Where? Here? - Fulya Erdemci

Is it possible to capture in one exhibition every aspect of a country; its geopolitical, historical, traditional, cultural, social, psychological context, its economy, art, life, energy, and so on and so forth? Faced with such an impossible task, every attempt falls short. For that reason, from the very earliest to the last stages of the preparation of this exhibition, we searched for questions rather than answers, to open up a platform for research and dialogue.

The title of the exhibition, ‘Neresi? Burasi? (Where? Here?)', points out the dualities inherent in the cultural location of this exhibition-a contemporary art exhibition from Turkey which is designed to take place Japan. While it refers to the geopolitical context in which a place is located and the unique nature thereof, if also relates to the place of origin of the exhibition and the place where it happens. ‘Where? Here?' is aimed at questioning these dualities.

From a Euroncentric, Judaeo-Christian viewpoint, both Turkey and Japan constitute the ‘other', but at the same time they are also foreign to each other. The exhibition is intended to function as a conduit to understanding each country in itself and in relation to the other. To this end, we signed out certain concepts and anchoring points that mark the major characteristics common to both countries. Furthermore, Tokyo and Istanbul, the cities where the exhibition originated and was realized, where taken as reference points. Through the works of the artists, the exhibition question the relationship between the personal and the social while it investigates traditional and modernity, family structure, social dogmas and disintegrations that are common values and problematic of both countries.

Ten artists from different generations came together for the exhibition. There are the works of the first-generations artists Füsun Onur and Gülsüm Karamustafa, who fostered the very first ideas on contemporary discourse and theory in Turkey. There are also the works of Hüseyin Alptekin, the second generation, and Esra Ersen, Leyla Gediz and Ömer Ali Kazma representing the third generation. In addition, the exhibition includes projects by talented emerging artists like Cevdet Erek, Yetkin Basarir, Seçil Yersel and Nasan Tur, who can be thought of as artists representing the future. The exhibition consists of different expressions created through diverse media like photography, video, video installation, painting and performance.

The visual and written narratives relating to geography, its historical and contemporary connotations for globalization are elaborated in the works of Hüseyin Alptekin and Cevdet Erek. Following the route of the characters in the novel of Jules Verne, Alptekin's “Sea Elephant Travel Agency” (installation, performance in progress) proposes to the people of arts, science and letters a Black Sea journey that includes the port cities of Varna, Constanta, Odessa among others. “Capacities” (photographic installation), on the other hand, relates Istanbul to other cities from different countries, referring to the loss of place that consequence of the mobility created by the phenomenon of globalization. “Tremor, Rumour, Hoover ” (installation) points to instability, to shaky grounds, in terms of geological formation, economy and politics in Turkey. Erek's audio-visual commentary on one of the largest urban edifices in Istanbul, the “ Second Bridge ” over the Bosphorus, points out the axis of movement while bringing together the two sides of the Bosphorus, Asia and Europe, in an aesthetic panoramic view. Erek composed the images and sounds of the bridge in a rhythmically ‘symphony' of Istanbul. Esra Ersen makes us come closer to what is shown from a macro,level in Cevdet Erek's work. In her video work, Ersen captures the conversation of a couple in a car passing across the bridge over the Bosphorus: this is social commentary with a comic undertone. Yetkin Basarir's series of photographs deals with unexpected views of Istanbul : the underside of a car as seen from the ground and an almost bird's eye view of the backyard of an apartment building. In both cases, the view is from a perspective from which the city did not prepare itself to be seen.

The works of Füsun Onur and Leyla Gediz reflect more their personal points of view of Istanbul. Füsun Onur's poetic contribution to ‘Where? Here?' relates to Istanbul rather indirectly. Having been born in a waterfront house on the Asian coast of the Bosphorus and still living there, Onur's work reflects, embodies and relates to the mysterious, ever-changing poetic nature of the Bosphorus. In “Note”, she brings out the rhythms of her inner world and the world outside, the Bosphorus, through a silent music installation. Leyla Gediz's highly sophisticated paintings, while hinting at her inner world incorporated within the popular images like doppelgänger in the cult film interview with the Vampire and the views from the window of her studio in the attic of an apartment building, eleborate a fairy narrative, an uncanny experience of the city.

The tension between tradition and modernity is articulated in the works of Gülsüm Karamustafa, Seçil Yersel and Nasan Tur in totally different manners and tonalities. Seçil Yersel's photographs of the still and lonely interior of her grandmother's flat bring out the striking conflict between, and co-existence of, tradition and modernity, emphasizing the ever-increasing pace of the city contrasted with the tranquility of an old woman's house. “Burying the Sleep”, an installation by Gülsüm Karamustafa using ancient Ottoman clocks, cultivates a similar sensitivity to what has already been lost forever. She shows the tension between the old and the newly emerging with silence, the lack of the ticking sound we have come to associate with clocks. The discomfort experienced through her installation gives way to pathos in her second work, a video installation “Men Crying”. The installation consists of three short films featuring three old men, once the most famous Turkish movie stars of the 60s and 70s, now crying for the beloved ones they have lost. It can also be seen an alternative commentary on gender roles in a patriarchal society like Turkey. The disintegration of social dogmas, specifically in terms of gender, is also explored in Nasan Tur's photographic works. As a young male artist, Tur creates a contrasting view of the stereotyped gender role given to men in his photograph “Don't Forget the Fragrance of Mint”, where he himself was shot in an infantile pose leaning on his mother's breast. Likewise, in “Puddle and the Blue Sky”, his recorded performance in which he swims in repose in the middle of a car park under a beautiful blue sky, he furthers his psychological commentary on gender issues.

Ömer Ali Kazma's video and sound installation deals with a mass mania, deeply embedded in Turkish popular culture, maybe as a result of the strong traditional of not giving oneself away in daily routines. One of the most popular icons of Turkish society, the Galatasaray football team, together with its fans, was documented to reveal the emergence of the suppressed hysteria of Turkish society.