Siemens Sanat Presents A Two Man Show

Monday, 05 November 2007 02:43

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Siemens Sanat, is attracting art lovers with a project quite different from its earlier shows, with the exhibition “After the Ordinary: Present Time”. This exhibition will be giving particular emphasis to painting, thereby putting forward the proposition that contemporary works of art can be done through traditional methods as well.

The exhibition examines the place of painting in today’s contemporary art; a field which usually dominated by various applications of duplication, form, film and installation. “After the Ordinary: Present Time” thus tries to give the message that a work should not be evaluated for its material but for the idea behind; making an art work with technological applications does not guarantee that it will result as a contemporary work of art, and conversely, contemporary art works can be produced by traditional methods.

The curators of the exhibition state that “Contemporary art is not based on a conventional historical evolution of formal innovations, but rather it develops suggestions in today’s reality.”

Including art works of only two artists is another distinguishing feature of the exhibition “After the Ordinary: Present Time”. Up until now, Siemens Sanat exhibitions always presented works of many artists in every event.

Lebanese artist Ali Hassoun living in Italy and Senay Kazalova, a Bulgarian-born artist living in Turkey, leave the traces of their bi-cultural backgrounds into this exhibition.

Ali Hassoun’s art works use grey-neutral images from the masterpieces of West European art in the background, and socio-cultural dominant images in the foreground. His paintings are subject to multiple layered readings by dealing with scenes of everyday life in the Middle East and local forms structured with colourful painting, which challenge the scenes from Western masterpieces in the background.

Senay Kazalova’s oil painting portraits settle in the time and space of the audience becoming more than just objects to be viewed - They choose their own address. Kazalova, borrows the role of the audience and dislocates it, thus getting in the position of the audience and recreates the work. This situation is expressed as the transformation of the power relationship (mutual-activity) between the gaze in erased cold portraits and the viewer (viewed). In this indirect exchange, the viewer is exposed to the effective power of the brave gaze.

The exhibition “After the Ordinary: Present Time” will be opened to the public on 7th November and will remain open until 21st December.