Self Defence, 2015

stainless steel; ø 80 cm; length of sound waves 324 m

Self-Defence (2015) […] visualizes the collective sound of protestors during the Gezi Park resistance. In this piece, the artists magnify a thirteen second sound file recorded during the protests and turn it into a 330 metre razor wire. The sound waves gain physical forms as steel plates and are fixed on a spring wire as if they are protrusions on a razor wire. The fact that the audio recording is a file found on the internet highlights the anonymity of the spread of Gezi protests. On the other hand, the razor wire was produced in one piece, presenting all sound waves, each unique in shape, as part of a whole, reminding of the Gezi experience as a collective existence within a plurality of differences. […] The installation of the work […] aims to reflect a sense of solidarity, the idea of a crowd that incorporates differences while also creating a solid ground for itself.

Rana Öztürk, minute by minute (Istanbul: Dirimart Publications, 2015)

Installation view; Dirimart, Istanbul
photos: Işık Kaya

On the Fringe, 2015

silk weaving on silk fabric 120×160 cm; fine art print on semi-gloss photo paper, vitrine: 90x225x85 cm

The work emphasizes the memory of a Kurdish village near Nusaybin, which was subjected to forced displacement in 90’s. This project consists of collected scan samples of images of the houses that have been left empty for a long time and the magnified silk weaving of the gaps of a piece of curtain remaining from the window frame of one of those houses.

Installation view; former German Military Headquarters, Mardin, TR
photos: Günyol&Kunt

If we would have to leave one day…, 2015

fine art print on Hahnemühle PhotoRag 188 g/m², 60 x 534 cm
gravure, cardboard, magnet

The work contains the last article of Hrant Dink (My Heart’s Dovish Disquiet), published in the newspaper AGOS on the day of his assassination, and is a kind of visual requiem for us.

Installation view; Sobering Gallery, Paris
photo: Sobering Gallery

Sky Blue (official), 2015

21*29,7 cm, fine art print on Hahnemühle photo rag 308gsm

Sky blue (official) comprises shades of blue that represent the sky in national flags.

Untitled, 2014

7 metal plates, tin, zinc, brass, copper, aluminum, steel, nickel, each 0.1x40x40 cm; wooden pedestal 40x40x105 cm 

The work Untitled (2014), […] consists of a pedestal onto which have been stacked plates of congruent format made of tin, copper, zinc, nickel, brass, aluminum, and steel —the materials, in other words, used to produce euro coins. Formally speaking, an aesthetically attractive rigor runs through the artists’ works as a unifying theme. In the case of Untitled, this rigor is abundantly evident in the plain yet trenchant design of its pedestal onto which, as in earlier works, the metal plates are flush mounted to present a compact cube.

Sandra Dichtl, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt (Dortmund: Verlag Kettler, 2014).

Installation view; Dortmunder Kunstverein
photos: Roland Baege

Scheinbogen, 2014

fine art print on Hahnemühle photo rag ultra smooth 305 g/m², 150×150 cm.
alu-dibond, wooden frame, 152×152 cm

Scheinbogen consists of the seven colors of the seven euro banknotes from 5 to 500 euros. The colors have been taken from the specimen notes on the European Central Bank website and —starting with the 5-euro note and increasing in value— positioned diagonally next to each other so that they call to mind a rainbow. The rainbow, a magnificent spectacle of nature, has left its trace in the cultural history of mankind. […] The title Scheinbogen contains several meanings: the German word Schein can refer to the sheen of a rainbow, to a banknote, but it can also mean a mirage or illusion.

Sandra Dichtl, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt (Dortmund: Verlag Kettler, 2014).

Installation view; Dortmunder Kunstverein
photo 1: Roland Baege

Game, 2014
Digital video
00:35 sec

[…] a euro coin rolls uninterruptedly without toppling over. The proverbial “ruble is rolling” 2 and becomes a symbolic, precious-metal “hologram.” There is also a reference here to Christopher Nolan’s movie Inception of 2010. In the movie, a spinning top becomes the sign of a dream state, while one that has toppled over symbolizes reality. The uncertainty in Game as to whether the rolling coin ultimately stops or not holds the viewer’s thoughts and interpretations in a state of suspense, the entire financial system quasi-rotating before his eyes in the symbolic image.

Sandra Dichtl,
Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt
(Dortmund: Verlag Kettler, 2014)

Installation view; Dortmunder Kunstverein
photo 3: Roland Baege

Hemzemin, 2014

stainless steel flagpole 2x150x150 cm

The word “hemzemin” comes to Turkish from Persian. It is a compound word: “hem” meaning together, same, and “zemin” meaning ground, earth. A flagpole carries the idea of national belonging. Consequently, it has the meaning of staging national, international and cultural identity. It governs its surrounding by standing vertically against the human body. Its function is to fortify the represented image by carrying the image to an “inaccessible” point. For the work, a 12 meter-high stainless steel flagpole is melted and cast into a 150×150 cm big open mould and placed on the sidewalk of the Hoher Wall Street in Dortmund. By carrying a flagpole to the ground level, the work changes the physical relation between the human body and the pole.

photos and film stills: Günyol&Kunt

BTO-28, CBT-65, BTO-22, 2013

multimedia installation
razor wire, wood, fine art print on photo carton, headphones, sound
each 60x65x140 cm music pieces;
BTO-28; 00:34 sec, CBT-65; 01:27’ BTO-22; 00:28’

Concertina (Dannert wire) wire was first manufactured by Germany during World War I. Different than barbed wire its purpose is to prevent human passage. It targets the human body directly. Since its invention, it has been used for prisons, mental hospitals, military purposes and high security facilities. Nowadays, it is starting to be used more and more for residential security. The work comprises of three music boxes, each consisting of a type of a razor wire, a music piece and musical notes. The title of each piece shows the type of razor wire that is used in this piece. While creating the music pieces, the artists firstly recorded their own sound: “Ouch.” Then, the sound clip of this recording is used to make a drawing of the shape of the module of the razor wire in a sound program. Afterwards, these drawings are translated to strings to create suspenseful music pieces like those in horror movies.

Installation view, TANAS, Berlin
photos 1,2: Uwe Walter

The Myth, 2013

ceramic vase 56x56x60 cm
showcase 80x80x190 cm

For The Myth, Özlem Günyol and Mustafa Kunt travelled to Avanos in Turkey this year to work with a local ceramist; Aydın Afacan and illustrator; Ersin Yazıcı who made for them a replica of an ancient, more than 2000-year-old vase found in the south of Italy and now housed in the Louvre in Paris. A scene painted on this ancient vase refers to the Greek creation myth of the European continent: it depicts the mythological figure Europa, together with the God Zeus in the guise of a bull. Precisely this portrayal of Europa is highly topical at the moment, being, as it is, “the new face of the Euro”. The European Central Bank presented the new series of Euro banknotes at the beginning of May this year, a series also known as the Europa series, as some of the new security features contain the portrait of Europa borrowed from the ancient vase. At a time when Europe and particularly Greece are struggling with the effects of one of the biggest economic crises since 1900, the countenance of Europa from Greek mythology is intertwined with money as a communication medium (after Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems). While the European Central bank “abducted” the face of Europa from the ancient vase, Günyol and Kunt devote their attention in The Myth to the other protagonist of the myth, the bull Zeus, father of the gods and ultimate representative of power in the ancient world. However, what we see here is not the ancient likeness of the bull, but rather the symbol of growing financial markets, the bull – the symbolic representation of power in our age.
The portrayal – a rearing bull which white ropes are trying to subdue – was borrowed by Günyol and Kunt from an Occupy movement poster designed by Alexandra Clotfelter, The Beginning Is Near. In addition, the vase is decorated with the Guy Fawkes mask familiar from the graphic novel V for Vendetta and the public face of the Anonymous movement. Where the mythological figure Europa has lately come to be inscribed in our money medium of daily use, in The Myth Günyol and Kunt inscribe the symbols of the major protest movements of our age into an ancient form of communication. The artist duo entwines sign systems of our media-informed experience with the ancient myth of Europa, continuing this tale, generating new contexts of meaning, and questioning the connected paths of historical narratives. In doing so, Günyol and Kunt pan out a complex historical field which prompts us to contemplate the genesis and contexts of current societal circumstances.

Denise Rigaud ars viva 12/ 13, Systems, visitors’ booklet (Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2013)