POWERISM: a public game by Hamza Kırbaş

Saturday September 17, 2022 | 12-6pm

The performance will take place in front of KODA House at Governors Island, Colonels Row, Building #404B

Click here to view map. Details on how to get to Governors Island here. 

View this event on Governors Island’s website.

POWERISM is a public game created by current RU artist-in-residence Hamza Kırbaş. Anyone who wants to play is invited to walk on top of – or try to walk on top of – tomato paste cans that they hold with strings. There are 5 participants at a time for 10 tomato cans. Participants can transfer their can if they wish to experiment another.

A first iteration of POWERISM was conducted by the artist with a group of children in Istanbul in 2018. Click here for more info.

Context:

Since the beginning of mankind, the exercise of power and more specifically ‘powerism’ – a disposition that supports the hegemonic influence of one group of powered people over another is even more pervasive in our contemporary society because it is more invisible.

By devising this absurd game, the artist likens the concept of ‘powerism’ to the metaphor of a street play conducted by children and adults. POWERISM invites the audience to examine their daily lives where we are at times the playmaker and at other times the subject, ultimately allowing us to question this process.

Click below to see images from the program 

About 

Hamza Kırbaş is a Turkish artist currently in residency at RU. After studying graphic design at the University of Silesia in Poland, he completed a Master’s degree at the Hacettepe University Fine Arts Institute in Ankara, Turkey.

Kırbaş’ multi-disciplinary practice encompasses 3D visuals, 3D animations, sculptures, installations, site-specific installations, and augmented reality. His works are conceived and shaped as a communication model between space, time and the audience. He takes subjects from daily life to establish links with the past, future and present. In particular, he transforms the moment we live into images that reflect the global scale and the effects these events have on our lives whereby the viewer is solicited to become an active participant.

Kırbaş has exhibited internationally. Venues include most recently the group show Presence at Cuchifritos Gallery and Project Space (2022, New York); Morrow Collective 50 years of the UAE Virtual Metaverse Exhibition (2021, Dubai); 34th Festival Les Instants Video (2021, Marseille); IN-SONORA 11 International Festival of Sound and Interactive Art (2021, Madrid); Video Art Miden, Meta-Thesis exhibition (2020, Greece); Cuvo Festival ‘Teen Game’ 2020 (2020, Madrid); FILE Festival (2019, São Paulo); 18th WRO Media Art Biennale (2019, Wroclaw); Hyperpossibility at CENTRALE FESTIVAL 11 (2019, Italy); SIMULTAN FESTIVAL XIV. (2019, Romania); 32nd European Media Art Festival (2019, Germany); BIG for the Wrong Biennale (2019, Copenhagen); Under the Subway Video Art Night 8th edition at JCC Harlem (2018, New York); VIDEOFEST2K18 at the International Biennial of Video art and Contemporary Film (2018, California).

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.