SAHA – Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey, has inaugurated a new space in Istanbul to expand its mission and launch a studio program for local artists and international curators. SAHA Studio provides emerging to mid-career artists from Turkey with a studio and a coworking space for a period of six months, curatorial support, honorarium and a stipend for living expenses, research and production. SAHA Studio’s program includes regular studio visits by art critics, conversations with artists and academics, collection and exhibition tours with curators, study trips abroad with the SAHA team, and tailormade sessions for professional development and networking.
The initial program of SAHA Studio is held between August 2019 and February 2020 with the participation of four artists: Larissa Araz (1990) from Istanbul, Alper Aydın (1989) from Ordu, Özgür Demirci (1982) from Izmir andSibel Horada (1980) from Istanbul. SAHA Studio will host an open studio and a panel discussion to share their research and production with the public by the end of February. For the nomination and selection of artists in 2019–2020, SAHA’s board invited educator and curator Vasıf Kortun, artist Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, and the founding director of SAHA Studio and curator Çelenk Bafra, who also approached five independent art initiatives to nominate artists from different regions of Turkey: Torun in Ankara, sub in Çanakkale, Loading in Diyarbakır,Hayy and Karantina in Izmir.
SAHA Studio also hosts international curators and researchers within the scope of SAHA’s curatorial program. The curatorial program provides accommodation, coworking space, assistance for research and a stipend to invited curators. First guest of SAHA Studio is Alesha Mercado, who will come from Mexico in October to make a research on art and sustainable development in Turkey. In the meantime, SAHA Studio’s new partnership with the De Appel Curatorial Programmesupports local curator Naz Kocadere’s ten-month research between Amsterdam and Istanbul. SAHA’s ongoing partnerships with international institutions such as Ashkal Alwanin Beirut, Delfina Foundationin London, Rijksakademiein Amsterdam, ISCPin New York, Independent Curators Internationaland AICAwill also contribute in the SAHA Studio’s programs in the future.
SAHA Studio is made possible by the support of more than 100 members of the SAHA Association and corporate supporters Abdi İbrahim Pharmaceuticals, Borusan Holding, Eczacıbaşı Holding, Garanti BBVA, Karadeniz Holding and Petrol Ofisi together with in-kind contributions or donations by As Teknolojik İnşaat, TEPTA Lighting, VitrA&Intema, Füsun Eczacıbaşı, Polisan Kansai Paint, Nurus, Nesrin Esirtgen, Zeynep Tümertekin, IKEA, MGS, Muattar Saydam, BEK and A&B.
Transfer
Total of 12 artists, one for each month, will produce unique works for the exhibition place by using it as a workshop during this project, which was initiated by Gizem Karakaş. The art work(s), which are produced by the artists, will be placed in the exhibition place after they fulfil the duration of workshops and the exhibition will be hold under the same name on January 2020 after a year of work. This exhibition will be also considered as 10th year exhibition of Galeri 5.
The project “Devir” is searching for dynamics between individual and collective production, viewer and producer, borders and freedom areas. The artists, who will join the project, will be decided by transfer system: The artist, who is selected to start the project on January, will select the artist of February; and artist of February will select the following artist of March and the process will continue so. Merve Ünsal is the first artist, who will also start the project on January, to be selected by Gizem Karakaş.
The artists will be evaluating their works by considering the continuity of previous works of other artists, moreover the place they are in, and the people, relationships, dynamics around them. An interview about the transfer will take place when an artist leaves the workshop and another artist takes it over at the beginning of every month. The artist, who is leaving the workshop, will inform the next artist about his/her works and period while the next artist asking questions about the previous work in this interview which will be open for viewers.
Artists: Merve Ünsal, Lara Ögel, Sena Başöz, Merve Ertufan, Burcu Yağcıoğlu, Sibel Horada, Gül Ilgaz, Melis Bilgin, Özgür Demirci, Ayşe İdil İdil.
F: PHOTOCOPY PUBLICATION PROJECT
will be in Diyarbakır, Ankara and Istanbul on September
Hayy Açık Alan is in Diyarbakır, İstanbul and Ankara in September after her first exhibition in İzmir with the participation of artists from Ankara, Eskişehir, İzmir, Diyarbakır, İstanbul, Indianapolis and Porto, curated by Umut Altıntaş with the support of Spaces of Culture.
The exhibition will be held at the A4 Atölye in Diyarbakır from 7 September to 5 October 2019, at the Kıraathane Istanbul Literature House on 10 – 20 September 2019 and at Torunin Ankara from 20 September to 5 October 2019.
26 artists from different disciplines were invited to F to produce a work where they questioned concepts such as “originality, copying, reproduction, distribution and format” within the limited capabilities of the photocopier, abiding by the A5, A4 and A3 dimensions. Each artist responded to this invitation with a photocopy-work while involving their own professional practices. These experiments, which can be defined as a conceptual representation of the fanzine culture, turned into an original publication with their own names under the title of F.
The first exhibition of F in Izmir consists of the works of Yunus Ak, Pınar Akkurt, Deniz Aktaş, Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu, Cenkhan Aksoy, Gizem Hız Altıntaş, Umut Altıntaş, Özgür Demirci, Orkun Destici, Canan Erbil, Fevkalade (Emre Parlak, Deniz Cem Önduygu), Cem İleri, Borga Kantürk, Okay Karadayılar, Ezgi Ceren Kayırıcı, Melike Koçak, Toros Mutlu, Aslı Narin, Metehan Özcan, Sarp Sözdinler, Melike Taşcıoğlu, Kusay Tatlı, Berkay Tuncay, Ulaş Uğur, Merve Ünsal, Erdem Varol.
As a project which comprises of exhibitions and other events, F will continue in Ankara, Istanbul and Diyarbakır with the participation of new artists after İzmir. Main exhibitions will be accompanied by interviews and workshops. In addition, the artist will take part in the archives of the institutions and libraries interested in the publication, will be sold or distributed at reasonable prices within the permits of the artists.
The book F, will be published on November, including texts by Umut Altıntaş and photos by Studio Majo (Engin Gerçek) by the support of Spaces of Culture…
*The Project F is supported by “Spaces of Culture”, an initiation by Goethe-Institut, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Consulate General of Sweden in Istanbul, and the Institut Francais de Turquie in cooperation with Anadolu Kültür and Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV)
**Thanks to SAHA Foundation and Roberto Cimetta Fund for the generous support to Hayy Open Space.
Living and producing in İzmir: Authors of the City
Yıldız Çintay Art Group
Just like with any concept, there is a series of references that bestowes identity to a city.
The references, which construct an ever changing city image with every repetition, emerge, evolve and fade away in time into the unconscious of the collective memory.
This exhibition is the product of an ongoing project in which a group of artists living and producing in Izmir tracks references as such; and the group gathers visuals and texts about how these references emerge, live and how they become reinterpreted and reappropriated in time.
The six references in focus are as follows: the palm tree which was introduced to the city in 1930s for constructing a Mediterranian city image and its recessive sibling ocaliptus; the “Reclining Female Sculptures”, which since 1953, the visitors of Culture Park are compelled to take photos with; the “Ataturk, His Mother and Women’s Rights Monument”, which was originally built in 1973 with donations of the citizens, and the bigger replica constructed by the Karşıyaka Municipality which replaced the original in 2017; the footbridge connecting the seaside to Kemeraltı, which served in Konak between 1977 and 1993, until it was relocated into Menemen; Palet Restaurant, city’s only building over the sea until it was demolished for the grand infill in 1997; and the Basmane Bus Garage lot, which until this day remains a foundation cavity called the “Shame Hole” due to the cancellation permit of a skyscrapper project.
The group shares documents composed of photographs, interviews, postcards, publications, sketches; and invites the visitors to add to this collection. In addition, the exhibition hosts some site-specific art and design projects.
Yıldız Çintay Art Group is named after Yıldız Cinema in Basmane, and founded in 2016. The Group is composed of artists, working on collective memory and representations of space.
The Exhibition Team:
Nisan Güven
Metehan Özcan
Müşerref Şerifaki
Serap Tok
Hazal Turgut
Yahya Yazı
Guest Artists and Groups:
Darağaç
Burak Dikilitaş
Özgür Demirci
Sultan Gökdemir
Güven İncirlioğlu
RITM Research Group: Sergio Taddonio and Nağme Ebru Aydeniz
Emre Yıldız
26 MAYIS/ May 2018 17:00
13 TEMMUZ/ July 2018 18:00
organized by
Özgür Demirci & Suat Öğüt
Opening on November 8, a selection from the Trumbauer Family Collection will be on exhibit at Kasa Galeri for the first time in Istanbul in a partnership between Özgür Demirci and Suat Öğüt. The collection represents the extensive history of the Trumbauer family, and will be available for viewing by prior appointment from Wednesday to Saturday between 1 pm and 3 pm until December 23, 2017. A member of the family’s private security detail will accompany visitors during their visit.
The Trumbauer Family is interested in works of art located in public areas [parks and museums]. The family collection consists of works obtained from such locations and has been growing over generations. This is the first time a special selection from the family collection will be exhibited to create a new style of narration which explains the role of the exhibits in collective memory, their conversion from works of art to commodities, and their ways of presentation. This collection revisits works that have ceased to exist or had never existed in the first place, which directly intervene in real stories throughout history.
Reservation: rsvp.trumbauer@gmail.com
from: suatogut@gmail.com
cc: ozgrdemirci@gmail.com
to: John Mark Tillmann Trumbauer: johnmarktillmann@trumbauer.de
date: 9 August 2016
subject: Trumbauer Family Collection in İstanbul?
Dear John,
Hope this e-mail finds you well.
It was such a great conversation we have had at the bar the other night. As I told you the idea of bringing the collection to Istanbul, hereby I would be happy to introduce you with my colleague Ozgur Demirci, who is very much up to be part of the organization.
We are still amazed by the story you have told me about your family collection that include all the hidden but well known artworks in the art history. Right after your confirmation we have approached the Kasa Gallery in Istanbul, they are also willing to host the collection in their space.
We are very much looking forward to hearing from you.
Hope you have a good summer!
Best,
Suat Ogut
from: johnmarktillmann@trumbauer.de
cc: ozgrdemirci@gmail.com
to: Suat Ogut: suatogut@gmail.com
date:17 October 2016
subject: Trumbauer Family Collection in İstanbul?
Dear Suat and Ozgur,
It was my pleasure to meet with you. Sorry for the late response, I have been hunting new art works by emerging artists 🙂 I had talked with my grandfather about presenting the collection in İstanbul. As you can imagine he is one of the difficult farmer to convince him. Therefor it took a while to get back to you with only one condition. He would like to present the collection by his private security fortunately who is able to speak Turkish as well. I hope this is fine for you.
Please let me know the details about the time period of the exhibition.
Looking forward!
Best regards,
John M.T. Trumbauer
from: ozgrdemirci@gmail.com
cc: Suat Ogut: suatogut@gmail.com
to: johnmarktillmann@trumbauer.de
date:24 October 2016
subject: Trumbauer Family Collection in İstanbul?
Dear John,
We are very happy to hear that you confirm to present your family collection at Kasa Gallery.
Exhibition will take a place in between 8th November and 23rd December 2017. It is totally fine with us to host your collection with the private security. Exhibition is open to public every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 1pm to 3pm only by appointment. Please have no doubt about the safety of the collection, it will be insured and well protected in the gallery. Thank you so much for your cooperation. Let’s be in touch for boring bureaucratic paper works for the transportation soon.
Greetings to your grandfather and all the best,
Ozgur Demirci
“Survival Kit” can be perceived as an attempt to remove the ambiguity by establishing a certain framework that may or may not be mandatory for contemporary art to function in the future to come. By collaborating for six months, five Turkish and five Russian artists researched different methodologies, such as camouflage and irony, to create works that are both united by the idea of “subtle art” yet divided by their specific subjects & practices.
8 Haziran – 16 Temmuz tarihleri arasında Müze Evliyagil sinemasında ücretsiz olarak izlenebilir.
In A Break In Life
Adahan Hotel Istanbul
4 May – 14 May 2017
OPENING: 4 May 2017 Thursday 18.30
The routine creates a secure space by constructing defined boundaries in a regular and repetitive flow. This secure space also harbours familiarity, banality and a soothing indifference, while decreasing the risk ratio. The severity of the routine dampens the sensations and emotions. In time, the person becomes their own routine. Familiarity covers the casual, and makes it complicated for us to know what it is and what it involves. The routine flow bears the allure of shallow shores in a life of boundless uncertainty.
Curated by Ecem Erinanç, the exhibition “In A Break In Life” meets its audience between May 4th and May 14th at ADANAN -1 Gallery. The exhibition collects the works created in different times and in different contexts by the artists Sabo, Özgür Demirci, Ali Elmacı, Horasan, Burak Kabadayı, Müge Kayacan, and Ezgi Tok, and brings them together around the concept of routine.
MAIN GALLERY
En Masse: Books Orchestrated
April 21 – July 1, 2017
Books, foremost agents of intellectual and visual stimuli, pose as objects of desire and forms of aesthetic due to their psychical precision that stems from their geometric formations and mysterious potential. When loosely arranged together through a conceptual or aesthetic vision–whether piled or adjoined– books adopt further narratives distinct in their structure, yet still original in their intellectual content. En Masse: Books Orchestrated, organized by Osman Can Yerebakan, contemplates various possibilities on intellectual thinking and collective culture, bringing together various artists that utilize book arrangement in their practice, while suggesting an alternative perspective on analyzing and interpreting materials beyond their physicality and content.
Complex and profound in their pristine forms, books endure as agents of both subjective specification and individualistic expression. Embedded with certain connotations, each book transfers an aura via its outer case. Authors, titles or artwork covering their layers convey the content of a book, while dictating assumptions on its subject matter. The exhibition aims to investigate cultural, historical, and emotional attributions on books as phenomenons while analyzing the dialogue between every individual edition with one another and their audience.
The artists include Louis Zoellar Bickett, Jordan Buschur, Emilio Chapela, Özgür Demirci, Donald Daedalus, Leor Grady, Katarina Jerinic, Nina Katchadourian, j.c. lenochan, Liz Linden, Michael Mandiberg, Phil Shaw, Ward Shelley & Douglas Paulson, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and Julia Weist.
Özgür Demirci’s video work featured at the 36th Istanbul Film Festival
Exhibition by Fraser Stewart & Özgür Demirci
Opening: 10 March 6-10 pm
Exhibition: 10 March- 7 April
Corridor Project Space ( Veemkade 574, Amsterdam)
It’s the moment when it already happened when the energy that kept you going has slipped away. The moment you found the place to loose it all together. It will bring endless possibilities and combinations. It is fertilising rather than destructive Sudden Stop. It’s the future and you are part of it.
Sudden Stop will present new works by Özgür Demirci (1982, TR) Fraser Stewart (1986, UK). For this exhibition the artists inquired the moment of the Sudden Stop.
Demirci looked into the pleasure/ energy that people get when they speed yet keep control.
‘The bumper car is a real life simulator, which is generating act of the crash. Bumper cars invented for fun, actually this entertainment tool prepare the new generations to the modern future. There is no difference between real car accident and bumper car, real impact is getting used to having it. In order to produce new goods or ideas old ones should have crashed. That’s why maybe bumper car has no brake, once you get in you should accelerate and hit.’ (Özgür Demirci, 2017.)
Stewart’s work involves the key element failure. It reference the concept of planned obsolescence.
‘So the plane takes off and hooligans are singing. Liars United will never be divided.You look from the window and there is smoke puffing from the engine. It starts to break apart, shards of metal zip off and disappear. Suddenly and without warning the wing is gone. The fuselage starts to crack and rile in pain. The air begins to rush in and then suddenly it is gone. You are falling, the wind is pushing and spinning. And you think to yourself, I hope they don’t find that bloody Trump book in my suitcase.’ (Fraser Stewart, 2017.)
Fraser Stewart (1986, UK) Studied at Leeds Met University School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design and got his Masters of Fine Art at Artez, Arhnem. Between 2013-2015 he was a resident on Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Fraser Stewart lives and works in Amsterdam.
Özgür Demirci (1982, TR) Studied at Yıldız Technical University, Bachelor of Art and Design, Interdisciplinary Arts, İstanbul and got his Masters at Valand School of Fine Arts, Göteborg, Sweden. Currently he is a PhD student at Dokuz Eylül University, Art and Design, İzmir, Turkey.
Corridor Project Space is an initiative where cultural narratives, history and collective memory can be shared with the public in a dialogue between contemporary art. We initiate projects where artists, writers, curators, activists and theorists can meet, think and work on a project together with the aim to blend practices in the exhibitions.
more info: www.corridorprojectspace.c
Corridor Project Space has gained the support of SAHA Dernegi within the grant program established in order to support the Sustainability of Independent Art Initiatives for the period of 2016-2017.
Imago Mundi – Mediterranean Routes
Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa – ZAC – ZISA Zona Arti Contemporanee,Feb 18 – Mar 10 2017
The Mediterranean Sea, an ancient crossroads of civilizations, cultures and histories. Dedicated to the peoples of this common space, “Mediterranean Routes” is an exhibition of Imago Mundi collections from the 19 countries bordering the Mare Nostrum, on display in Palermo from 18th February to 10th March as part of the Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo at Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa – Spazio Zac – Zona Arti Contemporanee. The waters of the Mediterranean, navigated since ancient times by fishermen, merchants, soldiers and explorers, are a place of meeting and intersection, fusion and socialization, synonymous with prosperity and openness for the civilizations born on its shores, and for those nearby, who turn their gaze to the sea. Imago Mundi has chosen to dedicate this new exhibition to the Mare Nostrum (Our Sea, as the Mediterranean was known to the Romans), whose ‘our’ aspires to be an expression of belonging on the part of all nations who share this sea, this cradle of Western civilization: from the Middle East, with Palestine and Israel, Syria and Lebanon, to the African coast, with Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, crossing Europe from the far west of Portugal to Greece and Turkey through Spain, France and Italy, with a focus on Campania and Sicily, and beyond, through Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. The exhibition offers an unprecedented and original contemporary insight into this area with the sea at its heart: the 21 collections, almost 3,500 artworks by as many artists, collectively explore new routes across this sea which in recent decades has also become a barrier, identified with tragedy, despair and death. The show includes the exhibition “Shame and Soul”: British photographer Giles Duley and Syrian artist Semaan Khawam, exiled in Lebanon, both present in their respective Imago Mundi collections, dialogue with each other through their own art. A video-documentary traces the highlights of their meeting, which took place in Beirut in January. Their story becomes a symbol of how no barriers exist between humans, when hearts beat as one. “Mediterranean Routes” thus proposes a comprehensive picture of the Mediterranean Sea, which, despite the dramatic events of our times, still wishes to be a constructive symbol of hope, opportunity, future and beauty.
http://www.imagomundiart.com/exhibitions/imago-mundi-mediterranean-routes
Daire Projects
Fragility of Now // Şimdinin Kırılganlığı @ 42 Maslak Art!Space
9 February / Şubat – 1 April / Nisan 2017
Artists // Sanatçılar
Zeynep Akgün, Özgür Demirci, Ahmet Duru, Sibel Horada, Hayal İncedoğan, Nesren Jake, Sümer Sayın, Berkay Tuncay, Ayla Turan, Sayat Uşaklıgil
http://www.dairesanat.com/index.php/tr/
Özgür Demirci – Fifteen artists to follow this season in the Turkish art scene
“As Turkish contemporary artists and galleries open to the international art scene, the awareness and knowledge of the country’s art scene has also increased. With the new trends in world contemporary art, Turkey’s art scene has become more famous. The Hürriyet Daily News spoke to 15 prominent names in the Turkish art scene to find out about the rising names in the country
As the season begins in Turkey’s art scene, many new and upcoming artists have entered the frame. While Contemporary Istanbul art fair is approaching, hopes are high and many are waiting to be discovered both as galleries and as artists. Yet, the question remains the same, who are the rising names in the Turkish market?
Özgür Demirci is an artist we watch while he creates videos, performances, objects, and site-specific installations. His work is rooted in socio-cultural codes that capture the human experience and entails gestures and transformations based upon such observations.”
Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard
30 SEPTEMBER – 5 NOVEMBER
Artists: Özgür Demirci, Elmas Deniz, Didem Erk, Lee Garcia, Leyla, Hacer Kıroğlu, Alican Leblebici, Ali Miharbi, Ceylan Öztürk, İrem Tok, Şener Özmen, Seda Yıldız
Pilot launches the new art season with a group exhibition entitled Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard, which runs between 30 September and 5 November. Featuring works by 12 artists, the exhibition is an attempt to explore new possibilities as well as the complexity inherent in the evolving relationship between art and language. The works on view challenge the idea of a language, full of rules and restrictions, which compels immediate readings; instead, they embrace pliable and even subjective versions.
Many works in the exhibition use a range of strategies to free the written word from the conventional surfaces and functions it has been associated with, and to divorce language from a linear narrative. Other artists concentrate on the material qualities of language by displaying text, words and books as objects.
The exhibition borrowed its title from the 1897 poem by French poet Stephan Mallarmé. Un Coup de Dés was printed 16 years after the author’s death, following his meticulous instructions. Spread over 11 open-face pages, the poem that flows along irregular lines amidst blank spaces inspired artist Marcel Broodthaers, over half a century later, for his namesake artist’s book.
Özgür Demirci was awarded the 2016 O’Art prize established by Odeabank in Turkey for his video installation “From the Silver Screen to Soccer Field”.
The exhibition ‘Hotel Europa’ showcases young creators alongside established video artists. Fifty years ago, the first portable video system was introduced on the market and today anyone can make a film with a smartphone. Now that so many creations are categorized as mixed media, it seems that video art is returning to its roots.
Never before Concordia presented an exhibition with only video art. “We believe it is important to show the diversity of visual art. Video artists bring us in a world full of moving images and intense media and we want to show the beauty of this phenomenon. The aim is to draw attention back to the medium and not only its use to serve a subject, “says Petra Boonstra, exhibition programmer at Concordia.
The exhibition presents, inter alia, works from The NITS, Dutch band around singer and artist Henk Hofstede, and Australian artist Pilar Mata Dupont, next to a selection of young video artists from all over the world. These young artists have been chosen through an open call. It is for Concordia a ludic way to offer a podium to young and fresh creators.
Imago Mundi – Luciano Benetton Collection
227 works that give a real time snapshot of the art scene in a complex country, suspended between East and West, between Islamization and modernization, between advancement and untamed growth. Creativity, culture and art that can play an important role in enhancing an identity founded on the particularity of Turkey, a country between two worlds. Art that transcends boundaries, breaks rules and restrictions, bypasses all is, as in every Imago Mundi collection, the common thread of this collection that rightly also includes 20 works by Kurdish artists, the largest ethnic group in the country.
Istanbul Codex. Contemporary Artists from Turkey is an Imago Mundi collection, a cultural, democratic, global, non-profit project, promoted by Luciano Benetton with the aim of creating the widest possible mapping of the different contemporary artistic experiences of our world. In Imago Mundi, each country is represented by the works of established artists and new talents, commissioned with the maximum freedom of expression, whose only constraint is the 10×12 cm format.
Bugün Açılış / Opening Today: Özgür Demirci – İthaf Edilmiş / Dedicated
Özgür Demirci’nin kişisel sergisi İthaf Edilmiş, 16 Ocak – 7 Şubat 2015 tarihleri arasında Öktem&Aykut’ta. Açılış 15 Ocak Perşembe akşamı, 18.30’da.
//
Özgür Demirci’s one-person exhibition Dedicated will be on show at Öktem&Aykut from January 16th until February 7th, 2015. The opening will be on Thursday, January 15th, 2015, at 18:30.
Dedicated, is a first-person narrative of growing up into an artist; a self-criticism of a career interrupted by failures, setbacks and even “malfunctions”; a journey towards familiar lands with a new map at hand.
Demirci’s third one-person exhibition hosts works in different media including video, photography and installation. The main theme of Demirci’s Dedicatedis the mark of a father-son relationship within the coming-of-age story of an individual, a relationship vaguely touched by the recent history of modern Turkey.
Demirci obtained his BA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Yildiz Technical University in 2008, and his MA in C:Art:Media at Valand School of Fine Arts in 2010. He took part in group shows and public projects in Turkey, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Demirci lives and works in Istanbul and is a member of Pasaj, a pioneering Istanbul-based non-profit artist organization.
The aim of this Exposition within the OSTRALE is the creative discussion with nationalistic prejudices, as well as the formation of a long-term cooperation between curators and institutions which will produce seven more exhibitions.In recent years, an increasing number of works of art have emerged that focus on nationalistic tendencies in Europe. As such, the main emphasis will be placed on the presentation of contemporary Roma artists of the V4 countries.
A team of curators from seven different countries is developing an exhibition series to take place in seven locations (Pécs, Debrecen, Prague, Kosice, Krakow, Dresden and Berlin) starting on the 21st of February in Prague.
Artists: ABBAS, Basel and ABOU-RAHME, Ruanne (CY/PS) Borsos, Lörinc (H) CAHEN, Daya (NL) CATALBAS, Safak (TR) – AIR, COLLEE, Sandra (NL) – AIR, CSEFALVAY, András (SK) – AIR, DEMİRCİ, Özgür (TR), EMBER, Sári /FÁTYOL, Viola (H), ESTERHÁZY, Marcell (H), GRATZFELD, Maja (D), GRUPPO Tökmag (H), HORVÁTH, Tibor (H), JUHÁSZ R. József (SK), KADAN, Nikita (SK), KASSABOYS (SK), KEREZSI, Nemere (H), KISSPÁL, Szabolcs (H), MORTIER, Olivia (B), MUJA, Alban (KOS), MURESAN, Ciprian (RO), NEMES, Csaba (H), NEMETH, Ilona (SK), NITSCH, Hanna (D), NORMAN, Kristina (EST), OLÁH, Mara (H), PERJOVSCHI, Dan (RO), PIACEK, Martin (SK), RADZISZEWSKI, Karol (PL), RAFA, Tomas (SK), RAVASZ, Jonathan, SLAVIN, Ran (IL), SLOVÁKOVÁ, Martina (SK), SOCIÉTÉ Réaliste (H / FR), SUVARI, Gökce (TR), THER, Mark (CZ), TKÁČOVÁ, Lucia (SK) and MONA CHISA Anetta (RO), TOMIC, Milica (SRB), VARGA, Jaroslav (SK)
Partners: Management Nonprofit Ltd Pécs HU, Approach Art Association (Pécs HU),
MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts (Debrecen HU), Divus (Praha CZ), Kassák Institute (Nove Zamky SK), Apartman Project (Istanbul TR), Space Gallery (Bratislava SK)
Curators: Lenka Klodová (Tschechisches Zentrum Prag CZ), Ivan Mecl (Divus
Studio Prag CZ), Márton Pacsika (Artycok TV Prag CZ), Rita Varga (Approach Art Association Pécs HU), Andràs Edit (Art HIstorian and critic Budapest HU), Krisztián Kukla (MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts Debrecen HU), Klára Orosz (Artist / Curator Pécs HU), Viktória Tóth (Total Quality Management Analyst Budapest HU), Boglárka Árvay (Künstler Pécs HU), Michal Štofa (European Cultur Capital Košice 2013/Art and Cultur organising Košice SK), József R. Juhász Studio erté (Nové Zámky SK), Dano Dida (Artist / Curator Bratislava SK), Selda Asal (Apartment Project Istanbul TR), Anna Lebensztejn (Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków PL)
Mamut Art Project
Private Nationalism at Kunsthalle Košice
Artists: Kinga Araya (PL) Dalibor Bača (SK) José Miguel Biscaya (NL) Borsos Lőrinc (H) Kassa Boys (SK) Ulu Braun (D) Daya Cahen (NL) András Cséfalvay (SK) Radovan Čerevka (SK) David Damjanovič / Jarmila Mitríková (SK) Oscar Dawicki (PL) Özgür Demirci (TR) Marcell Esterházy (H) Groupe Guma Guar (CZ) Tibor Horváth (H) József R. Juhász (SK) Nikita Kadan (UA) Matej Kaminský (SK) Nemere Kerezsi (H) Szabolcs KissPál (H) Tomáš Klima (SK) Gábor Kristóf (H) Barbara Lubich (D) MCFSAE (CZ) Michal Moravčik (SK) Olivia Mortier (B) Ciprian Muresan (RO) Martin Piaček (SK) Karol Radzinewski (PL) Tomás Rafa (SK) RAFANI (CZ) Jonathan Ravasz (SK) Société Réaliste (H) Martina Slováková (SK) Pavel Sterec (CZ) Gökçe Süvari (TR) Bálint Szombathy (H) Mark Ther (CZ) Lucia Tkáčová / Anetta Mona Chisa (SK) Jaroslav Varga (SK) Jan Vormann (D) Little Warsaw (H) Richard Wiesner (CZ)
Pozývame vás na vernisáž výstavy Private Nationalism/Privátny nacionalizmus, ktorá sa uskutoční 27. marca o 18. hodine v Kunsthalle/Hale umenia Košice. Medzinárodný výstavný projekt je vytvorený v spolupráci s inštitúciami Approach Arch Assotiation Pécs (H), MODEM Debrecín (H), Kassakovo centrum (SK), SPACE Bratislava (SK), K13 – Košické kultúrne centrá, Divus Praha (CZ), Bunkier Sztuki Krakow (PL) Ostrale Dražďany (D) a Apartment Project Istanbul (T). Projekt predstaví výtvarné diela, reagujúce na pálčivú problematiku nacionalizmu, aktuálnu, no špecifickú, vo všetkých zúčastnených krajinách. Umelecké diela budú vystavené postupne v Prahe, Košiciach, Pécsi, Krakove a Drážďanoch.
Výstava potrvá do 30. apríla.
Kurátori: Ilona Németh, Jozef R. Juhász, Michal Štofa
Výstavu uvedie Edit Andras (H), historička umenia a kurátorka.
Otváracie hodiny v Kunsthalle/Hale umenia Košice: utorok – nedeľa: 11:00 – 18:00
Private Nationalism
Artists: Tibor Horváth, Mara Oláh, Csaba Nemes, József Szolnoki (Hungary), Özgür Demirci (Turkey), Oskar Dawicki, Karol Radziszewski, Agnieszka Kurant, Cecylia Malik (Poland), András Cséfalvay, Martin Piaček, Tomáš Rafa, Jaroslav Varga, Martina Slováková, Jonathan Ravasz, Ilona Németh, József R. Juhász (Slovakia), Barbara Lublich, Ulu Braun (Germany), Daya Cahen (Netherlands) and MCFSAE (from Czechia Ivan Mečl, Lenka Klodová, Jan Turner, Filip Turek, Martin Zet, Šárka Mikesková, Jiří Surůvka, Ivan Vosecký, S.d.Ch. and from Serbia Uros Djuric
Opening cabaret by MCFSAE
Prepared by: Approach Art Association, Pécs (HU), Divus, Praha (CZ), Kassák Centre, Nové Zámky (SK), Zsolnay Culture Quarter, Pécs (H), OSTRALE, Drážďany (D) SPACE, Bratislava (SK), ApartmanProjekt, Istanbul (TR) and Bunkier Sztuki (PL)
Divus Prague
“We came, but you weren’t there.” is a site-specific work based on sound activated interactive light installation. The aim of the installation is to invite audience to think about protesting, participation, and behaving collectively by their physical attendance. This work is a symbolic installation to show and observe the power of mass, especially focusing on body and physical interaction of individuals. Demirci, turns exhibition space into public action space based on collective consciousness. Demirci invites audience to think and feel about the power of familiar concepts like coexisting and participation with individuals’ attendance in this light and sound installation.
Pasaj
It is a non-profit artist initiative organized to support artists who do not wish to perform in commercial art platforms. It is an area where artist and artist groups can create, show, share and discuss their work with audiences and participants.
www.pasajist.com
Address: Banker Sokak, No: 6B Galata, Beyoğlu, İstanbul
(Downstairs of Ot Cafe)
Visiting days and hours
Friday – Sunday
Hacked me in Intimacy
Küratör | Ceren Turan
Ardımızda sanal izler bırakarak deneyimlediğimiz şehrin günlük yaşantısı, fiziksel gerçekliğin sosyal ağlar üzerinden sanal ortama aktarıldığı alternatif bir yaşam yanılgısı yaratmaktadır. Günümüz toplumlarında gelişmişlik düzeyi kültürün doğanın önüne geçmesiyle ilişkilendirilirken, insanın özden kopuşunun bu ayrımda temellendiği vurgulanır. Teknolojisiz sürdürülemeyen ve moda olanla en yeninin takibine odaklı şehrin yaşam biçimleri, varlığımızın özünü anlamlandıran -şiddet güdümlü- doğa algısından yoksunluğun ve içimizde sürekli yer değiştiren boşluğun büyümesinin bir koşuludur. Yaratıcı endüstrinin özneleri, şehirde toplumsal mekânı oluşturan kalabalıklar içinde beraberliğin yalnızlıktan geçtiği bir büyük şehirli olma haline sürüklenirken; beden ve zihinleri hedef alan sanal kontrol hapishanesinde sıkışmışlık durumuyla, şehirle kurulan bedensel ve mekânsal algıya dayalı ilişkide aidiyet duygusunun eksikliği aynı anda tecrübe edilmektedir.
English:
People’s daily experiences in the city leave behind virtual traces, which create a simulated reality where physical facts are transferred to the virtual platform of social networks. People’s separation from the essence of being is caused by culture’s conquest of nature, which represents a high level of social development. Today’s urban lifestyle can never be without technology, people chase whatever is new and on. This is the cause of people’s disconnection with nature and a continuously growing emptiness within the individual. The subjects of the creative industries are the city dwellers themselves, left alone in the city crowd, experiencing the congestion of a virtual prison which controls physical and mental creativeness, losing the state of belonging to the very city which is nourished by the perception of body and space.
BufferZone
Özgür Demirci has been selected for the ARCUS Project Residency
For the open call of applications, there were 337 applications from 55 countries / regions. After the selection, following 3 artists are visiting in Moriya city, Ibaraki and working at ARCUS Studio for 90 days.
http://www.arcus-project.com/en/topic/2012/topic120829100000.html
Reflecting on Reflection
Galeri Manâ is pleased to announce Reflecting on Reflection, an exhibition curated by Abaseh Mirvali between the dates September 18–November 10, presenting works by Saâdane Afif, Abbas Akhavan, Francis Alÿs, Kutluğ Ataman, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Özgür Demirci, Olafur Eliasson, Cevdet Erek, Lara Favaretto, Matt Mullican, Philippe Parreno, Sarkis, Simon Starling, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Mario Garcia Torres and Alexander Wagner
Investigating the concept of “reflection” in reference as much to the materiality of the works as to the intellectual reflection they produce on human experience in both perceptual and cognitive terms, the exhibition is composed of works that dialogue through the phenomenological experience of reflection to convey the process through which concepts and ideas are formed in relationship to the material, social and historical contexts that surround us.
Olafur Eliasson’s light-reflecting Emergence Lamp 9 creates an immersive experience actively engaging the viewer in the interpretation of the work, the meaning and concrete materiality of which is revealed only through its encounter with the viewer’s perception. In Kutlug Ataman’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, the dramaturgical texts that were originally intended for the stage are animated one after the other on a flat surface at an illegible speed, thus reflecting on the loss of meaning and trauma resulting from the encounter of Western and Eastern concepts of text and book. In Nanjing Particles, Simon Starling proposes a reflection on photography as a medium and on its relationship with historical truth by scratching the silver particles off the two dimensional surface of a 19th century archival footage to create large, stainless steel sculptures replicating their exact form. He thus reveals a permanent trait characterizing East-West relationships from the 19th century Chinese immigrant workers imported in Massachusetts, to present day workers in China who built Starling’s two sculptures with the same title and whose distorted faces we see reflected from the surface of the sculpture, onto the final photographs.
Cevdet Erek takes the Turkish word for reflection, “yansima”, which also means “onomatopoeia”, and builds a conceptual link between visual and auditory forms beyond language and through an investigation of sounds, words and visual forms that human beings develop by imitating nature with their bodies and physical movements. “Reflection” thus refers both to the mimetic mechanisms of imitation and representation and to abstraction through dialectic encounter in a single act and through different variations, proposes to consider “mimesis” and “performativity” together.
The second floor of the gallery is turned into a film theatre, projecting 3 different films everyday starting at 11:00 am, 2:00pm and 4:45pm. Ririkrit Tiravanija’s Chew The Fat is a series of autobiographical conversations between Tiravanija and 12 well-known artists of his generation, namely Pierre Huyghes, Jorge Pardo, Douglas Gordon, Angela Bulloch, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Elizabeth Peyton, Tobias Rehberger, Carsten Hoeller, Liam Gillick, Andrea Zittel, Philippe Parreno and Maurizio Cattelan. The/Tea is an essay and documentation of Mario Garcia Torres’ artistic gesture surrounding Alighiero Boetti’s One Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, reflecting on the inevitable presence of the artist in his own work as a “persona”. Inspired by the miraculous rescuing of the Afghan film archive, Francis Alÿs’ film Reel/Unreel reflects on our relationship to image and representation by connecting a film roll to the children’s street game of rolling a wheel with a stick. Garcia Torres’ The/Tea and Alÿs’ Reel-Unreel, two films commissioned by Documenta 13 will be shown in Istanbul for the first time after premiering in Kassel.
Reflecting on Reflection also presents a self-reflective stance by displaying works that engage with Galeri Manâ’s space and the history of its building: Ozgur Demirci’s Penalty Area, with its chalk-on-blackboard imagery, evokes the internalization of violence through education while with its installation on the front façade of the gallery building, it becomes a self-reflective sign of the gallery and the exhibition echoing into the street. A site-specific work by Hera Buyuktasciyan, installed on the wellhead that has been long devoid of its function, activates the cistern beneath the gallery building and its invisible history. In this sense, Reflecting on Reflection resonates with Galeri Manâ’s new direction and practice as a gallery and marks the beginning of a new cycle under the curatorship of Abaseh Mirvali, focusing on social, historical and architectural aspects of the building and the neighborhood that the gallery inhabits. It is the first in a series of exhibitions concerned with “reflection” and “reflecting”, taken not only physically, as in sound waves or light, but intellectually, analyzing, reconsidering and questioning experiences within a broad context of issues.
Galeri Manâ, located in the Tophane district of Istanbul, is a converted wheat mill that dates to the 19th century and features 400 square meters of exhibition space. Founded by Mehveş Arıburnu in 2011, the gallery seeks to establish an inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue through its artistic program, special events and publications. Galeri Mana works with artists who stand on the edges of contemporary artistic practice by investigating the boundaries of their mediums and expanding their conceptual reach.
Galeri Manâ is open Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-18:00
La Turo de Babel
Özgür Demirci’s book has been released by LAP Publishing.
Penalty Area – The experiment of punishment
https://www.lap-publishing.com/catalog/details/store/gb/book/978-3-8484-8697-7/penalty-area?search=penalty%20area
Money Issue
Planes, trains, automobiles and boats
A series of video works exploring narratives and issues via the presence of vehicles that feature as social symbols, political motivators or purveyors is being presented in the Walk-in Cinema at SALT Beyoğlu. Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Boats was conceived in response to the first-floor installation Across the Slope by Ahmet Öğüt.
Video works by Robert Smithson, Ant Farm, Wael Shawky, Fernando Sanchez Castillo, Michel de Broin, Özgür Demirci, Ahmet Öğüt & Guy Ben-Ner are part of the Car series in the Walk-in Cinema!
Friday in F.R.A.C
Özgür Demirci has been selected for Unidee in Residence
