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Indepth Arts News:
"Suture/Rupture: Register the Distance Istanbul-Los Angeles"
2003-05-03 until 2003-05-24
Crazy Space
Santa Monica, CA,
USA United States of America
Crazy Space is pleased to announce Suture/Rupture: Register the Distance Istanbul-Los Angeles, an exhibition of four artists from Turkey DAMLA HACALOGLU, SEYDA CESUR, XURBAN.NET dealing with intersecting visions and shifting perspectives of cultural identity. Conceived by Turkish curator Beral Madra.
Suture/Rupture, Register the Distance: Istanbul-Los Angeles will be on view from May 3 through May 24.
Although the critique of orientalism has had a major impact within the context of western and American art, orientalist representation, and the orientalist evaluation of contemporaray art from the Islamic countries still remains deeply
marked by racist legacies. Despite such a depiction of the orient from the western point of view, contemporary artists from Turkey are determined to represent and present themselves in their own terms and to reverse cultural misconceptions by employing seductive and repulsive strategies in their art production.
Located between Europe and Asia, Turkish culture has historically represented states of indeterminacy, oscillating between the orient and occident. This unique position is also the very reason for the many divergent styles and media, different viewpoints, themes and subjects in art production. Being aware of the existing clichés and the oversimplified representations of their work in the west, Turkish artists approach the Los Angeles viewer with dual concerns. They want to discover the common threads between the two cultures while resisting "the evil eye" ofthe west. To this end,
the exhibition will raise many issues: Can we understand artistic creation in terms of national categories, for instance a
"specifically American" or a "specifically Turkish" essence, specifically oriental or occidental? Or is it a more complex process that must be free of oversimplified cliches and shorthand expressions? Rather than providing an answer, the exhibition is designed to provoke questions by providing a platform to voice the concerns of contemporary Turkish art practices.
Beral Madra, www.btmadra.com Born in Istanbul and graduated from University of Istanbul,Turkish, curator Beral Madra is an art critic, curator, and director of BM Contemporary Art Center in Istanbul. She has contributed to the Turkish contemporary art scene in numerous ways. Madra curated many national and international shows in various galleries and art institutions such as Expo Arte, Bari, Italy; Coordination of the 2nd International Istanbul Biennale; Curated the exhibition "Contemporary Art in Historical Spaces" in Suleymaniye Cultural Center and in St. Irene; Curated the Turkish Pavilion in the 45th Venice Biennale; Istanbul in Berlin, Ausstellung Berliner Stipendiaten, Kunstamt Kreuzberg; Curated a group show with artists from Israel and Turkey / ARTFOCUS II / Bat-Yam Art Gallery; Modernities and Memories, 47th Venice Biennale; Modernities & Memories, Dolmabahce Cultural Center, Istanbul (a collaboration between Istanbul Bilgi University and The Rockefeller Foundation); Joseph Kosuth, Guest and Foreigners, Rossini in Turkey, Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul; The Perfumed Garden (49th Venice Biennale, Italy); video and installations from Istanbul with 10 women artists, ATA Center for Contemporary Art, Sofia, Bulgaria. Currently she is the curator of the pavilion of Turkey in the 50th Venice Biennale.
Seyda Cesur
Graduated from Marmara University, artist Seyda Cesur participated in many international and national shows, including Mirror of Balkans, National Museum Gallery Kraljevo, Yugoslavia 2002; 10th Asian Biennale, Bangladesh-2002; Reise Durch das Labyrinth, Pozzo Pozozza Gallery, Kreuzberg,Berlin-1998; New Proposals, New Propositions, Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul-1998.
xurban.net
Hakan Topal and Guven Inciroglu are the core members of xurban.net (www.xurban.net) an online collective dedicated to art and politics and attempts to motivate/provoke theorical/political discussions and online artworks.
xurban.net realized many site-specific installations with online components to circulate through the World Wide Web since 2000. In 49th Venice Biennale Topal and Inciroglu constructed a pool of confession, a collective pool of imagery and deepest secrets, on the web,and actual space. The artists believe that not only in the order of taboos and sexuality, but through game and mockery, the confessions may bring out the most unspeakable, the most violent desire and the hatred, possibly the hidden fascist in every man and woman of the West and the East.
Damla Hacaloglu graduated from CalArts (MFA) and majored in Scenic Design& Integrated Media. Experimenting with intersections of sound image and movement, Hacaloglu created and performed many interdisciplinary projects, including Hexagon (2000), Earthquake (1999), Belly Dance (1999) at CalArts, Los Angeles.
IMAGE:
xurban.net
Shock and Awe
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