Hide and Seek Exhibition Catalogue

…was shown and yet had not been seen.

Exhibition Space. The Maze, Ankara.

Words by Ipek Altun While walking around the public spaces, how many people really recognize anything interesting on fundamental elements of the streets; like loopholes, flagstones, manhole covers or even the ground itself? Beril Or invites the viewers to seek any or some invisible traces within these visible elements and leads us to take pleasure from a series of street art visuals. She readjusts the visible elements by using minimal street art manipulations and even the footage itself. In this way, the work itself becomes an attempt to confront the viewers with the reality of aesthetics belongs to the constructed and any other alternatives.

mid.

beril or

Artist Bio: Ankara based artist Beril Or was born in 1987. She graduated from Hacettepe University, Sculpture Department in 2008.

After attending the Painting Department of Hacettepe University as a special student, she got her master’s degree from Marmara University, Scupture Department in 2013. Apart from sculpture and painting her preference as medium ranges from photography to video. She attended group exhibitions “Once Upon A Time” of Goethe Institut (2008) and “Cruise Experience” of Contemporary Arts Centre (2008). Her first solo exhibition “Mid” was held in Torun (2014).

She won an achievement award of 69. Goverment Painting and Sculpture Competition in 2009.

Words by Burak Taşdizen In today’s world mapped by strategies of all kind, it is highly likely that people start taking the objects for granted, which may actually be conditioning the flux of movements.

The objects marking certain spaces, which would then allow or prevent certain people’s entry into another place, have become a part of our everyday lives. Turnstiles, are a very common example to this kind of zoning of spaces. It not only contributes to sustaining the current power relations, it does this through creating an image of indestructible structure, to which one can only conform. The notion of conforming but not questioning is promoted with the design itself, which imposes the experience of almost an instant entrapment. The unpleasant experience triggers thankful sensations after being released by the structure, which then reinforces the notion of conforming.

Güvensoy’s installation called Passage I, plays with the situation of passing a turnstile, which could be considered as imprisonment and permission to access another place at the same time. By placing the turnstile in the middle of a room, whose walls are all surrounded by mirrors, the artist creates a sense of infinity of this entrapment and movement from one place to another. This illusion illustrates very well the strategies in everyday life, conditioning the urbanites in their actions. People, without knowing the true state of affairs, are illuded with the strategies being employed. The installation, invites visitors to experience the infinity of entrapment and neverending cycle of conformism, when all borders are just an illusion.

passage ı deniz güvensoy

Artist Bio: Deniz Güvensoy, born in Ankara, Turkey in 1981, is currently based in Vienna. She graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University BA, MFA, Painting Making D.F.A. on Painting at the same university. She has been awarded with the first prize in soft pastel category Royal Talens Painting Competition in 2003. She did her first solo show, called ‘http://’ in Alan Istanbul art gallery in 2010. She participated in the group show ‘Extensions’ in the Amsterdam based art initiative ‘Kulter’ in 2010 and in Making of It exhibition in 2012 in Annuale Festival in Edinburgh.

Her work, Passage I, first exhibited in Mamut Art Project in ..., deals with turnstiles and the relation between entrapment and infinity, on which Güvensoy currently writes a thesis in Vienna.

Words by Narjis Mirza Deniz Kosar creates the paradox of space, it is seen but not shown, it is present yet absent. Kosars latest work Panoptikon is an intelligent deception of space created within a white cube. Kosar contends that it not the viewer choice but the space that determines the position of the viewer. His work is not viewed or seen as most artworks placed in a gallery but rather looked at through a peep hole, and what is seen is a surprising illusion of space not possible in a simple white cube.

panoptikon deniz kosar

Artist Bio: Kosar was born in 1983 in Ankara. In 2005 he completed his undergraduate degree at Hacettepe University, faculty of fine arts, in the department of sculpture. His work experience includes Animax Entertainment in 2008, Studios in Environmental Design and Epithelizing (Environment and Texture). Kosar has exhibited his work in a number of solo and group shows in Ankara and Istanbul. His solo shows include; İşsizlik (2015), Panoptikon (2015), and Ne İçinde Ne Dışında (2011). He is currently working as a research assistant at Gazi University Institute of Fine Arts . He lives and works in Ankara.

Words by Ceren Balcı Human nature of comprehending is a precisely complex process in terms of linguistics.

However the essential elements of language plays crucial role in creating ideas and one’s perception. In other words, use of language or absence of it, in general, frames and defines our point of view as much as perception of matters. Hence it is possible to claim that human language provides conservative alternative when it is compared to freedom of musical language and its endless possibilities.

In his work ‘SYN-Phon’ the artist presents a new tool for self-expression and alternative way of thinking with the help of music itself. Having worked with two independent musicians; Barabás Lőrinc for trumpet and Ölveti Mátyás for cello, Candas Sisman created graphical notation and composition which gives opportunity to express new language making sound and visual in parallel. ‘SYN-Phon’ has also additional sounds recorded and picked up in Budapest by Candas Sisman himself.

syn-phon candas sisman

Artist Bio: Candaş Şişman(1985, İzmir) studied fine arts in İzmir Anadolu High School for Fine Arts and graduated from the Animations Department of Eskişehir Anadolu University in 2009. He spent his one year of college receiving multimedia design training in Holland (2006-2007) With Deniz Kader, in 2011, he founded “NOHlab”, a project which generates collective projects in arts and design.

Candaş Şişman has received several awards since 2007, among which are an Honorary Mention from Prix ARS Electronica Computer Animation/Film/VFX and Best Prize in Sound Design from Roma Viedram Video Festival.

He has participated in many exhibition and festival, such as Venice Architecture Biennale, TED X, ARS Electronica, Todaysart Festival and FILE Festival.

Candaş Şişman recently realized Sonicfield-01 Sound Installation in Venice Architecture Biennale and ‘FLUX’ audiovisual installation among İlhan Koman Hulda festival in İstanbul. The artist is living and working in İstanbul, represented by PG Art gallery in Turkey.

Words by Selin Gürdere This work transforms audience to a participant without his/her consciousness. It steers people to questionize space, artwork and reality. It plays audience’s perception.

Artwork challenges the audience by making the invisible visible and confronting them with their images. ‘Where and what is the artwork? What is happening in this room? Why I see myself on the screen? Where is this shadow coming from?’ It gives an interactive experience that we should conceive. Many people pass by into the amorph object without seeing it, when they enter the room. It emphasizes the difference between the act of looking and seeing. Furthermore, this artwork could be seemed as a symbol that represents the situations which we pass by unconsciously in our daily life.

In addition, positioned screens on all walls, create a feeling of confined and being watched. It blurs the boundaries of the notions of viewer, consumer and the balance of power. When audience watches the artwork, artwork watches him/her too. They view and

what you see is not what you see selçuk artut

Artist Bio: Selçuk Artut lives and works in İstanbul. He has received his BSc in Mathematics from Koç University, Istanbul and his MA in Sonic Arts from Middlesex University, London. He has received his PhD on Philosophy of Media Communications.

Currently, he is teaching Sound, Interaction, Philosophy of Technology, Art, and Culture courses at Sabancı University as a full-time faculty member.

His artistic activities are mainly focused on contemporary media practices on human technology interactivity. Artut is artistically represented by Gallery Zilberman, Istanbul.

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