Parça Parça: Hilal Balcı, Defne Parman, Doğa Çal, Curator: Neriman Polat

 

Curated by Neriman Polat, the exhibition titled Parça Parça (Piece by Piece), which brings together the works of Defne Parman, Doğa Çal, and Hilal Balcı, opens on Tuesday, May 7 at Merdiven Art Space. The three women artists, brought together by Polat, shape the exhibition selection through their communication and shared feminist practice.

The exhibition, composed of video and installation works, focuses on various experiences of becoming a woman. Unnoticed wounds, repetitions in fragments and actions, relationships, and fixations are among the themes addressed by the works in the show.

Defne Parman focuses on themes of fragility and vulnerability. She works extensively with delicate materials such as newspaper clippings, tracing paper, and fabric. Her work Pansuman (Dressing) explores the question of how we can heal where we are broken. In her piece Örtü (Cover), she deconstructs lace and uses images of violence against women and animals taken from news articles, piercing the paper with a needle to create a fragile covering.

In her video series titled Kafam Başka Yerde (My Mind Is Elsewhere), Doğa Çal presents the female body, fragmented but animated and alive in different rooms of the house, with a sense of absurd humor far from tragedy. The video Annem, Ben, Ananem (My Mother, Me, My Grandmother) emphasizes the relationship and solidarity among women through three generations in an exaggerated manner.

Hilal Balcı explores the possibilities of distancing oneself from one’s own movements. Through her black-and-white video works Yutkunma (Swallowing), Kulaktan (From the Ear), and Yukardan Çevirme (Turning from Above), she reconfigures everyday gestures, attempting to disrupt habitual rhythmic motions. She illustrates the deformation of repetitive actions over time through her work Sarı bez (Yellow Cloth), which has become iconic in its reference to an obsessive hygiene routine.

 

Acknowledgements
Banu & Hakan Çarmıklı, Verda Tınmaz, Burcu Dimili, Murat Ertürk, Tufan Dere, Nazım Dikbaş, Zilberman Gallery, Sinan Albayrak, Ensar Tuğ, Yiğit Onbaşı, Yiğitcan Gençer, Bülent Ecevit Aybar, Osman Göçmez, İzrek a.ş., Twins Cocktail.