Wind has been a source of inspiration for artists throughout the ages. It is almost impossible to count the resemblances of wind to art. Isn't ‘wind' a kind of movement, speed, curiosity, renewal and continuity? The wind can symbolize joy, a sound, a gesture, a protest, a message, a breath. The wind is color. The Bosphorus, which turns green with the Lodos wind, is tinted dark blue whenever the Poyraz blows. The wind motivates, mixes, carves, and draws... but mostly searches. In short, the wind and art stimulate each other.
• A New View to Asia
• The Connection of Turkey and Japan
• About the Artists
ARTISTS
• YUCEL KALE
• SELMA GURBUZ
• SEYMA REISOGLU NALCA
• LERZAN OZER
A New View to Asia
This exhibition features contemporary West Asian art to present a new view of Asia. It supplies Japan with the means to explore the differences and commonalities of West and East of Asia.
The Asian culture has become an area of greater interest recently. Many Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian art exhibitions have as a result been met with a great deal of attention as of late. However, up till now there have been no great efforts to address the contemporary West Asian art. This exhibition the contemporary scene as well as discern Japan 's views towards Asia.
The Connection of Turkey and Japan
In the ancient past, the spread of cultures from the West and East Asia converged in Central Asia, and close relationships developed. Over time Asia became mediated by the Chinese civilization and the nomads of Central Asia. It is imaginable that the civilizations and spiritual cultures developed intricately-intertwined to each other by the grassroots networks of nomads, and caravans, and due to war.
The connection between Turkey and Japan can be seen in their languages and grammatical structures. This is well worth mentioning, for language is the foundation of civilization, and grammatical structure is the foundation upon which to build thoughts.
Turkish belongs to the Altaic language family. Japanese is also said to be found in the same family. All languages belonging to Altaic (its name is derived from the area in Central Asia where Russia, Mongol, China, and the Republic of Kazakhstan border) have similar grammatical structures. In both Turkish and Japanese, subject and object are presented first and verb follows to show the relationship of the two. This is the material difference from the Indo-European language family in which verb contrasts subject and object facing across it.
Throughout modern time, the new ideas that developed in Europe spread around the world. The ideas were often accompanied by colonization, which typically resulted in the restructuring of the culture in the area. Both Japan and Turkey were never colonized, and both countries cultivated their own unique ideas by assimilating and Asianizing them in their own way.
Moreover, they now exist as windows into the history of both sides of Asia, to share the Asian values with Western world.
About the Artists
This exhibition introduces four contemporary artists in their 30's and 40's from Turkey. They are act as cultural bridge between Turkey and Japan, and West and East of Asia evolving around Central Asia.
It is curated by Nuran Terzioglu from Turkey, who has been working for the public gallery for many years and has experience in introducing Japanese artists in her country.
In the works of the artists, Oriental orientation to seek harmony and unity and Western orientation to complete oneself as an individual seem to coexist in a delicate balance. In turn, it shows the ambiguity of autonomy. The show follows the concept of the Altaic language group in which its verb, written in the end of the sentence, presents the transient relationship of things as only tentative.
Ko Matsunaga
