Ghosts

Artists | Sanatçılar: Ali Emir Tapan, Bahar Yürükoğlu, Begüm Yamanlar, Canavar, Can Büyükberber, Ceylan Göksel, Eda Aslan, Guido Casaretto, Ilgın Seymen, Pınar Marul, Pınar Yoldaş, Sabo, Uğur Engin Deniz, Zeynep Kaynar

Curators | Küratörler: Collective Çukurcuma (Naz Cuguoğlu, Mine Kaplangı, Serhat Cacekli)

Dates | Tarihler: 4 – 20 Mayıs, 2018 I May 4-20, 2018
Opening | Açılış: 3 Mayıs Perşembe I 3 May Thursday, 19.00 I 7 pm
Place | Mekan: ANY, Arnavutköy

Departing from the Derridean concept of “hauntology,” Red Bull Art Around Arnavutköy brings this year the works of 14 artists together around the theme of “Ghosts.” The exhibition connects a never-ending nostalgia feeling towards the past with an unrealized imaginary of future. With reference to those dreams which had once been dreamt of and later got detached in some way from our collective memory, the exhibition raises the question: “How many different ghosts do we hold inside?”

In terms of time and place, the neighborhood of Arnavutköy is at the center of “Ghosts” and the exhibition moves on a trajectory following this neighborhood’s past, destruction, annihilation, rebirth and hidden parts. Can Büyükberber contributes to the exhibition with an interactive augmented reality work that is installed in the pub “Any”, located in one of the oldest manor houses of Arnavutköy. While taking part in the work, the audience finds themselves to be identifying with an anonymous identity of future. This identity might be conceived as an otherworldly being, a ghost of the past or a representation of the consciousness that has left the body. Canavar’s mural painting is placed on the facade of a building in one of the backstreets of Arnavutköy. This mural which is the opening gate of the exhibition to the underground makes a reference to the past, bringing into light the insects as both nourishing and consuming parts of the ecosystem.

Bahar Yürükoğlu’s installation that she produced with colorful plexiglasses for a hidden garden in the backstreets of the neighborhood binds together the end points of the natural and the superficial. The installation conceptualizes a space for the future and thus questions the binaries, such as existence and absence, past and future, nature and civilization. Constructing an alternative imaginary of future through links to biology, ecology and art, sculptures of Pınar Yoldaş are reminiscent of a queer imaginary of the future, thanks to their cyborglike structures. Communicating with the audience from inside a fisherman’s aquarium, these sculptures also propose a distinctive ecosystem.

Ali Emir Tapan’s audience-centered performance in a desolated warehouse is chasing up those ghosts that we create on the virtual space. He questions the contemporary notions of “surveillance” and “voyeur” by putting the viewer into the position of the “viewed.” Guido Casaretto’s sculpture, resembling a meteor that hit the earth, is both challenging for the audience’s optical and physical perception, and also interpretive for the rupture in Arnavutköy’s demographic structure. Ilgın Seymen’s installation recalls a chemical reaction, taking place on a fishing boat on the coast. Underlining the toxic features of the plastic materials that we use in daily life, this work brings up the issues of sea pollution in Arnavutköy and the problematic way that Kazıklı Yol—the built road on the sea—relates to the environment.

Uğur Engin Deniz’s video is transforming a view of the neighborhood—a once-existed view that we only see the traces of today—into abstract and geometrical images, cross-layering the ever-changing architecture of the neighborhood on a trans-historical level. Sabo’s paintings and drawings narrate a fictive story by transforming the house it is located in. A scientist who lived in Arnavutköy and a virus which contaminate the residents of the neighborhood are the main characters of this story.

Begüm Yamanlar’s video, resembling the layered texture of the neighborhood, confronts us in one of the backstreets, located inside an arched structure that survived the centuries. Eda Aslan’s installation, showcasing the sculpture molds that are not used anymore, stands like a monument dedicated to the former residents of the neighborhood. Each of these amorphous objects vivifies an individual work, reminding the shell of a being which has long lost its essence. Pınar Marul’s installation emerges at the outer surface of a manor house from 1898 that was used to be a dress-making atelier in the service of the palace. With its mystical appearance and delicate form, the work carries the undesirable and the invasive power in its core. Ceylan Göksel’s sound installation of anonymous drone sounds emanating from an unknown source absorbs the sound scape of the neighborhood into a dystopian construction. Zeynep Kaynar’s photograph selected as a result of an open call which addressed the students meets with the visitors in the front of the walls surrounding the church, located at the heart of Arnavutköy.

In parallel with the exhibition, there is a public program consisting of conversations with the artists and curators, performances by biriken, night tours with the curators, and “spooky” video screenings. For more information about the public program:

https://collectivecukurcuma.com/2018/05/15/ghosts-public-program-i-hayaletler-kamusal-programi/

Ghosts installation views:
(Photos by Nazlı Erdemirel)

Images from the public program (performance by biriken, curatorial tours, artist talks)
(Photos by Nazlı Erdemirel)

Images from the installation process and the opening:
(Photos by Nazlı Erdemirel)

Thoughts on "Ghosts":

We invited writers Ulya Soley, Merve Ünsal, Ebru Yetişkin, Eda Sancakdar for a series of writing on different themes suggested by the exhibition "Ghosts" to be published on ArtUnlimited, you can read the articles through the links below, only available in Turkish:

Vol I – Ulya Soley, Kayıp geleceklere dair bir nostalji

Vol II – Merve Ünsal, Olmayan izleyiciler için gerçekleştirilemeyecek iki parçalı bir performans

Vol III – Ebru Yetişkin, Modern zamanların büyük sancısı

Vol IV – Eda Sancakdar, Makinedeki Hayalet