Category: Exhibitions

09.01.2020 – 15.02.2020

Merdiven Art Space welcomes the new year with Fatih Temiz’s solo exhibition titled “Cannon.” Having become popular after participating in the projects and events such as Base Istanbul and Simbart project, introducing early-career artists to the spectators, Temiz focuses on football’s relationship with globalization, neo-imperialism and social resistance. The exhibition, referring to a sports term with its title “Cannon,” examines the chaotic development regarding the fact that complicated equilibrium and power struggles are centralized like it was 100 years ago, over the international football practice.

Fatih Temiz, offering an insight into the historical background of “General Harrington Cup,” invites the spectators to discover the political background of football, indicating a symbolic authority since the day it began to be played. General Charles Harrington, who was the commander of occupation forces in the UK, had planned to defeat Fenerbahçe, that supported the national struggle with weapons, and Turkish people on this wise, in a spiritual sense with the competition he organized on his behalf before leaving Turkey. The match played in front of a huge crowd of supporters on  June 29, 1923, at Taksim Stadium, which was located in the area where Gezi Park is located today, was an attempt to besiege the physically invaded country in every sense with professional football players around the world included in the match as a result of General Harrington’s personal and covert rancorousness. As a result of the competition, witnessed to a cliffhanger and ended up in a magnificent victory, Fenerbahçe won the cup and represented the spirit of national struggle against imperialism. The artist, focusing on the sub-meanings football has lost and gained in the process of globalizing and becoming an industry that dominates the global economy, reveals a story of resistance that draws its strength from its simplicity and the evolution of imperialism.

The video work and data-based mural work accompanying Fatih Temiz’s large-scale drawings, considered as the cornerstone of his practice, reveals the balance between a nostalgic stance, which is coherent with the historical background of the exhibition, and archival approach. The Turkish equivalent of the term “cannon” also refers to encouraging some speculative cases in order to make benefit from them. With this term, Temiz brings a critical approach to the football industry which has become a field of power and authority, run by pawns, instead of being an enjoyable activity.

05.09.2019 – 05.10.2019

Merdiven Art Space welcomes the new season with two different exhibitions simultaneously opening its doors. Hosting Ahmet Öğüt’s solo show in the gallery space, Merdiven introduces an ostentatious group show titled “Winter is Coming” to the audience at the #mebusan25, the nearby independent building. The exhibitions, included among the parallel events of the 16th Istanbul Biennial, bring together the pioneering artists of Turkey’s contemporary art scene and bring dynamism to the route between Fındıklı and Karaköy.

“THE MISSING T” by Ahmet Öğüt

The exhibition titled “The Missing T”, which is also the title of the work by the conceptual artist Ahmet Öğüt, who consolidates his presence as days past in the international platform is introduced to the audience from September 5 to October 5 at Merdiven Art Space. Öğüt conceived a piece from his multi-directional practice ranging from video to photography, drawing to printed media, especially for Merdiven Art Space. The exhibition, consisting of a site-specific installation, focuses on socio-political phenomenons revealed when the glowing image of a famous vacation destination in minds is scratched. The artist deals with Tulum, a city in Caribbeans; renowned with its turquoise sea and white beach, from a different perspective inspired by the obsidian stone of the Mayans.

The work suggesting to look nearby for the cities from different continents, sharing the same destiny and having a polished image makes the audience think about the realities behind the ornated mask. The video revealing difficulties experienced by Mexican officers protesting in order to demand personal security and their basic rights, as a result of contradicting with the administration collaborating with illegal organizations in Mexico, describes the confusion regarding the questions of who are the victims and who has the authority, by means of the interviews made with people. The neglect and abuse against the local people in the city, promoted as the ideal vacation destination with its sea, beaches and sun, by the tourists, is brought into the gallery space by means of extraordinary methods with his installation transforming the gallery space into a “so-called” beach, thanks to his authentically symbolic and satyrical style.

Merdiven Art Space: Meclis-i Mebusan Cad. No: 31 Murat Han Kat: 1 Fındıklı, Beyoğlu

“WINTER IS COMING” – A Pop-up Project by Merdiven Art Space

Halil Altındere | Şener Yılmaz Aslan | Osman Bozkurt  | Fulya Çetin | Mehmet Dere | Erdal Duman | Leyla Emadi | Fırat Engin | Didem Erbaş | Berat Işık | Ferhat Özgür | Kerim Zapsu

#mebusan25: Meclis-i Mebusan Cad. No: 25 Fındıklı, Beyoğlu

29.05.2019 – 20.07.2019

Merdiven Art Space hosts Susan Hefuna’s solo exhibition titled “Screens” between May 29 and July 20. The artist, interpreting the images of two different continents from her memory, with her productive practice ranging from drawing to sculpture, installation, video, photograph, and performance, brings together a selection of her works which she called “works not carrying passports.”

As an artist who has experienced both sides of the unfinished bridge between the West and the East, Susan Hefuna’s practice focuses on the connections and disengagements between the period, space, cultural codes, and language. The artist, associating the concept of the foreigner with the oppression caused by being displaced from an unknown land, depicts a system where the borders become evident instead of disappearing and the spaces are narrowed rather than expanding metaphorically. Hefuna reveals that in this new order all ideological, geographic and economic possibilities, seeming accessible, are all restricted. The exhibition bringing together the Mashrabiya series, which has an important place in her artistic practice and the Masks, considered among the fascinating examples of traditional wood carving focuses on the screening function of the works conceptually.

Mashrabiyas, where the artist referred the exterior element she distinguished observing the cityscape of Cairo, Egypt where she spent her childhood, and never forgot is inspired by Mashrabiyas architecture responding the search need for hiding, sheltering and intimacy, and the balanced dialogue between minimalist contemporary expressionism. The artist, amplifying the meditative aspect of the screens filtering the light, with the help of abstract sayings and words, questions the borders between public and private space, and the things belonging to interior and exterior. The masks, inspired by her European roots animates different characters created in each village as a tradition of a festival organized at the end of the winter,  in the South of Germany. The festival, where the people behind the masks are obliged to tell the truth once in a year, reveals how the cultural identity inherited from generation to the next generations in each family.

With her genderless and nationless works, Susan Hefuna destructs the East-West symbolism, still framed with stereotypical judgments in contrast to the tendency to globalize, thanks the subtle language pertains to her.

28.02.2019 – 04.05.2019

Merdiven Art Space is pleased to announce the exhibition titled “Swaddling the Baby” by Gülsün Karamustafa, one of the most prominent artists of the contemporary art scene in Turkey, between February 28 and April 13. The artist, focusing on the striking events of recent history, whose practice ranges from video to sculpture, painting to installation and spans more than 40 years, designs an installation titled the same as the exhibition, for Merdiven Art Space.

Karamustafa who addresses to sociopolitical themes such as cultural patterns, social codes, identity struggle, migration, gender, political impotence in her works, reveals visual expressions featuring subtle criticism. The artist whose expressive language has been shaped by pop culture, folklore and autobiography-based elements since the 70s, focuses on sensitivities that inflicted both social and individual wounds. “Swaddling the Baby,” inspired by Karamustafa’s trip to Florence in 1969, when she was a student, was revived after a visit to “Ospedale degli Innocenti,” an old orphanage building designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Handcrafted by Andrea Della Robbia, the wall engravings accompanying the dramatic story of the building and featuring swaddled baby drawings refer to the tragedies that have been continuing to be relevant since the 15th century. The exhibition titled “Swaddling the Baby” focusing on the children who are the victims of their time because of the wars that have been continuing for the ages, massive disasters, migrations and diasporas, reinterprets the state of being in need of help.

Gülsün Karamustafa, revealing the fate of the victims who were able to luckily survive against the political, economic and social crises, brings a regular day at an orphanage into the gallery space by means of a black and white video installation. “Swaddling the Baby” exposing a striking analysis regarding the individual and social void caused by the loss invites the spectators to a journey through the basis of purity.

21.12.2018 – 26.01.2019

Merdiven Art Space presents a collaboration between two great contemporary artists from different generations, between December 21 and January 26. The exhibition titled “In the Beginning Dazzling Night,” conceived with Sarkis’ participation upon the invitation of Berat Işık, opens its doors for the spectators on the longest night of the year.

Berat Işık, who is mainly known with his sociopolitical works, takes the book titled “Blindness” by José Saramago as the reference point for this exhibition. Along with his wall installation titled “Dazzling,” the artist working in various mediums, ranging from video to photograph; installation to sculpture, attributes a symbolic meaning to the source of light which dominates the space. The artist who placed a panel consisting of 54 blinker lights in a golden frame, which has a kitsch aesthetic, violates the pictorial limit defined by the frame. The blinkers, known as the warning lights of the official cars and military zones, are in the centre of the work and refer to the blindness imposed. The dazzling white light presents a simulation of social blindness developed against the tools of the government, power and system metaphorically. Included in the exhibition with his video titled “Au Commencement la Nuit” (In the Beginning Night), dated 1997, Sarkis was invited by Berat Işık with great excitement in order to strengthen the conceptual frame, during the production process of the work.

The idea of including Sarkis in the exhibition “in a visible or invisible way” develops a holistic structure which envelope each other in each layer and dominates the space as it deepens. The images and the sounds filling the room by inspiring from the contrast between the dark and the light and functioning as both the burden and the shield help the spectators face with the past.

The fact that the exhibition provides an opportunity to get the insights into the period between the time when Malevich pushed the limits of Modernism with his painting titled “White on White” and today, consolidates the art historical references of the exhibition. Therefore, the exhibition exposes the dazzling show of these two works engaging in a perfect dialogue in sense of space, visual language and the intellectual structure.

09.11.2018 – 08.12.2018

Merdiven Art Space hosts Neriman Polat’s solo exhibition titled “Merciless” between November 9 and December 8. The artist who focuses on themes such as sociological layers, urban, woman, and gentrification, questions the discrimination and violence against children in the city. “Merciless” which is designed as a site-specific installation by bringing together the images belonging to the domestic and external living spaces under the same atmosphere, exposes Neriman Polat’s competence in interfering with the ready-made, which is supported by connotations.

In this period, where social violence becomes more and more visible Polat, referring to the social and urban corruption through the fragility of children and questioning the protected structure of the family concept, depicts houses lacking compassion. The brick wall built at the space reminds of the facades at the forgotten streets of the city and features a photo of a collapsed house. Patterns on the kids’ blankets that were transformed into dramatic images with a strong discourse thanks to the artist’s intervention, and the interior space painted into a familiar colour that is usually used in the kids’ room, expose the traces of a heartless world. Neriman Polat draws attention to the hopeless future by focusing on being silenced and gender codes with her reinterpreted drawings.

The artist not only visualizes the fact that the violence behind the fragile walls of the houses that are constantly damaged both physically and metaphorically, without agitation but also internalizes the dreams coming out of the houses. The cold blankets, subject of the web of violence preparing a ground for a collapse that cannot be ignored, warms neither the hearts nor the bodies.