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

Male Subject & Female Subject, 2011

installation
acrylic paint on wall, 11,5×161 cm
wood pedestal 9×35,7×315 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

On the Stage, 2010

video performance digital video
3’30’’

A dancer is invited to compose and to perform a scene that comprises the images of the people from the actual demonstrations. Here the body movements of the people from the demonstrations are intended to transform into a monumental platform for a moment.

performer: Sezen Tonguz

…AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!, 2010
sculpture
acrylic spray color on cotton cloth
2200 cm.

Our view […] changes entirely when we learn that this piece of fabric turned into a rope is in fact a 22-meter-long banner used at a demonstration that reads “…AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!” The fragmentary demand would surely have made quite an impact on such a large format. But maybe a more tangible tool was needed to actually bring about the called-for change —and maybe a piece of rope would be just such a thing: It could be used for pulling out prison bars, tying someone up, or at least staging a tug-of-war. […] Incidentally, it remains unclear whether the banner was ever actually hung anywhere, or whether in fact it might not even be a readymade, but an artifact created by the artists for the purpose of realizing this piece. The only thing that is certain is that the work was created in 2010, the very year the judicial reform proposed by Prime Minister Erdoğan was approved in the context of the Turkish constitutional referendum.

Holger Kube Ventura’s laudatory speech on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Beyond the Horizon by Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, in the Deutscher Künstlerbund project space, Berlin, September 5, 2017

Production views; Hessenpark Open Air Museum, Neu-Anspach
photos: Günyol & Kunt

Perfect Couple, 2010

photo installation
fine art print on photo carton, metal frame, two pieces, each 35×50 cm; wooden pedestal, 60x75x75 cm

After the death of Friedrich Ebert, the first president of Germany in 1925, Richard Scheibe was invited to make a monument of him. Scheibe was the director of Städelschule at that time and his name was mentioned as one of the Nazi artists until he begun a new career after 1946. Friedrich Ebert Monument was finished and placed at the facade of Paul’s Church in 1926. In 1933 the National Socialists took it down. Between 1933–50 the pedestal of the monument at the facade of the church stayed empty. In 1950, a new version of the monument was placed in the same spot, also made by Scheibe. This can still be seen at the facade of St. Paul’s Church, whereas the old version was at the back garden of the Frankfurt History Museum in 2010. For the work, the artists took the photographs of both the old and new versions of the Friedrich Ebert Monument and placed them on the one-to-one replication of the pedestal of the monument at the facade of St. Paul’s Church. In this way, the work points to the gaps in the memory of a public space and different visualizations of a monument in two different eras.

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

THE PEDESTAL THAT HAS LOST ITS MONUMENT, 2010

sculpture
painted wood, brass 105x105x145 cm

A pedestal is the carrier of the idea of giving immunity to images, thoughts, historical figures, which mostly represents the moral values of the current location. Its function is to fortify the represented image by carrying the image to a higher point. The work shows a classical type of a pedestal without any representational image on it. In this way, the viewer is confronted with the pedestal and its function alone.

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