STAND-BY (stuck moment collection), 2013

Sanat Dünyamız 138. issue Jan-Feb, Fragmentation 11
curator: Necmi Sönmez, editor: Mine Haydaroğlu

The Turkish art magazine Sanat Dünyamız has made its 14 pages available as an exhibition space under the title FragMENtaTION.

The Stand-By project shifts the visual content from the artists to the art writers and aims to create a stand-by situation within the art magazine. For the project, many art writers were asked to send an image representing their stuck moments. 47 writers participated in the project.

The writers contributed:
Page 1: Azra Tüzünoğlu, Christiane Meyer-Stoll, Özge Ersoy, Sevil Dolmacı, Pelin Derviş, Rana Öztürk Page 2: Lara Fresko Page 3: Necmi Sönmez, Georg Imdahl, Yasemin Nur, Shulamit Çoruh, Marcus Graf Page 4: Evrim Altuğ, Seda Yörüker Page 5-6: Nazlı Pektaş Page 7: Ebru Nalan Sülün, Burcu Pelvanoğlu, Ayşe Erek, Elaine NG, Grit Weber Page 8: Nilgün Yüksel, Barış Acar, Ayşegül Sönmez, Merve Ünsal, Necla Rüzgâr Page 9: Elmas Deniz, Süreyyya Evren, Jörg Heiser, Erden Kosova, Nazlı Gürlek Page 10: Işın Önol, Jörg Restorff Page 11: Ceren Özpınar, Huo RF, Fırat Arapoğlu, Berin Golonu, Didem Yazıcı, Ferhat Özgür Page 12: Şener Özmen, Çelenk Bafra, Derya Yücel, Michele Robecchi, Nermin Saybaşılı, Tevfik Çağrı Dural Page 13: Özgül Kılınçarslan, Ali Akay Page 14: Tuba Parlak

Spread the Word, 2012

interactive room installation
wood, small-scale printouts, confetti canons, foil, permanent pen, tape, video

The work comprises an index of words, thousands of small-scale printouts of each word used in that index and hundreds of confetti shooters. Words used in political party statements mentioned on posters hung in public spaces in Germany in the recent years are separated from their contexts and shown in an alphabetical order. In this way, each word gains an independent position. But in a way, this independence is still dependent on the statements. Because, by putting all these words in one pot, the work creates an index of words, which also gives statistical information on recent political topics and their psychological behavior. While this whole process leaves the visitors with a group of words and with their meanings, the work also welcomes them to build their own statements for possible new meanings. Thus the work completes itself with the contribution of the visitors. Each contributor who builds his/her statement by using the index of words is asked to write this statement on the white surface of the two shooters. Afterwards, both shooters are filled with the printouts of the words that the contributor selected for his/her statement. The contributor keeps one of the shooters with himself/herself and the other stays with the work. In this way, one edition of the new statement stays permanently with the work, the other edition spreads the new combination of words back to the public space.

Installation view; Neues Museum Nürnberg
photos 1,2,5: Anette Kradisch, 6,7: Anna Luft, 8: video still, taken from

Installation view; Neues Museum Nürnberg
photos 1,2,5: Anette Kradisch, 6,7: Anna Luft,
8: video still, taken from the video “Making of ars viva Preis für Bildende Kunst des Kulturkreises”

Untitled (money), 2012

Steel, copper, carton;
framed, 34,8 × 28,3 × 2,8 cm

After receiving the ars viva award, we were asked to produce an edition exclusively for Kulturkreis. Since this was our first “edition” project, we have decided to work directly on the relationship between an edition and value.
Untitled (Money) is a framed work with a steel and a copper plate, showing the exact ratio of the two metals in 200 one-cent pieces.

photo: Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft

Dead Zoo, 2012

installation
stuffed animal, medals, digital video; 0:30’, sound 4’45”

Animals have been used for military purposes for centuries. They have been used for communication, spying, transportation, explosives detectors and even as weapons. Like people, some of them received medals for their “extraordinary” services in the military or they were promoted. The title of the work Dead Zoo takes its name from the Natural History Museum Dublin or as Dubliners call it “The Dead Zoo.” The work classifies nature in a different way; animals represented in the work are not scientifically but militarily classified. Installation consists of a stuffed animal, hundreds of medals produced by the artists, a looped video and the sound of a so-called jungle with the sounds of military animals.

Installation view; The Return Gallery, Goethe Institute, Dublin
photos: Günyol&Kunt

Male Subject & Female Subject, 2011

installation
acrylic paint on wood 80×124 cm;
framed document, 13 pieces, each 22×28 cm;
wood pedestal 15x25x300 cm;
video, 85’

“If you see something, say something” used at the The New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Security Awareness Campaign is a phrase that indicates that every individual is responsible for his/her surrounding, and that they should be vigilant and report suspicious activities. As every individual observes his/her surrounding, the observer becomes the object of the surveillance. This provides an indirect message to every individual to control their actions. The individual is under surveillance, not just by law enforcement, but also through the public itself. For the work the artists asked Residency Unlimited to establish a contact with a private detective from ICORP Investigations to follow and investigate the artists for a one-day period. The detective was asked to conduct the surveillance for one day (out of three days suggested by the artists). Thus, the artists didn’t know which day they were being followed. The only instruction given to the detective was to make a detailed report of their activities. In this way, a regular day of the artists was translated into a report by a private detective and thereby transformed a regular day into a suspicious situation.

Installation view; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
photos 1,2: Günyol & Kunt
3,4: WALK!, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2022, photo: Marc Krause

UP!UP!UP!, 2011

installation-performance
acrylic paint on canvas, 200×300 cm; canvas on wooden platform, acrylic paint, Ø 300 cm; fine art print, 13 pieces, each 20×30 cm; song, 1’58’’

After Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin was blown up in 1966, Go Lucky Four wrote a song called “Up Went Nelson” which was at the number one spot in Ireland for eight consecutive weeks. Forty-five years after the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar, Dublin’s Spire, which is officially known as the “Monument of Light,” was erected in the same spot. With this installation the artists repeat the act of Go Lucky Four and write a new song for the Spire, by using the construction and the melody of the song Up Went Nelson. The work consists of four parts: a one-to-one scale portrait of the Spire as a monochrome painting, a circle platform in the size of the bottom part of the Spire, a historical timeline and a new song.

Installation view; Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin
photos: Günyol & Kunt

UP!UP!UP!
-Chorus-
Up Up Spire in new Dublin
Up Up Spire in new Dublin
All along O’Connell Street I split the sky
And old Nelson passed on its place to spire.

One early morning in the year 2002,
Construction has started for the view of the future.
They thought O’Connell Street had gone into decline
So, they started to redesign it and erected the Spire.
-Chorus-
All people have come from miles around
To see the Irish spire splitting the sky
The Dublin Corporation had the fund to have me done
And I will watch over you like a God, God, God
-Chorus-
A crowd of lads and lassies from a dance nearby came out
To see the pieces of future erected all about
The TV man says the spire will rise all around
Take care in case it flies up up up!
-Chorus-
And old Nelson passed on its place to spire.

Persuasion Exercises, 2011

installation
18 posters
each 82.5×82.5 cm

Propaganda posters are used to convince masses; they convince people to take a side. They are an explicit attempt to influence beliefs, attitudes and/or behaviors by using different strategies. The work reflects the usage of body postures as the propaganda posters of political parties. For the work, an actor rehearsed the postures of the politicians from the posters of the 2011 election campaign in Turkey. At the end of these rehearsals, the actor was photographed when he acted out the final pose. Afterwards, these photographs were transformed into black and white graphics, enumerated like some gym exercises and displayed on a billboard in the city center of Ankara during the election period in 2011.

street view; Yüksel Caddesi, Ankara
photos: Günyol & Kunt

Fresh Like the First Day, 2011

installation
53 books each with 48 pages 20×30 cm

The Constitution of Republic of Turkey dated 1982, made by the military junta after the military coup in 12 September 1980 is at the focus of this work. On 12 September 2010, thirty years after the military coup, a referendum on a number of changes to the 1982 Constitution was held in Turkey. The result was YES to the changes with 58% in favor and 42% against. For this work each letter, number and punctuation mark that makes up the Constitution has been separated from each other without changing their positions in the text and then translated into 53 books. In this way, the Constitution is decreased to the basic elements of writing. The work references elementary school years, when we first met with letters, numbers and punctuation marks and opens the Constitution to possible fictional scenarios.

Installation view; Between Bridges, Berlin
photos: Between Bridges, 2018

Untitled (Gisei), 2010

wall installation
black foil cut, 400×2600 cm artist book, 40×40 cm

The installation that visually looks like a collection of patterns of different ornaments, include the whole text of Carl Orff’s music drama “Gisei – Das Opfer”. Each ornament is produced by repeating and overlapping a certain letter or punctuation that create the story. The total number of each letter and punctuation mark that is used to create a single ornament, as well define its length.

Installation view; ENTEGA AG, Darmstadt
photos: Günyol & Kunt

Untitled (Series), 2010

fine art print mounted on alu-dibond, mat diaplex

Gold Golden Pheasant, 65×90 cm; Leap Frog, 19×29 cm; Seahawk, 19.5×24.5 cm; Albatross, 19.5×24.5 cm; Epervier, 19.5×24.5 cm; Silver Tiger Hound, 40×49.7 cm; Diamond, 25×25 cm; Safran, 25×25 cm; Reindeer, 19.5×24.5 cm; Mongoose, 19.5×24.5 cm; Megaphone, 25×45 cm; Steel Tiger, 19.5×34 cm; Chromite Jacana, 70×100 cm; Buzzard, 33×47 cm; Desert Fox, 33×47 cm; Carnation, 33×47 cm; Condor, 19×29 cm

The work consists of names of different kinds of military operations from the last sixty years, from all over the world including secret service, military equipment shipping, and shooting war operations. In their investigation on the names of the military operations, the artists encountered the names of special kinds of animals living in the operation area, animals like the buzzard and tiger, which have been used to symbolize power throughout history. Names of some valuable mines again symbolizing power like gold or diamond also came up. All the related images are shown with a black background. In this way, they were taken out of time and space to create the illusion of silence and death.

Installation view; Gallery Heike Strelow, Frankfurt
photos: Günyol & Kunt