10-20 of November 2015
Artists: Ergin Çavusoglu, Nezaket Ekici, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, Paul Hodgson, Antonio Riello,Taus Makhacheva
Organised by: Open Space Istanbul & Open Dialogue Istanbul
Curated by: Huma Kabakcı & Billur Tansel
Following the exhibitions in London and its launch event in Istanbul, the international art project Open Space Istanbul in collaboration with Open Dialogue Istanbul, which aim to bring together the artists, curators and art professionals, is getting ready for its next exhibition entitled “Crossing Lines” that will take place in London. “Crossing Lines” aims to explore the alienation and estrangement process each individual goes through in life, through the interpretations of seven artists from dierent backgrounds and nationalities.
“With the recent global conicts stirring the world, questioning identity, what it means and what it represents becomes more crucial.” The exhibition titled “Crossing Lines” will explore the ever-ongoing search for these identities from the artists’ point of view.
Artists often explore the characteristics that determine our personal and social identity. They construct a sense of who we are as individuals, as a society, or as a nation. They question stereotypes and conventions while exploring attributes such as gender, sexuality, race, nationality and heritage. Therefore, artists’ response and interpretation to this idea of “Crossing Lines” is vital.
Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt’s video titled On the Stage consists of performative scenes of poses of the protesters that are taken from photographs of actual demonstrations meanwhile, Paul Hodgson’s both Untitled 7 and Untitled 9 paintings employ dierent types of pictorial language within a single image in a more subtle way. While Ergin Cavusoglu’s Résurrection des Mannequins video is detailed and descriptive, his Hanged Man relief takes a more forward approach in exploring identity and this aspect of suering of one’s identity. Antonio Riello’s artistic practice assimilates today’s artistic production to more or less an elaborate and ritual form of “identity tracking”. In Nezaket Ekici’s video Veiling and Revealing one can see that the artist explores the intimacy and openness, with the politics of visibility and concealment with a playful (self-) representation. Lastly, in her early video work Carpet Taus Makhacheva constantly rolls in and out of an old Dagestani carpet, known as a kilim. The carpet’s design symbolises the Garden of Eden.
All of these individual approaches to “identity” will be explored thoroughly with this exhibition “Crossing Lines” by also including side events such as; performances, discursive talks, symposiums and presentations exploring the topics identity and culture in order to open up to other possible exhibitions and projects.
http://www.openspaceistanbul.co.uk/crossing-lines/
