study it and read it. The same thing happened in the exhibition ”When the Time Comes”, I opened in London on the subject of getting old. In fact, each exhibition is a stop for me to test myself and I replace myself as a viewer. An exhibition of an artist should make me wonder, make me want to go. It could be a bad one, a bad movie or something badly expressed; doesn’t matter. I would still like to see that movie. I would like to see all the movies of Tim Burton, Lars Von Trier, because I know that Lars von Trier will present something different at each time; just as he presents to himself… If I do not feel excited, if I do not feel curious about my own exhibition, then there is no point at all. The exhibition should carry me from here to there, should put me into a transition, should evolve in itself and should produce other ideas… My ideology not only focuses on  doing exhibitions, but first to create works. This is a very complex process. If you increase your motives, you will multiply the motives for your production. It is not my method to produce work on a single justification. Working on a specific topic may cause a mental block after a while. I am trying to multiply my own motives; I cultivate from what I read, my cultural reservoir, things I enjoy. I want to learn more, be more curious and to open up new discourses. Of course commercial wise it is risky. But I have already taken such a risk. If I do not want to work on a painting for that specific period; yet this studio has lots of works left unfinished in different eras; I might cover it up and pass to a new era. If the feeling is over, I am done with it. Sometimes I can return to it but this time is uncertain, if one day it comes and finds me asking to create again I might want to re-do it with a different dialect.  M.G. : What are your thoughts on the notion of creating an archive of your own as an artist  and its presentation to society? Horasan in his studio  H. : Each artist has an archive of his/her own, a storage. Besides, there are things that artists collect such as; drawings, books, writings, notes… Shortly they have a serious preparation; everlasting and always multiplying. Sometimes you collect without knowing why you collect, you may collect intuitively, and sometimes you may collect consciously. If I look at the studio entirely as the inside of my brain, I have an opportunity to pull something out of it at any moment. I pick up lots of things and then mix the ones I like and then leave them back and repeat this process if necessary… That’s how I see the archive. On the other hand, it may be helpful to the society to see the artist’s work discipline and style. For example, I am interested in the art collection of one artist. When I go to his/her studio I wonder about their library because the library consists of one’s reading, curiosities, interests and likes. On the other hand, there is of course a practical side too. Sometimes people may forget where they are, what they do, they might lose their way. Archives are valuable to find the way. When you want to go deep down inside yourself, your collections, drawings, paintings and the library may help you. When you look back and review your notebooks, you realize what you have thought about that problem, and you may tell yourself that these used to be my concerns.  M.G. : Are there any developments both in our country or from around the world, that you feel as controversial as negative or one that you find as an improvement, as positive, in terms of art politics? Why do you think that these situations are transpiring these days? Where does Turkey stand in terms of your example?  H. : There is no such thing as a cultural policy, in other words the culture can not own a policy. Culture can not be defined by a policy or a political power. At least shouldn’t be determined by these. Culture is a notion that exits with its energy and aura formed by itself, developing, sedimenting, handing down. However we are living in an era where culture is commoditized and as all commodifications it is pumped up. There is no left or right in culture. A good poem is good poetry. A good picture is a good picture. A good picture can not be leftist or rightist. Today the cultural policies dictated to us are totally free from liberty, far from freedom, distant to clear thinking. Asking us to produce, in a certain way gradually taking our freedom away. Today in Istanbul, lots of space is gone. For example; AKM (Atatürk Culture Center). There have been many brave exhibitions held over there. Now there is no such public space on a such large scale where the artists could apply for an exhibition… There is no such institution. A lot of places like this were closed. These are cultural cut offs. Some do not want the field to be grown, they are trying to push us towards the other side. The artist is not an incapacitated person, he will keep producing despite everything. This continues to be so. If fascism or dictatorial regime comes to this geography, the artists will always produce. The artist can maintain his own energy, if he keeps himself outside the system and continues his production. I’m not having the ‘the state should help us’ mentality. I do not expect anything from the state. Because I know that when I will take something abroad, I first have to bring my works to the customs, it will be a big difficulty, the taxes, declarations of not for sale and some other procedures etc. There is enough burden behind me, hindering me not to go abroad. My efforts are not enough by themselves, therefore we can not talk about integration. I know that there are very valuable artists here, there are super fine productions, however we can not integrate well. And of course we get angry when the foreign artists are manifested and sold. Every system focused on multiplying his own fellows and their own opinion, everything else was tumbled. This is not an excuse, not to produce, despite all we will work, and we will try to keep our enthusiasm and our desire to be alive. We have such a big challenge however we still have to resist to exist. I must add, this is not a necessity; this is love. We can not talk about necessity here, it is not our business, it is our love, so it is a situation we are born into. The desire to do this job is so exciting and lively that we will continue to do so despite everything. For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/serseri-orumcek

Figen Cebe, “i see red … i mix up black …”, 2017, Siyah Beyaz Gallery Gallery Siyah Beyaz is opening the 2017 season with painter Figen Cebe’s exhibition titled “I see red … I mix up black …”. The exhibition combines Cebe’s works from the exhibition “I see red …” which had previously been exhibited in Istanbul, with the new series “I mix up black …”. Believing in the significance of the artists’ sensitivity on the contemporary issues, Cebe reflects her thoughts this time behind the black. The artist, who gets the black color from the mixture of different colors, also enlarges the sizes of the canvases in this exhibition; hence give an opportunity to the audience to observe her technique’s delicacy in detail. The frequently subjects seen on her works such as light, time, and motion merges with the paint, technique and shadow and presents them to the viewer. Cebe, whose works can be identified as repetitive; mentions that each painting reveals different results depending on the time it was made likewise the meanings and thoughts she attributes every time. MELIS GOLAR : The title of the exhibition is “i see red… i mix up black / je vois rouge… je broie du noir…” In French there’s also a connotation of being angry, pessimistic, and grieving. How is this exhibition title, which evokes hopelessness, reflected on your works? FİGEN CEBE : we’re going through tough times; not just in Turkey, but around the whole world… ever since i was a child there have been civil wars, cold wars, revolutions, coups both in Turkey and around the world… but we could always hope that there would be progress; that wars would be over, that there could be a fairer world order, that there would be peace… in short, there was hope… globalization; along with the internet’s aid  the fall of the USSR, helped the capitalist system to go wild; it gained a momentum at a dizzying speed and the most recent economic crisis brought the world into this state… i have been living in many countries mostly in Turkey, France and England throughout my life therefor i follow various happenings around the globe very closely, i am dread of the direction in which we are headed; and i am hopeless… at first i got sad, however I could not get sad for some time passed, i am just very angry and pessimistic… i think because of the gravity of the situation, my logic has taken control… normally, i am an optimistic person; i definitely look to find the bright side of things, and focus on those… even though it’s hard, i still try to do it… i think my paintings reflect that conflict… apart from these, i was devastated by the loss of two people i valued so much, and held so dear to me; first Yaman Kayıhan, then Faruk Sade… while i did the latest paintings, i kept on seeing Faruk… my works have always been impacted by a mix of my thoughts and my psychology… they reflect the colors and the ambience of my thoughts… the symbols and the imagery i use; depict the message i want to convey… they help me pick up the pieces of me that had been scattered around for various reasons… the titles of the previous exhibition and this one came out naturally by themselves as the paintings were completed, in French; i did not need to look for them… M.G. : You have emphasizing that; “Abstraction is an easy way to express deep realities… When, which is inside opposes to what is seen from outside, my paintings reflect an inner world,”; you are opening up your inner world to us with your art. You sometimes put your imagery and symbols into focus with apparent objects, other times you hide abstract silhouettes within the flickering beams of light. The use of light also makes references to life itself. Do you select your imagery randomly or could it be said that these are choices where your inner world becomes concrete? F.C. : it takes a long time for me to focus and decide what i am going to do… i will then do some small sketches, make the drawings onto the canvas, play around with them… my conscious and my subconscious pass along to each other while i choose the imagery and the symbols… after making these choices that i am sure with the aid of my instincts, i don’t question them… so my answer lies within your question… in summary, just as you’ve said, the light, as well as the imagery and the symbols make references to life and to the world itself and these are the tangible results of random choices of my inner world… M.G.: There is a series of paintings in the exhibition where you have obtained “black” without using black paint, by only mixing different colors. Is your refusal to use black paint, a state of denial of the darkness? F.C.: in my paintings, i have only very rarely ever used black paint out of a tube… what we perceive as black is actually only the darkest state of various colors… so, i prefer to mix the black that i find most suited to the atmosphere i want to create, myself… i prepare different mixes for a warm black and a cool black… i do not reject darkness; the presence of light is only remarkable in the best of darkness… both visually, philosophically and psychologically… Figen Cebe, “i see red … i mix up black …”, 2017, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G.: Your paintings are comprised of thin layers of paint and you mention that your technique requires every layer to be completed before the paint dries. This partially makes time management you spend on your paintings important. Is there a performative aspect in your technique in regards to your interaction with your work? F.C.: i can say that there is such an aspect within the process… after getting the sketch to its most favorable state, i enter a phase of trance, both physically and mentally, with the paint… my eyes both see and do not see… it’s like getting lost in the details of the painting by focusing on the paint and the brushes and the technique of close applying… although the brushes try to obey the orders from my brain as extensions of my arms and hands, both the brushes and the paint declare their independence and bring surprises… i follow the traces and wait in curiosity… i continue painting without taking any breaks, until a whole layer is done before the paint dries up… i can not see what i have accomplished before i take a step back… in this process, time management is very important, the paint has to stay wet… there are materials that delay drying but i want to achieve the desired texture without using them… M.G.: In addition to your previous exhibition “i see red…” series, this time in this exhibition we encounter a new, black series. The subjects of your works seem to build on top of one another and perhaps alters through the spirit of time and gain new meanings. Additionally, not only on your paintings but also in your writings, I see a similar attitude of your frequent use of ellipsis (…); in which you avoid to put a full stop at your sayings, it’s as if you refuse to end what you’re telling us. Can you mention about how life’s continuous and never-ending motion affects on your art? F.C.: i give a great importance to thought and the act of processing it…i make up my mind after hours of  reading, thinking and re-evaluating… if i am quick to make decisions, it’s usually because i’ve thought that subject through… this doesn’t mean that “i do not make mistakes”… but, at that stage of my life, that decision is the most appropriate one to me and my personality… i don’t feel regretful later on; i live what i have to experience… it’s been in that way about arts as well, and it continues to be in that way… every person is a unique being, none are alike… it’s important to me when i continue to create original works that emerge from a mixture of my personality, my experiences and my story…originality, sincerity, honesty, naturalness are the aspects i value the most in people, in life and in art… even though we pass through different chapters in our lives, these chapters are all connected like the links of a chain; none stand apart… art and life are similar to each other… and so, like the links of a chain, there is a natural connection between my pieces of work…in fact, there are series of paintings that i use the same image…i have told the reason for this many times, but i will repeat again… although each of my paintings drawn and painted by hand with no transfer techniques, almost similar colors used, the result is always different from each other…i love the compositions small or large differences constituted between each other these series form with the small differences between them…when it comes to the “ellipsis”; i don’t like using the “full stop,” it’s rough to me … even death, nothing has an absolute “full stop”… and there are so many things to say in every subject… using a “full stop” to my words or my writings, create a sense of adding an absolute value to them… and i don’t like anything that is “absolute”… alternation, adaptation, soft transitions seem much suitable for me… they give me peace… and apart from proper nouns, i dislike capital letters… i ask that it be this way in this interview as well… Figen Cebe, “i see red … i mix up black …”, 2017, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G.: In one of your interviews you talk about your interest in other mediums and that you consider going into video art in your future work. Are we going to see such a surprise in your next series? F.C.: i have always wanted that, for years, i’ve been thinking about projects unfortunately i could not start one yet… i must admit, the reason of this is that i’m going to need some technical and technological support…i won’t promise, but who knows? M.G.: Are there any developments in our country or from around the world, that you feel as controversial and evaluate as negative or one that you find as an improvement, a positive decision, in terms of art politics? What do you think about the reasons behind these situations transpiring these days? Where does Turkey stand in terms of your example? F.C.: the relationships between art & capital, art & political/religious powers have always been very intimate, very visible… the ones who hold the capital, have always used art as a sign of their power… Turkey, in this regard, is still a mere pupil, a simple apprentice cycle… its past is short, its today is “limited, restricted”… sometimes there are progress, though too many obstacles… additionally, without getting into detail, starting from the students of “fine arts,” artists, art historians, gallerists, collectors, anyone concerned with art need to educate themselves, need to be educated, and this education needs to be sustainable… as an example on the subjects of “education” and “women and women’s rights” (i do not say “female artists” intentionally), i’d like to quote a Turkish collectorwho literally told me “i don’t buy artworks from female artists, because women; they get married, they give birth, they go through menopause, etc, and do not continue working”… art is a part of life… it’s impossible for it to stay far from the realities of the country and of the world… For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2016-2017/kirmizi-goruyorum-siyah-karistiriyorum

Sinan Logie, ‘Samples of Topographies’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery Academician, architect, artist Sinan Logie, will meet the art lovers of Ankara for the first time with his ‘Samples of Topographies’ exhibition in Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery. Logie who pursues in his academic studies, the traces of intense construction activity in recent years in Turkey’s geography, will also carry these studies into his canvases.  While recording the city, streets, landscapes and architectural constructions, in his paintings Logie restructures these areas with his abstraction. He renders the traces left by the individual experiences and actions regarding to the city and opens to the viewer’s interpretation. He underlines the endless renovations, constructions and brutal urbanization created by the consumer society. When creating a map or an architectural plan the different scales  are set in motion by the use of his unique abstraction. The artist, who indicates that  he tries to explore “how to constantly abstract a truth and produce a new truth over it,” in his paintings and pushes his boundaries in each new series.  Logie’s art practice and architectural background; merges in an interesting way with his skateboarding experience. In addition to his observation and research on the cities, his habit of physically experiencing the city adds a performative dynamism to the artist’s canvases. ‘Samples of Topographies’, will be a monochrome exhibition in which the artist uses solely black and white. Logie, with the third dimension that he created by adding new textures to the paint, brings together new layers to his oil paintings and canvases by using blocks of the materials that are actually the elements of construction, such as paraffin and sawdust on paper. MELİS GOLAR : In February 2018, you opened a solo exhibition titled ‘The Elementary Particles’ at Öktem Aykut Gallery. A short while later, you will meet with the audience of Ankara for the first time with ‘Samples of Topographies’ exhibition at Gallery Siyah Beyaz. We are confronted with your new series. Could you mention a little bit about the transition process between these two exhibitions and how ‘Samples of Topographies’ came to be?  SİNAN LOGIE : For years, I have been trying to connect all of the works I produce with the mental states of my life, under the title of ‘Fluid Structures’. I define each step of the production as a new “phase”. The ‘The Elementary Particles’ exhibition was an expression of the urban situations and the activities of construction that I have experienced in Istanbul. It was about my walks in the city and its peripheries. In the ‘Samples of Topographies’ the wide landscapes affected me where I have recorded during my frequent travels on the roads between Istanbul and Ankara either by car or by airplane. Both series relate to the tracks of intensive construction and infrastructure projects going on in our country but their scales are different. While the first one looks through the intense urban texture of Istanbul, ‘Samples of Topographies’ is an interpretation of human traces on the Anatolian plateau. Beyond criticizing it, there is a material selection and texture specific to the space where each exhibition will embrace. I may say that whereas the works in Öktem Aykut were in search of a vibration with the gallery’s mostly exposed concrete new space in Şişhane, now in this exhibition Gallery Siyah Beyaz’s abstractness, the monochrome marble fireplace in the middle have formed the axis of my search for integrity with the space.  M.G. : You are transferring your architectural knowledge and physical performance to the canvas without surrendering to the yield of the materials you use for implementation. The concretion of your architectural background with skateboarding is reflected in your art at this point. Can we conclude that the motion on your canvases are an expressionist attitude in relation to the city?  S.L. : The skateboarding discipline has derived from wave surf, a tradition of thousands of years which has started in the Polynesian Islands. In Polynesia, surfing is expressed as “He’enalu”, and corresponds to the meaning of ‘’merging with the wave’’ or ‘’sliding on the wave’’. I mean, I compare the skateboarding practice that I have been pursuing for many years to a bodily and existential struggle to become one with the city. During this effort, the energy that you share with the city and with the citizens returns to you somehow and changes you. In the skateboard world we say: ” No pain, no gain ”. It can be said that I maintain the same attitude on my canvases and paintings. M.G. : When I dig into your work spanning from the past up until today, I see new layers added new dimensions into your canvases by using construction materials like sawdust or plaster. How did the impulse to add these layers come up?  S.L. : I owe this impetus to my architectural education in Belgium. My professors such as Carine Jacques or Olivier Bastin, have been so kind enough to comment me rather based on the route I covered than beyond the point I have already arrived. That is why there is no search for ”style” in my architectural or artistic production. I have not reached a point yet and I do not wish to. I associate my work more with the definition of “style” by Nicolas Bourriaud, namely to an understanding of “the work’s style is its route”… The coincidences of my route could be: the move of my studio to a neighborhood like Dolapdere that sells construction materials or my slipped disc problem leading the transformation of the painting process into a problem solving exercise having given up the “mastery of the hand”. It’s just an expression of the “merging with the wave.”  M.G. : As mentioned in the book ‘Istanbul: 2023’, published in 2016 which you have co-written with Yoann Morvan, the brutality of urbanization and the changing urban features affect our lives in an inevitable, dark and aggressive manner and push us to a deadlock. I know you refer to your academic work while constructing your series. At this point, the name of the series ‘Fluid Structures’ attracts my interest. What is fluid in these cities where you can not encounter any fluidity?  S.L. : I wrote a paper called ‘Fluid Structures’ in 2000. This text is an anarchist manifesto for me; what Henri Lefebvre defined as “isotopic”, namely ”heterotopias” in the face of the spaces constructed by the government, was a conception of an area where transient situations could exist while purifying of the static rules. Fluidity is an attitude towards the status quo. Walking the city, or experiencing it on a skateboard, is part of this search. In short, there are less and less situations that are fluid around us, but it is up to our actions to stretch them.  Sinan Logie, ‘Samples of Topographies’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G. : You review at different scales of the plans, landscapes or architectural areas that you abstracted. I wonder how you made the choice of these areas.  S.L. : I have no specific method in this regard. But, my architectural work, the student’s research in the academic environment, my walks in the city and my readings necessarily constitute a route. These images and experiences correspond to very different scales, and can include spaces ranging from an architectural detail to the alleys of a slum. But a tension or feeling of the friction could always be their common. I hope to answer this question better in thirty years. M.G. : In an interview, by asking the question “Is the painting stands in the white areas on the paper or in the inked areas?” you talk about your integration with architecture and city, closed forms and openness of the public space in your paintings. Could you mention a little bit about this original abstraction technique of yours?  S.L. : One of the distinguishing features of humanity from the animal kingdom is its ability to develop abstract concepts. This cognitive ability of our brains has provided the birth of complex tongues and science, together with rules that make possible the crazy project of living in the cities, or culturally shared behaviors. With the influence of the environment, our bodies and languages develop, which defines the mental state of individuals according to cognitive psychologists Jacques Mehler and Emmanuel Dupoux: “These mental states can be compared to a system of signs and symbols organized in the internal composition, just like the formulas of mathematicians or the expressions of natural languages. These elements specify a language of soul that defines the scope or limit of what we can think of by the human soul that consists of all our knowledge and the logical relations within it. ” In short, this search for abstraction is an expression of the negotiation inside of me between ” ape ” and ” man”.  Akışkan Yapılar Faz 15, 2018, kağıt üzeri alçı, 97x64cm M.G. : Can you share a news that you follow in the world of art in our country or in the world that you deem as controversial? I wonder your current sensitivities related to art and art politics.  S.L. : I see the publications in the art or architectural domain as devices that are often disconnected from the society and protection of self. So I follow less and less. In both domains, it is possible to define the rise to “star”dom of some personalities as an honest reflection of the society of spectacle that we are in. My readings generally include a broad panel of urban theories, covering general scientific areas. I render my relation to art by perceiving and interpreting the exhibitions that I visit with my personal observations. In any case, it is healthier for us to discuss the production forms we are in after a few decades. As for Turkey, to talk about the politics of art, it requires to descend to a conceptual level as simple as the living of a bear in the forest. But it is important to accept that there are a few heroes in that forest too. For more detail; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/topografya-ornekleri

Mike Berg, ‘What Is the Meaningless of This?’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery The latest productions of the artist Mike Berg meet the art lovers of Ankara with the exhibition titled “What is the Meaningless of This?”. American artist’s abstract compositions mesh with gouache drawings, metal sculptures and hand-wowed rugs (kilims.) The artist depicts the sense of obscurity that his work induces at the viewer through an abstract geometry at the “What Is the Meaningless of This?” exhibition. While revealing the tangible reality of design, rhythm, color and surface, he draws the attention to ambiguous lines of his works that are open to interpretation. The quote from Philip Roth novel, “Eyes that drew you in and in that told you nothing yet told you nothing so eloquently.” expresses the artistic attitude of the artist. Berg’s reinterpretation of geometry with different mediums is allowing the lines to gain layers and bring the architectural forms into forth, sometimes a brush stroke on paper becomes a metal sculpture and reveals the artist’s gestural abstraction as his artistic attitude. Producing in limited series, Berg maintains his minimalistic line as he creates his works from different materials and techniques, and he gives more importance to the process rather than the finished state of the work. Principally defining two contrast notions through abstract forms and geometry, the artist brings together the east and the west, the old and the new, art history and modern art with his delicate touches. MELİS GOLAR : You titled the exhibition as “What is the Meaningless of This?”. You are fundamentally working on abstract art. This question frequently raised by the viewers essentially about abstractions. Why do you ask it back? MIKE BERG : It’s really a rhetorical question and, of course, it’s not asking what the meaning of something might be, the meaninglessness of something is infinite. If it’s not dismissed as totally flip (not serious), it might provoke a viewer to ask him or herself what meaning it might have. M.G. : In one of your interview you mention your inspirational artist list including Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. The common feature of their works is that they work on gestural abstraction. I see a similar touch in your metal sculptures made as if they were drawn on a paper like a stain. What would you say about this view? Mike Berg, ‘What Is the Meaningless of This?’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.B. : Yes, one branch of my work is gestural and Pollock’s mature, but not final work, is work that I admire. De Kooning is also important to me as are many other abstract gestural artists, Brice Marden being another one. My metal works do begin as ink drawings, but the shift in scale and the translation into a different medium gives the work a different dimension. M.G. : In one of your interview you indicate that rather than reaching the end product you focus on the process. So, I conclude this approach as rather than what is expressed, how it is expressed, is more important to you. On the other hand your forms look very sharp, precise and arranged. Process is something uncontrolled, experimental and vague. How these two concept work together in your art pieces? M.B. : All my work begins with a concept of how to proceed. Sometimes it’s working with chance, sometimes it’s applying a set of rules or procedure to a drawing or a sculpture. The point of it is that by following the set of rules of procedure, I will produce a work where I don’t know what the final piece will look like. This way of working allows for a piece that I’m making to be a surprise to me. A work can be precise and based in chance process at the same time. It’s determined by the nature of the process that’s employed. M.G. : Could you describe your production process especially on your drawings? M.B. : My production process for my drawings varies tremendously. Lately I’ve been working on a series of gouache paintings that is based on the arrangement of simple geometric shapes that generally stack up to represent a rectangle. Sometimes the color determination is selected by chance. But whether the selection is by chance or not, the range of colors and tones are determined in advance for compositional reasons. M.G. : In a sense, your drawings become three dimensional forms as we see them on the hand-woven rugs (kilim), metal sculptures even in jewelry designs. Could we consider those drawings as sketches for the additional dimension? M.B. : That’s a very interesting question and that you intuit three dimensionally in two dimensional drawings makes me happy. Something that I’ve been working on for awhile now is how to make 3 dimensional sculptures from the drawings. To see the flat drawing then to try to visualize the shapes as having depth, to try to understand how shapes would look on the back side or as the piece is rotated in space is an interesting challenge. Mike Berg, ‘What Is the Meaningless of This?’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G. : Randomness, action and repetition appear to be the key elements in your works. What would you say for each? How would you describe them? M.B. : As I’ve mentioned in previous questions, the use of chance is a way to animate my work for myself. It allows for compositions to emerge that I don’t foresee in advance. Rather than say repetition, I would say that my work is about variation. If I work with rules of chance in composing a work, then in order not to make the process meaningless, I must follow the set of rules to conclusion. After that I will look at the piece and think that it might make an interesting composition to alter the shapes, select different colors or to do something dramatically opposite from the work before. Mike Berg, ‘What Is the Meaningless of This?’, 2018, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G. : Are there any developments both in Turkey or from around the world, that you feel as controversial as negative or one that you find as an improvement, as positive, in terms of politics of arts? Why do you think that these situations transpiring in these days? Where does Turkey stand in terms of your example? M.B. : I really don’t like to talk about my art in terms of meaning or relevance. I’m happy to discuss how I make what I do but not to claim meaning or significance. An irony in my life is that while I’m politically involved, I have never had a desire to make political art. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I’ve never found an approach that I felt comfortable with. For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/bunun-anlamsizligi-nedir

Ali Kotan, ‘‘Slathered Silence’’, 2016, Siyah Beyaz Gallery Ali Kotan greets us with an exhibition called ‘Slathered Silence’ in which he brings forward the country’s silenced freedom and dreams in political, sociological fields and reflects this silence into his paintings through impulses emerged within him. Chaotic, expressionist and figurative forms previously seen in his series; give way this time to still and soft stains. Kotan who often carries the darkness of political conditions into his paintings this time uses ‘white’ to show the darkness from the other way around. In his works Kotan nourishes his art from the worrisome conditions in the society about authority, sexuality, power, populism, consumption and chronical drives. He shares his opposition to the transformation of human beings and their loss of resistance under systems and markets with the viewer. MELİS GOLAR : You have been continuing your artistic production in Ankara for years. Pertaining to Ankara there sometimes has an aspiring side while it also has an alienating rouse; how are these dilemmas affecting you and your works? ALİ KOTAN : Besides the completeness of personal acts in artistic productions, the contribution of the cities is indeed quite valuable in this process. One can go into better grasping of the richness of life where the organisms of living cities continuously regenerates and varies on the surface. Even though today Ankara is descending its visual and vital relations satisfactionary existence little by little, it still maintains its value; tries to adapt living, apart from colorful surfaces; offers the dry, dark and dull atmosphere within the warmth of past and productive development. The reflection, even though is ironically facing us as introverted, it still enables “us” to enrich ourselves and protects the process of exist and resist. Ali Kotan, 2016, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G. : So, do you follow Ankara’s art market? How do you find young artists of today and their productions? A.K.: In an environment where the important institutions withdrew from Ankara and where it partially abandoned from art integrated segment due to the political pressures, the designating zone weakens and that affects the producers. For many years I have been enjoying the ‘‘ FREEDOM’’ of being distant from the daily market. Perhaps the brightest part for me is to see the youth chasing the new ways of freedom and questioning, showing effective demonstrations and defending it in an atmosphere where Ankara is surrounded by mist. M.G. : ‘Slathered Silence’ title is very striking. You are such an artist who is sensitive to his environment, following social and political situations and harboring the apprehensions intrinsically emerging from these and transferring these on his canvas. Can you tell the extensions of this exhibition and the traces left on you from past to the present? A.K. : Artists’ insensitive and impassive stance have always given me pain. The question of ‘what to do’ has got only one answer: Fighting for freedom. The passive utterance of arts is a space for freedom. The darkness coming out from its hidden cave and finding a “life” in brightness is making my adventure meaningful. The past where it finds its place in silence and transform into a reality which keeps its non-stop scratchings, each day waiting for the light to come in life, has made my exhibition’s name ‘Slathered Silence’. When the invasion experiences and memories that I have folded layer by layer in years, it has become settler in the paintings and a slathering item while moving away from the ‘white’ league, talking with no hesitation but being aware of the fact that unsettling its environment. Ali Kotan, ‘Slathered Silence’, 2016, Siyah Beyaz Gallery M.G. : While revolving around some imaginary places where the realities hide, I feel a sharp violence in your paintings. In your paintings and your writings there is an attractive harmony of the oppositions and dilemmas. In this exhibition there is a dominancy of ‘white’ giving the feelings of brightness and freshness. How does this creation of contrast take place in white? A.K. : We are passing through an era where ‘oppositions and dilemmas’ left from past and present, gets harder to express in freedom. “Violence” and scream are two visual genres sheltering its mystery in deep down of me and which could come out from darkness where artists may hide themselves. In time, having no purity, I live inside the silence of a scream. I have reached to an ephemeral ‘SPOT’ in which all my interested, grasped, questioned and if necessary tamed efforts, come to the point where the fresh and bright forms and the hide of the tension within white, started to emerge in my own way. M.G. : How do you think that growing in difference of our environment and artificial anarchism of today affect art and artists? Do you think that adapting oneself to the art market’s demands hold the artists back from reacting and silencing them? A.K. : In difference and artificial anarchism is not a loose end that is only valid for art and artists. It is a dark slot winding up the whole society. Indeed, the opponent side of art is distant from making people shake and get curious without hesitating to make them like and enjoy. When contemporary art’s embracing voice of the day turns into a scream, that slot still holds the hope of unwinding and enlightening. When the artist become to be the form lover only, and enter a life distant from thought and wisdom in short the whole market turn into an artificial artist community nurturing the market demands and cheapness; in inevitably rises the’indifference’ level into a threatening point. Untitled, 2016, 170x 17, oil on canvas For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2016-2017/savrulan-sessizlik

Havva Altun / Ozan Bilginer / Aslı Işıksal / Funda Susamoğlu / Seval Şener 08.06.2018 – 09.07.2018 Galeri Siyah Beyaz

Bahadır Çolak, ‘Under the System’, 2016, Siyah Beyaz Gallery Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery is holding Bahadır Çolak’s first solo exhibition ‘Under the System’ comprising his last four years of production. His sculptures predominantly made of marble and metal accompanied by led screens, texts and motion. The artist presents the formative side of industrialization on humanity, using the methods of reducing, multiplying, distorting and inserting in his sculptures. Through this way, he flips the traditional perceptions of sculpture by conjoining the composition and de-composition of these forms. Bringing material-form relation together sometimes by means of creating geometric structures other times using media devices as an allegory, the artist points out the notions of poverty, control, system and industrialization. In this exhibition Çolak’s works appear as solid, bold, clear and systematic masses, whereas he also accommodates works that participate the spectator along their own motions. MELİS GOLAR : How did your relation to Ankara and Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery start ? BAHADIR ÇOLAK : Ankara is the city where I have been for the first time a few years ago. I would say, I could not visit the city while I was there and didn’t connect to it. A year ago, while I was visiting a friend for an arts organization’s dinner, I met Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery’s founders. We spent a great night with dense conversation on arts. It was a joyful night hearing fromTurkey’s one of the first private arts institutions’ owners about arts and artists. They were interested in my work so I shared my works with them in pleasure. Recently, the yourger generation director of the gallery, visited me at my studio and we had a chance to talk in more detail. Everyone knows about their trust oriented policy, which is the most desirable working method for me within an institution. In the end, one year passed by and I am opening my first solo exhibition that I wanted to realize all for long. M.G. : In terms of material usage you predominantly employ marble and metal in your sculpture. Addition to the traditionally adopted marble, we also encounter various techniques coexisting in your work such as videos, neon lightnings. What can you tell about the basis of this material variety and virtual diversity emerging in your creations? Diğerleri, 2016,  110 x 80 x 60 cm, metal and led, interactive sculpture B.Ç. : I generally use traditional materials and reshape them in my practice according to the recent constraints. I believe these materials form a base to the sculpture and become a pioneer of a positive evolution of sculpture production with its various numbers of materials. Because sculpture production process requires an excessive amount of research and practice it allows you automatically to convene and use different types of materials during this process. Occasionally some random experiments may transform into a conscious project production. ‘Extension’, 2016, 155 x 30 x 25 cm, metal and marble Since my childhood I always had an intimate relation with technology and worked on electronics, mechanical systems for years. Almost till the end of my studentship, these two were my source of income. Creating sculptures out of traditional equipment, learning and discovering continuously about it, enabled me to put all these familiar, known and experienced materials into my practice. When I want to apply my thoughts on one piece, I never hesitate using the needs of the today’s era, therefore different materials can quickly become an element of my work. While I was a student, I started forming cylindrical structures from plexiglass, bringing in new perspectives to the pieces by drawing patterns and lighting them with led. Yet it was not easy to bring different materials together to form a sculpture. So the now-how of my form knowledge became to be a long adventure. Today my accumulation of knowledge collated and exposed my works; that are created with the traditional and non-traditional materials. M.G. : It is known that there is a condensed relation between the sculpture and its creator. Can you tell us briefly about your creative process, presentation of your works, in short, the time you spend with your pieces? B.Ç. : With its ups and downs it is the most heart – warming process. Initially I focus on my intensions then a research process follows it. While testing on divergent materials; I complete the sculpture which has been in my hands for a while. This is a never ending process. Every time there are new things to be noticed. Actually it is like a competition. Sometimes there is a deadline for a project to be finished which has to be exhibited on the right time, at other times the sculpture’s dimensions might be large and you need to find solutions in restricted studio conditions. Briefly from beginning till the end within the project you grow in this course. M.G. : Sometimes the geometrical, solid, bold and clear forms are emerging from your sculpture other times mechanical systems stand out which pulls the spectator interactively. Under which discourse does your first solo exhibition, ‘Under the System’ at Siyah Beyaz Art Gallery on 30.09.2016 – 01.11.2016, bring in these forms together? Bahadır Çolak, ‘Under the System’, 2016, Siyah Beyaz Gallery B.Ç. : The sculptures I make are rigid, hinging on standing structures (monolit). On the contrary sometimes they appear as a fragile alike monoblocks which cause tension on the spectator. The notion of movement in my sculptures, both alter the dynamism in itself and brings the spectator in and communicate with them. In my practice this perspective turns into sculpture – system relationship. When we look back at history we see many obelisk examples. Their existence is kind of a power show. Today in many cities these structures appear as traces of power. In this exhibition, I aim for people in today’s system to identify where they are standing at or create awareness for their sense of space. I am taking a critical look at people’s coded mechanic behavior and their addiction towards this cycle. M.G. : What do you think the contemporary confrontations of systems’ creators, namely human beings, disappearance within or suffer from their own creations? B.Ç. : If we look around us we can see the examples of it everywhere, I believe, there is no need to point one direction. When we stop and pull back, it is possible to see the circumstances we are under in this universe. There are so much so that, if I try to give tangible examples we could drown in a sea of intangibility. M.G. : You have many outdoor sculptures both in Turkey and on abroad. We also know that your works have received prizes both at national and international spectrum. The conservation of public sculptures remains always controversial in Turkey. What do you think over this problem? ‘Rollin in the System’, 2013, 330 x 175 x 120 cm, granite, Icheon Art/South Korea B.Ç. : Unfortunately Turkey is a little late at meeting with sculpture. The geography we live in has got a wealthy cultural heritage though if we take a real journey from past to present, we can see that sculptures have never been visible among public. Although Turkey started to get into a closer interaction with Western art in post-republican period and increased the amount of monuments, there were still not enough public examples encountered. It is easier to adapt the monuments in public which evoke historical memory. In short, ideological characteristics make sculptures more popular, yet having no artistic aspect. Original and contemporary art pieces exhibited in public space are not understood by the large section of the public in today’s point of view. The reason is, I think art is not introduced to people in their childhood. This issue will always remain as a discussion. I hope one day, we will become a society that recognizes the importance of rising values and have a comprehension of conserving them. M.G. : Can you share your future projects that you are excited about and could not realize yet? B.Ç. : There are indeed many projects. Even though there are some utopic ones among these, I generally dwell upon the projects which I really can do. I hope I can realize them as I have realized my many projects. I do not know which one to mention, I feel like they could lose their mystery. I can give a small hint just for you. I have projects that I want spectators to manipulate large masses only by using their own motional energy. A control mechanism built between sculpture and human just as making revolutions from a small idea… For more information https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2016-2017/sistemin-altinda