'We Are The Artists': Kunsthalle Winterthur-Switzerland

Irina Botea feat. WeAreTheArtists: Ferhat Özgür / Ruti Sela-Mayaan Amir
May 29 - July 10 2011
Kunsthalle Winterthur-Switzerland
and K3 Zurich

The exhibition is a combination of solo and group show, with the main accent on Irina Botea’s work. The inclusion of Ruti Sela, Mayaan Amir and Ferhat Özgür is the result of extensive research into positions of contemporary art that share a crucial aspect of Botea’s artistic production. In her videos, Botea very often refers to modes of re-enactment and role-play; but her main target is not to create a fiction that is taken for reality. Her interest lies in the reality of the performance and the authentic individuality of the performers. The presentation at Kunsthalle shows six works by Botea: two projected works, Before a National Anthem (2009) and Picturesque (2011), and the rest, Ladybug (2007), MeNoMe (2005), Pinocchio (2009) and Laura (2010), are presented on monitors. The interest in the human being is also key to works by Ferhat Özgür and Ruti Sela. Thus, one work by each artist complements the exhibition: Metamorphosis Chat (2009) by Özgür and Ruti Sela’s Beyond Guilt # 2 (2004), a film that she made together with Mayaan Amir. The artists’ network WeAreTheArtists presents a series of portraits; members of the network were asked to send a photo of themselves which they considered to reveal most about who they are. Another highlight is the new issue of the beloved free newspaper WeAreTheArtists, including the brand new photo story Natural Born Curators.


Ferhat Özgür, 'Metamorphosis Chat',
exhibition view, Kuntshalle Winterthur Switzerland, 2011


Ferhat Özgür, 'I Can Sing',
exhibition view, K3 Zurich, Switzerland, 2011

Review about the exhibition:

Kunst Bulletin: 10.07.2011

By: Lucia Angela Cavegn

Winterthur : Irina Botea feat. WeAreTheArtists

links: Irina Botea · Before a National Anthem, 2009 rechts: WeAreTheArtists · This is me, 2011, Porträtsammlung. Courtesy WeAretheArtists

Im Jahr 2004 initiierte Oliver Kielmayer, damals Programmverantwortlicher der Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil, das Künstlernetzwerk ‹WeAreTheArtists› und die gleichnamige Zeitung als unabhängige Plattform für radikal subjektive Meinungsäusserung. Irina Botea weilte damals als Artist-in-Residence in Boswil und war von Anfang an Mitglied dieses losen Zusammenschlusses von Kunstschaffenden. Die rumänische Künstlerin (*1970, Ploiesti) studierte zunächst Geologie und Geophysik, bevor sie ihre Kunstausbildung in Bukarest und später in Chicago absolvierte. Sieben Jahre nach der Gründung von ‹WeAreTheArtists› organsiert Oliver Kielmayer, heute Kurator der Kunsthalle Winterthur, eine Ausstellung mit Arbeiten von Botea und Beiträgen von weiteren ‹WeAreTheArtists›-Mitgliedern. Das Schaffen von Botea dreht sich um die Frage, was die Individualität eines Menschen ausmacht. Oft lässt die Künstlerin Freunde und Bekannte ein vor ihr verfasstes Skript darstellen. Die von den Laiendarstellern ausgeführten Inszenierungen lassen stets den Charakter der Inszenierung und der Protagonisten durchscheinen. Die auferlegte Rolle funktioniert als Kontrastmittel zur Authentizität. Im Video ‹Before a National Anthem›, 2009, studiert ein Chor Vorschläge für eine neue rumänische Nationalhymne ein - ein schönes Bild für das Ringen um eine neue nationale Identität. Wie Botea so setzen sich auch Ruti Sela (*1974, Tel Aviv), Mayaan Amir (*1978, Tel Aviv) und Ferhat Özgür (*1965, Ankara) mit Fragen der Identität auseinander. Ferhat Özgür lässt in ‹Metamorphosis Chat›, 2009, zwei ältere muslimische Frauen - die eine modern, die andere traditionell gekleidet - die Kleider tauschen. Nach anfänglichem Zögern wirkt das Rollenspiel für die beiden Frauen befreiend; sie lachen. «Kleider machen Leute» (so Gottfried Keller) - und doch sind sie nur Äusserlichkeiten. Um nackte Tatsachen geht es im Video von Ruti Sela und Mayaan Amir. ‹Beyond Guilt # 2›, 2004, zeigt, wie die beiden Künstlerinnen Männer zu einem im Chatroom vereinbarten Sexdate treffen und sie im Hotelzimmer über ihr Leben ausfragen. Die Callboys geben erstaunlich viel (Männlichkeit) von sich preis. Die körperliche Blösse ist hier jedoch nur Anlass für eine seelische Entblössung. Die Entstehung der Ausstellung ist als E-Mail-Dialog mit den beteiligten Künstlern dokumentiert und in der aktuellen Ausgabe von ‹WeAreTheArtists› (Nr.15) publiziert. Ebenfalls Teil des Projektes sind die Porträts, welche die Mitglieder aufgrund einer Ausschreibung einreichten. Gebeten wurde um eine Aufnahme, welche die eigene Persönlichkeit am treffendsten wiedergebe. Die Ansammlung an Selbst-Bildern reicht von Kindheitserinnerungen bis zu inszenierten Arrangements. Bis: 10.07.2011

'Network: Videos Contemporaines Turques'

'NETWORK / ŞEBEKE: Videos Contemporaines Turques'

2 - 7 Mars, 14h - 18h, Maison des Arts Georges Pompidou -
Maison Daura, Residences internationales d'artistes / Saint-Cirq-Lapopie
Centre d'art Contemporain / Cajarc - FRANCE

Orçun Baştürk - Fatma Çiftçi - Mehmet Dere - Köken Ergun - Deniz Gül - Murat Gök - Başak Kaptan - Bengü Karaduman - Sefer Memişoğlu - Ferhat Özgür - Öner Özlü - Şener Özmen/Cengiz Tekin - Mehmet Vanlıoğlu - Burcu Yacıoğlu

Commissaire invite: Selim Birsel

The Mattres Factory Art Museum: 'Neighbo(r)hood'

ferhat özgür, 'metamorphosis chat', installation view
mattress factory art museum / pittsburgh-2011

Neighbo(u)rhood

May 13, 2011 - August 21, 2011

Mattress Factory 500 Sampsonia Way Pittsburgh, PA 15212 USA

Neighbo(u)rhood is the title of this summer's large group exhibition at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The exhibition includes events, installations and video-based works, which present differing points of departure and reflections upon the idea of neighborhood. The participating artists are Glenn Loughran, Ferhat Özgür, Seamus Nolan, Sarah Pierce/The Metropolitan Complex, Diane Samuels, John Smith, Elisabeth Subrin and Dawn Weleski. The title refers to a difference of translation but also an assertion of the role of oneself in the existence of neighborhood.

In the popular imagination the term neighborhood conjures up ideas of home, community and even common identity, but is this really so? How often do such images capture the complexity and conflictual nature of living together, of sharing space, of negotiating difference and of creating consensus? This exhibition re-considers neighborhood, the figure of the neighbor, and the deliberation of how we live together. Can the figure of the neighbor propose an alternative to the dichotomy of friend or enemy? Can the classical concept of neighborhood be used to reconsider social and political formation as complex and incomplete, universal and particular, representative and invisible.

During the late nineteenth century, Pittsburgh was a central destination for generations of immigrants who carved out a living while working in the steel mills, iron, glass, and other factories along the three famous rivers. The city, often called ‘The City of Immigrants’, offered the promise of economic prosperity in the land of the free and the land of opportunity. While this massive influx has not been repeated during the late twentieth or twenty-first centuries, neighborhoods such as Squirrel Hill and Polish Hill acknowledge the historical formations of communities to a site, city or nation according to ethnic, cultural and religious affinities.

Today in Pittsburgh, it is common for people to define their home not by city limits but by neighborhood boundaries. Thus the idea of neighborhood informs a sense of belonging, but an identity beyond that of the cultural, ethnic, religious or social. In this sense neighborhood operates as a space in which there is a juxtaposition of difference but also a potential for alternative forms of community not based on identity but on the common.

Neighbo(u)rhood will reflect upon and open discussion on areas including the neighbor, participation, community, the common, democracy, socio-political shifts and immigration. The exhibition will be presented both at the Mattress Factory and in different sites in Pittsburgh. A related series of public talks and events will also take place throughout the exhibition period with their starting points being some of the exhibition's many underlying subjects.

Georgina Jackson
Curator-in-Residence


Artists in the Exhibition:

Glenn Loughran (b. Northern Ireland 1973, lives in Dublin, Ireland) creates interventionist art works that disrupt public spaces. In 2006, he began developing a series of context schools under the name of hedgeschoolproject. Hedgeschools were hidden schools that developed as a response to the Penal laws in Ireland that restricted citizens’ participation in education and other areas of social life.

Ferhat Özgür (b. Turkey 1965, lives in Ankara, Turkey) uses a number of mediums, including video, photography, painting, and installation. His works are a direct reflection of his subjective reality—the social, political, and cultural characteristics of the time and place in which he lives. Taking part in 6th Berlin Biennale, 10th Istanbul Biennale, Örebro Biennale-Sweeden and 1st Tirana Biennale, the works of Ferhat Ozgur have been shown in numerous venues including Centre George Pompidou, Reina Sofia National Museum, Magazin 4, Casino Luxembourg, Salzburg Modern Art Museum, Fondazione Sandretto Torino and Fotografie Forum Frankfurt.

Seamus Nolan (b. Ireland 1978, lives in Dublin, Ireland) investigates the relative value of objects and social processes as they appear within different economies and contexts. He strives to unravel the commonplace, to recognize the inherent structure or code from which we construct and de-construct the world around us. In Hotel Ballymun, 2007, Nolan enlisted the help and support of Ballymun’s network of community groups to convert the flats of a high-rise housing project into short-stay hotel rooms.

Sarah Pierce (b. USA 1968, lives in Dublin, Ireland) uses the umbrella term “The Metropolitan Complex” to describe her art practice. Central to her activity is a consideration of forms of gathering, both historical examples and those she initiates. The processes of research and presentation that Pierce undertakes highlight a continual renegotiation of the terms for making art: the potential for dissent and self-determination, the slippages between individual work and institutional context, and the proximity of past artworks. In 2005, Pierce represented Ireland at the 51st Venice Biennale.

Diane Samuels (lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), co-founder of City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, is a well-known Pittsburgh artist whose work examines history, place, and dialogue. In her installation entitled Mapping Sampsonia Way, Samuels explores relationships between residents and visitors, image and text, spectators and events, and experience and memory. Samuels has lived on the North Side’s Sampsonia Way since 1980, and her installation uses the voices and experiences of the area’s residents to create a visual recollection of the artist’s neighborhood.

John Smith (b. 1952, lives in London, England) is fascinated by the immersive power of narrative and the spoken word, he has developed a body of work which deftly subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction. Drawing upon the raw material of everyday life, Smith's meticulously crafted films rework and transform reality, playfully exploring and exposing the language of cinema.

Elisabeth Subrin (b. 1965, lives in New York, New York) is an artist and filmmaker who engages a wide range of genres, forms and contexts to create conceptually driven projects in film, video, photography and installation. Her work seeks intersections between history and subjectivity, investigating the nature and poetics of psychological "disorder," the legacy of feminism, and the impact of recent social and political history on contemporary life and consciousness.

Dawn Weleski (lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Pittsburgh artist whose community-based work re-purposes local newspapers, public transportation commutes, and meals with family as transformative social stages to reveal their own social wellness and cultural renewal and to provide a forum for awareness. Her work often acts as a political and social stress test, measuring the health of routine within shared cultural behavior.

This exhibition is the third and final program in a series curated by Mark Garry and Georgina Jackson as part of the Mattress Factory’s Curator-in-Residence Program made possible by generous support from The Fine Foundation. Funding from Culture Ireland, Allegheny Regional Asset District, The Heinz Endowments, Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts has made Neighbo(u)rhood possible.

ferhat özgür, 'metamorphosis chat', 2009,
installation view, the mattress factory museum of art, pittsburgh, 2011

"I am Like This 7 Days of Week"

"I am Like This Seven Days of Week"

2004, video still, duration: 1.20 min.

"Ferhat Özgür says "I am Like This 7 Days of Week". During seven days (regularly), he decides on one of the cars waiting in the red light and attacts. All he has to do is to jump on the victim - I mean the car, the sets foot on it, crosses over, continues his path in search of the some meaning. This message of continuity is reminiscent of the mechanisms in the contemporary art system, the network of relations. Despite exciting events along the way, there is always someone who does not cheer up. This man who risks his health, mind and soul with no purpose, making irony of the spectator with a shocking vision, shows again this eternal unresolution Özgür - felicitously - does not articulate this act (and reason) with a reaction - rebel (the opposite side of theme of Hunera Berxwedani's works, Serhildan / Rebellion) canceptualization. He invites you to great contemplation where art stirs storms on funny (dark humour) simple and almost ordinary subjcets. I pick up the words "circus" and "acrobat". (By Şener Özmen, "They Must Have Gone Mad", Free Kick Exhibition Catalogue Text (opened in the Hospitality Area of 9th İstanbul Biennial) , Art-İst Publications, İstanbul, 2002)

"Ferhat Özgür, "Haftanın 7 Günü Böyleyim" diyor. Yedi gün boyunca (muntazaman), kırmızı ışıkta bekleyen arabalardan birini gözüne kestirerek, harekete geçiyor. Tüm yapması gereken, kurban-arabanın üstüne zıplayarak, basarak, karşıya geçmek, bir anlamda yoluna devam etmek. Bu devam iletisi, çağdaş sanattaki düzeneklere, ilişkiler yumağına. Yol boyunca heyecan verici moral dengeleyici gelişmeler yaşanıyor alsa bile, bunları iplemeyen birileri hep oluyor. Bedeni akıl ve ruh sağlığını amaçsız bir şekilde tehlikeye atan bu adam, sanatın hayatı değiştirme, izleyiciyi şoke etme vizyonunu hicvederek, kadim çözümsüzlüğünü bir kez daha gözler önüne seriyor. Özgür, çok haklı olarak bu eylemi (ve mantığını) tepki - isyan (Hunera Berxwedani'nin "Serhildan / Başkaldırı çalışmasındaki tematik yönün tam aksi istikamette) kavramlarıyla telaffuz etmiyor. Sanatın gülünç, (traji-komik), basit ve neredeyse sıradan mevzular üzerinden fırtınalar kopardığı o müthiş temaşaya davet ediyor. "Sirk" ve "Canbaz" sözcüklerini ayıklıyorum. (Şener Özmen "Çıldırmış Olmalılar", 9.İstanbul Bienali Misafirperverlik Alanı'nda düzenlenen "Serbest Vuruş" sergi katalogu metni, Art-İst Yayınları, İstanbul, 2005)

FICTIONS AND DISSENTIONS: 3rd CANAKKALE ART BIENNALE, 28 SEPTEMBER-3 NOVEMBER 2012

FICTIONS AND DISSENTIONS / 3rd Çanakkale Art Biennale / TURKEY

28 September - 3 November 2012

http://canakkalebienali.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=59

Curators

Beral Madra Art Director
Firat Arapoglu

Seyhan Boztepe

Parallel Activities Curator

Fatih Balci

Biennial Director
Seyhan Boztepe

Coordinator Curator

Deniz Erbas

Coordinators

Ismail Erten

Ezgi Ariduru

participants

Yesim Agaoglu (TR)

Murat Akagunduz (TR)

Nikita Alexeev (RU)

Melih Apa (TR)

Artik Isler Video Kolektifi (TR)

Fikret Atay (TR)

Bobbie (TR-DK)

Mehmet Ali Boran (TR)

Braco Dimitrijevic (HR)

Baris Eviz (TR)

Jakob Gautel (FR)

Nadi Guler (TR)

Insel Inal (TR)

Hakan Kirdar (TR)

Serhat Kiraz (TR)

Komet (TR-FR)

Kalliopi Lemos (GR)

Michelangelo Pistoletto's Love Difference & Artway of Thinking (IT)

Moataz Nasr (EG)

Mustafa Okan (TR)

Ali Ibrahim Ocal (TR)

Ferhat Ozgur (TR)

Neriman Polat (TR)

Ulrike Rosenbach (DE)

Cagri Saray (TR)

Marwan Sahmarani (LB)

Ani Setyan (TR)

Julian Stallabrass (UK)

Ayhan Taskiran (TR)

Sevil Tunaboylu (TR)

Yeni Anit (TR)

Sencer Vardarman (TR-DE)

Nalan Yirtmac (TR)

Pinar Yolacan (TR-USA)

Conceptual Framework

Turkey being closely watched from a global perspective has become a focus of attention, not only because of its own political and cultural state of affairs, but because of "The Arabic Spring" in the region, Iran's bid for nuclear power, its approaches and response to various countries in turmoil such as Iraq and Syria in a post-U.S.A. world politics and no doubt its dynamic relations with The EU.

In relation to all these, recently Turkey also somehow has managed to represent itself as a potential major player in the global art industry, with many worldwide cultural and artistic events and organizations. Turkey has succeeded to attain a unique status in this respect by giving a start to Istanbul Biennial in the mid-eighties, and by realizing Istanbul Cultural Capital of Europe Project in 2010. Now this development, this unique position has been strengthened by various biennial organizations of many emerging Turkish cities like that of Antakya, Canakkale, Mardin and Sinop.

The Third International Canakkale Biennial is contributing to this development with strong commitment and energy.

Canakkale-Gallipoli is a historically loaded city, since it has always been a geopolitical passage way between continents, oceans and civilizations. From the legendary fall of Troy to The Gallipoli Campaign during the 1st World War, Canakkale has always attained a very special place in the hearts and minds of many cultures and civilizations.

The Third International Canakkale Biennial will be held in Canakkale, on the eastern shore of The Dardanelles Straights. This year the Biennale has the aim to portray the intricate realities of political, social and economic world state of affairs in today's global stage. As an artistic event, it will question, analyse and deconstruct the current order of things. It will have a claim, to present visual and performing arts that reflects today’s contemporary art aesthetics and dissents.

The Third International Canakkale Biennial will have a particular claim, an argument. That is; today's artists everywhere, can and must create areas of engagement, activity, interpretation so that this alone could constitute an example, a proof that democracy and freedom can in fact be attained on both global and regional levels. This claim also underlines the attributes of creativity, innovation and memory, all may be interpreted as direct results of the Mediterranean socio-political geography in general into which this historic peninsula opens a passage way. But beyond all that, this claim also asserts that art has a politics of its own and this 'art-politics' does in fact competes fiercely with the other mainstream politics, by proving to its public an alternative way of living together is also indeed possible.

Today's contemporary art-especially an art that is based on questioning and analysis-is in fact a process, which moves forward slowly but surely and effectively. As a result of this process, it is able to portray many intricacies and ambiguities that are a part of our seemingly ordinary daily lives. Contemporary artists of today work like a detective; He/she researches into the complex web of political, social, economic and cultural issues and portrays them in the most effective forms and concepts that are possible. The artists point to the strong currents beneath the seemingly calm waters and try to reveal the truth. The strong currents in The Dardanelles Straights appear to be an analogy for this act. The currents of The Dardanelles presented many difficulties to Xerxes, who was trying to march his army against Alexander the Great. In 1810, this time Lord Byron crossed the straights and told about it in his poem of Don Juan.

Due to the internet, the network of artists from every corner of the world reduces the size of this vast geography and diminishes the time span of events around the globe. They are capable of learning about many issues, decipher secrets and tackle major problems concerning the whole of humanity in this age of swift information. Now, with this new arsenal at hand, great myths of the past are being rewritten and the post-modern individual position is no longer relevant in the state of current events as testified by ripples of rebellion vibrating through Twitter and Facebook. This is indeed a new epistemological situation which requests a new perception and appreciation. This current organization evidently has not invented the soul of rebellion, but makes possible for waves of rebellion to accumulate.

Modern artists have always questioned the conventions or rebelled against them by indulging into areas of class contradictions, ethnic identities, beliefs, identities and the concept of other. Their methods have been analytical and based on processes. This process opens a horizon based on analysis, appreciation and comprehension of these fast changing space-time notions. To realize and fully comprehend space and time and to operate on political, economic and cultural levels has requested a new way of collaboration and partnership between the artists. Thus, the artist initiatives of today are best active examples of this collaboration. These initiatives are a way to share the experience with the society.

The Third International Canakkale Biennial aims;

• To be a platform for viewing and perceiving art that is created within the above mentioned context;
• To make visible the geographical boundaries that is being re-drawn in global dimension, the neo-liberal economy which tries to re-incarnate itself, and in particular the political transformations in The Middle East region.
• To examine the emerging pressure on the existing political power; and evidently all these issues that influenced the daily life;
• To exhibits works emanating from a certain concept that supports an existing environment or proposes a new environment;
• To discuss and to deconstruct this organized movement that emerges with the new waves of revolution and revives itself.

Thus the Third International Canakkale Biennial;

• Will place this historical city into the calendar of international art world by inviting artists and art experts from all over the world, who will contribute to the conceptual framework of this biennial;
• Will provide interesting and functional locations such as The Old Bus Terminal, The Naval Museum, Korfmann Library, The Old Armenian Church, and The State Fine Art;
• Will invite the art and culture institutions and universities to join the biennial artists to create an environment of interaction and communication;
• Will provide the widest possible discussion of the biennial with various social and educational programmes such as workshops, debates and conferences;
• Will prove the fact that a biennial is not an end in itself, but a sustainable event which demands audience participation and which will become a form of cultural interface for The Mediterranean region;
• Will place Canakkale into the global art-culture production and communication networks.

*"Art does not produce knowledge and submissions for politics. It produces dissent, fictionalities, and the reciprocal interdependence of different kinds of sequences in the realm of sensibility. These it produces, not for political action, but in the framework of its own politics, in accordance with that peculiar double action, which on one hand encourages itself for self-destruction and on the other locks itself in loneliness. Art produces fictionalities and dissents which reorganize the space-time of can pages, museums, films and theatre which are in fact forms that demand divisions and subdivisions of general locations of sensibility, alone and together and the interrelations between vision and reality. In this way, art produces-creates forms that provide recreations of experiences- It is indeed the area, in which forms of political subject-agent to come into existence.”

Jacques Ranciére, Die Aufteilung des Sinnlichen (Die Politik der Kunst und İhre Paradoxen), Polypen, 2008, pg.89-90