EGEMEN DEMIRICI

Making Space EGEMEN

DEMIRCI

M i l a n o : f e b b r a i o - m a r z o 2 01 2

PROGE TTO GR A F IC O

STELLA GNESUTTA PROGE TTO EDIT OR IA L E

MARIA PEROSINO

M A K I N G S PAC E

R EALI ZZAT O DA

EGEMEN DEMIRCI M i l a n o : f e b b r a i o - m a r z o 2 01 2

CON IL PATROCINIO DI

Residenza presso Open Care/Fare PAR T N E R

diario realizzato con la consulenza artistica di BERNARDO GIORGI

con un testo di CARAVANSARAI

ADNAN YILDIZ

E GE M E N DE M IRCI M IL A NO FE B B RA I O- M A RZ O 2 01 2

A R R I VA L

As an artist who spends most of his time in the north – in Berlin - and originally coming from the south -born in Izmir-, the thing that constantly becomes apparent during my travels in between is the difference in the angles of sun rays. Somehow things in the north are less visible, less illuminated. Shadows are taller, buildings have much more texture, lines are blurred and things are in a flow – continuously. The everlasting dusk and dawn in the north is replaced by the short sunrises and sunsets in the south. The natural switch of light functions much faster. On and off feels in favor of time. On and off. 0 and 1. This binary situation has become the fundamental code of modernity, the banal algorithm of existence. The flickering proof of progress as a must. The simple act of switching between off and on, verifies the demand of/ for life.

Energy.

Egemen Demirci ,“Switch”, 10x10cm, stencil, acrylic, 2005

On my flight to Milan, I was astonished by the brightness emerging from a city which my plane was flying over. Perhaps the small plane, due to the shortness of the flight from Stuttgart to Milan, which flies over lower altitudes, enabled a very clear view.

The cold yellow light clearly making the various grid formations visible; the city slowly rises and sets under the supervision of a steady production and consumption – of energy - cycle, just like a distant star, of which the surface remains unknown to us.

Surprisingly this image resulted in my photo camera similar to an image of a volcanic catastrophe. An eruption followed by rivers of fire. My camera in long exposure yielded this erroneous result but on a weird symbolic level this image was more true in essence.

Today we still measure light with units derived from fire. A candle light still measures as 1, just like the power of car engines is measured in horsepower.

Millions of candles illuminate thousands of horses for them to find their way in the city...

Yet we are at a point of change. A change for the sake of what we call “nature” or “environment”. An adjustment our civilized conscious – now internalized the basic form of a city- pushes us to do, inevitably changing our perception which invites us to a mode of constant change.

Photo by Egemen Demirci

The new environmentally friendly light bulbs are now

I

made compulsory by law. They not only minimize

THE ARTIST

energy spent in cities, but also claim to be more economic. They are still measured in the same units as the bulbs before them, but the light they produce is different. Just like how the hybrid cars that are environmentally friendly, make an unusually silent and unique sound while the engine runs. Seemingly a minor difference, these change how we look, hear and perceive. We see different colors under these lights and our sonic radar through the city, which took some time to adjust, has to be aware of new sounds; a shift in pitch from an invention that marked the last century with a trademark sound.

My artistic practice is born out of a constant search for a space. It aims to produce a setting where artistic thought and experience is generated in a continuos flow, a cosmos where the artwork is constant and analysis can be initiated in every instant. The space is defined not physically, but in a duration in which the audience chooses to engage with imagination. In this wholesome approach, I try to escape as much as I can from a ‘body’ of an artwork which encapsulates the artistic intention, thought, labour and personal story, and instead focus on an abstract language that depicts the possibilities of needed constructions to start the process of imagination. The intimacy is formed not through physical encounter but on an abstract level, through the consciousness that arises with the knowledge of being in an exhibition. Therefore, as an artist I do not claim to be an image producer or an object maker, but an exhibition maker. In doing so I try to inhabit the contemporary use of time that changed with the insertion of the Internet, instead of arresting the artistic labour into a physical body of an artwork.

Today most of cultural production takes place outside of our bodies; this must be followed by art. The concern with the body of work as an artistic priority should leave itself to a spatial sensibility.

Types of LED (image taken from Wikipedia)

The concerns that shape my artistic practice relate

Dominated by an economy based on motion through

very much to dealing with the issues of feeling and

links, being and arriving yields value, when time is

communication of the space, audience movement, the

replaced by duration, content is perceived and defined

relation between the artworks, the context they are

ultimately from within the space.

shown in and what they represent individually and

Ironically, in a time where people have reached the

collectively when encountered by the audience. For

highest level of mobility around the globe, this makes

this reason, my practice involves works, which do not

one fact apparent: the failure of art’s physical immediacy.

necessarily manifest itself as a body of artwork but aims to create an abstract space with relationships between

Yet it is important to note this relationship between art

ideas, narratives and positions through imagination and

and failure is not new. In fact during the 20th century art

analysis, suggesting critical points of view.

has become a substitute for failure.

I believe today we are moving towards a conception where the space in which art is displayed is given at least the same importance as the artworks. This approach, apart from political and social contexts, brings a valuable question: Where is this space of art?

In a time where communication and information overrides any material force in importance, it would not be malicious to say that most workers of the contemporary art are judged by the lines in their c.v.’s; exhibitions are diluted into press releases sent around the world by e-mails; the institutions are perceived ‘engaged’ or ‘cool’ with their internet activity and web page designs. Furthermore, all this activity is regulated inside a new type of space, one that is boundless of time with its infinite archiving, accessibility, immediacy and constancy.

II T H E S PAC E

As masses of people started to move to cities at the end of the 19th century in Europe, the city has become a site for developing utopias, a field where exercise and action for ideal and conceptual desires of governance were experimented. The subjectivities changed, as well as the stories and the ways they

Plan of Idealcity by Sfozinda, 1457 (image taken from Wikipedia)

were told. With the massive and quick growth of production capacities and change in ways of production, art has become a field where entities, be it individual or collective, dealt with different levels of catastrophes they faced in the clash of ideals, political and social situations and powers of governance. It is no surprise that we are just a decade away from one of the most violent centuries of human history.

Yet it is also no surprise that through this time spaces where art is displayed were also products of failures (in a Darwinian sense). Old factories, power stations, train stations, churches etc. are turned into art institutions; cities or communities that face economic scarcities and political hardship turn to art for rapid development and visibility; even governments and individuals find ways of dealing with their positions against values of society and other assertive power positions through art. Naturally, in this turmoil, the relationship between the artist and the space saw a fundamental change.

Superstudio, The Continuos Monument: Rockefeller Center, 1969, Courtesy: Archivio Superstudio, Firenze

When we go through an art history book we can see

for us to compare and analyze certain narratives and

how both the context and space of the artworks as well

positions, the codes through which the images are read

as modes of patronage shifted over time. In the past,

are mostly misinterpreted and distorted in a splutter.

while the relationship between the artist and the space

The image became a tool for ethical justification, its

was one that was ‘given’ or ‘ordered’ -for the artwork to

use as evidence is surprisingly growing stronger in an

be made- today we can clearly see it has evolved into

age of absolute editing and manipulation, and artistic

one that is ‘taken’ or ‘earned’ -for the artwork to be

strategies to create and use image is repeated by

placed. This accusative-dative interplay also hints to the

millions everyday. Every image created goes through

shift from space as a tool to space as a commodity. The

a process of appropriation, becoming fragments that

work of the artist (as well as the curators) is no longer

support the conceptual dimension of our individual

to produce an artwork but to ensure the possibilities

story, filtered through personal taste. Objects, just

of its notation; through dialogue, conversation or

like images, are also manipulated, placed in the zone

selection find a space for the work to gain its artistic/

of personal wealth and possession, taking part in the

cultural value. However, the process, with the help

process of self-design. Therefore the Duchampian

of artistic strategies, has the potential to become an

notion of “found” or “ordinary” object cannot be

integral part of the work, still this can only be judged

discovered in everyday life because the purity and

by the audience again in the exhibition space. Despite

innocence no longer exists within the object (or/and

this being the case, most artists end up never being in

the image) and Beuys’ liberating quote “every man is an

the spaces they exhibit or when they are, it is mostly

artist” has taken a literal turn in meaning, but ironically

to make sure the best conditions for the artworks to be

lacking the key element of “awareness”.

presented and they are properly installed. As a result, artworks travel and are installed as an extension of their body, a projection of their creational aura.

I believe today, the creative force is generated through space. The gaze of the public is heavily bombarded with different types of image (almost all at some level constructed or manipulated), and although the exhibition spaces are successfully fulfilling their mission as spaces where images are juxtaposed in order

III THE ENVIRONMENT

If one of the true achievements of modernism is the realization of the vast number of possibilities and the motivation to transform the “material”, the cities with their architecture and structure, are prime examples of how this transformation found ways to create both by size and its habitable qualities, alternative natures.

On the other hand, the increasing/advancing use of renewable energies, recycled material and the building of low energy consuming structures in order to diminish the destructive effect of areas of mass populations, seems to redefine our relationship to nature in the first glance with respect, sensibility and accordance. Yet I find this attitude to be a problematic one; one which holds an assumption that nature in itself actually contains these values.

Stills from the movie “Koyaanisqatsi” (1982), director Godfrey Reggio

Assertion of ecologically aware principles, values and

IV

solutions to architecture – Eco-Architecture - consists

THE MEDIUM

in essence a transformation of values and material between economical and structural categories for personal/public use. In this sense as an act it forms a tangent with the methodologies of art, yet it rids itself the heavy burden of politics with its ‘humanistic’ qualities. I believe it is needed to question this naive and tricky attitude towards an industry and economy which is responsible for actions which are probably some of the most aggressive and violent in the world

Milano is changing.

Now, things are better.

We are trying to change things.

It’s happening slowly but things are different from two years before.

Nothing ever changes here.

We want to make something new, create a base for change.

today; energy. Its low income, time demanding and effort taking attributes now may be the only reason

Perhaps, no matter where you go, when you talk to

to its privileged position, being accessible to a certain

people this is what you hear about their town. It’s been

group of people. Yet if capital has such a power to

a while since I have been in Milano, and what disturbs

indirectly change the nature of one’s environment, like

me the most is not the fact the people who tell me these

in the case of 80’s Los Angeles, it is worth to question

things are in totally different – or even opposing – parts

the terms of ecological architecture, keeping in mind the

of a political scheme or certain improvements in the

potentiality of the infinite adaptability of capitalism.

city are made unjustly, in favor of capital; but is what

Therefore before speaking about the term eco-

the people associate with the term “change” and how

architecture, we have to define what this “eco” part

they use it.

really means now.

Capitalism moves forward by simplifying concepts, so that it can expand with great speed. As a result any message that reaches or is broadcasted to masses has a tendency to be assertive. Numbers become the vital asset of validation, doubt becomes an incommodious permanence. The Internet is probably one of the best examples of a situation that started with a “new” and “free” zone of expression which evolved into a highly capital controlled space.

I think “new” or “alternative” are quite exciting but at

I use this term as an active process of selecting, and

the same time they have the potential to be absolutely

it does not necessarily mean to make things more

dismissible and meaningless terms. I believe it is possible

simple or pure: it means questioning the terms that

to connect these terms with the notion of “change”. For

form our understanding of the world, eliminating those

me, change is something that happens very slowly while

that fail to help us analyze. I think it is important

benefiting from catastrophes as a catalyst. Although art

to generate a wide and useful vocabulary to address

today - looking back to modern art as well - has and had a

certain issues clearly, and only then we can start using

very strong connection to catastrophe in its core, it is still

the word “new” in its rightful meaning. Although I

also one of the few fields that can propose change without

find it extremely important to put right questions on

a catastrophe. But I think the problem with the notion

the “mode of living together”, to a certain extent it is

of change is much more of a perceptual and subjective

a recurrent but a needed viewpoint. What makes the

one. If you are standing in the middle of an amusement

difference is the fact that nowadays this sort of effort

park and look around, you feel like you are in the midst

has the need and the potential to be produced through

of a constant change. All the colourful lights flickering,

and by the institutions.

machines revolving, getting to high speeds and heights, etc. and all these possible spaces that offer different experiences... But despite all this, the thing actually happening is that only positions are changing, taking people from one place to another and back, and the spaces are designed towards only certain experiences to be evoked to a quite low and basic level so that everybody can relate to these experiences. I think this is exactly what is happening in the world today, giving us the perception that we are in the midst of a space constantly changing.

We live in a world where being mobile is much more – economically - affordable than settling down. The question is if it is possible to obtain a certain level of control of direction or a sense of orientation within this space, and if we can re-think, re-structure and re-place concepts like awareness, responsibility and possibility? This is where I think the term “unlearning” becomes crucially important.

V THE CONTEMPORARY

Art appropriates to value and does so by democratizing

variation that could come to life by deselecting the

it. The act/choice of the artist brings all elements of an

notions and phenomena from the traces of modernity.

artistic practice to a common level which constitutes

This is the future, this is the utopia.

as an exhibition – as a space. Art becomes what is shown/put in the exhibition. But what about the

Now the responsibility of being an artist starts with the

contemporary? Does something become contemporary

responsibility of being a spectator, an audience. The

the moment it is shown? Is it the immediacy of the

artist is the one who knows what and how to look at

artwork being viewed, being on display, open to public

and should be in realization of this knowledge, choice

what makes it contemporary? The here and now?

as the key to the art and all notions , be they political or personal, that are required to participate in the

I think the question between these is actually a question

construction of the individual and societal governance

between exhibition and audience.

needs.

Contemporary infiltrates through levels of reference to the artwork, making itself immediate in the exhibition space, as a force of gravity waiting for the audience to be caught in its orbit, manifesting itself in the weak gesture of the artist.

In a position where an immaterial space has the potential to dictate all sorts of bodily, cultural, economical and political formation of the individual: possible and alternative spaces should be detached from the notions of the future and utopia. The efforts of constructing and understanding the present should be focused on realizing and offering every possible

VI THE WORK Spectator on White (Homage to Malevich), video, 16’’08’, 2012

Photos by Francesca Mariani

Photos by Francesca Mariani

Photos by Francesca Mariani

Still shots from the videos

Still shots from the videos

Installation Shots: Photos by Richard Cramp

Installation Shots: Photos by Richard Cramp

ADNAN YILDIZ

TABULA RASA

Our relationship with space is, on a primary level, a physical one. We own a body, a memory, and an identity -as someone from somewhere under some conditions. We communicate with languages, which help to define our space, and think with words, as its limitation. Art is always a discipline of exhibitions and exhibiting. At first, masters represented the world with their competence, and next generations questioned their relations with -fictional- subjective reality. Until Conceptualists, no one was giving recognition to the raw forms of artistic ideas. It is clearly stated that universals can be said to exist, but only as concepts in the mind.

In time, art professionals have developed the concept of the white cube to refer to the exhibition space; a controlled place to show art, which is neutralized/ cleaned/washed out from its physical, psychological and political references, and presented as a white paper – a sort of empty space: tabula rasa. (1) This is the point of departure for Demirci to look for its close possibilities in Milano City whilst he was doing a residency program (a) there. He invited actors inside the white cubes, and asked about the possibility of going back to their recent memories of encountering artworks. He decided to define the exhibition space with the contribution of acting practices. Why did the artist include the tradition of theater into contemporary art practices?

are acting by their memory, and trying to reconstruct What happens in his video work “Spectator on White

their experience with the artworks. The actors are

–Homage to Malevich-” (2012) could be a pedestal for

making physical their experience with artworks by

further levels of speculation. The video presents us

choreographing their movement through an exhibition

with pure silence, with three different actors in three

space; and this choreography creates such questions as

different exhibition venues. Their recent memories from

to what kinds of movements we make, in which way

the artworks that we never know were hanging in their

we move and pose, and how we walk in an exhibition

perception of reality in the light of the white cube. The

space. In a nutshell, the actors are working with their

perception of space, and the attention of looking at

perception of art by trying to remember the physical

something interesting, or spectacular in an eye-catching

references of the artworks and their bodily responses.

way trigger our consciousness of our perception of

They are reconstructing their prior experiences and

space, which is also a kind of definition of the White

abstracting the audience behavior –again in the

Cube in a contemporary sense of Architecture. The

exhibition space.

presence of the audience in an exhibition space with the absence of artworks is a close reference to the

Turning into a series of portrait shots, and a sort of

Skeptics. (2) Malevich was one of them on the painting

discovery of space, the presence of the actors in the

surfaces. His conceptual understanding of painting

video reflects on the audience, who is also watching the

directed him into developing a strong form such as

video in a white cube situation. The audience is looking

“White Square”. It can be imagined as both a 2D sketch

at the audience in the video, and is invited to remember

of the perfect exhibition space and a post-critique of

their own presence in the space. The theory of the mind

form-ground relationship- conceptually speaking, an

–of the other– is the one, which will never be resolved,

experiment of color, form, paint, and canvas as the

because of the Solipsists. (4)

material. The canvas has a spatial quality as an object.

This is all about the crises of modernity.

Malevich`s experiments with conceptual abstraction focused on perception. According to art historians, he

Modernists are criticized by the way they promised

is one of the most important pioneers of geometric

peace, and brought a relative form of freedom in

abstract art, and also the originator of the avant-garde

politics of space. On the other hand, public or private,

Suprematist movement. Was he also structuralist? (3) In

any space is always controlled by fear and capital

Demirci`s work, it is neither a color nor a form, but the

power. At the very end, it is recorded in its own critical

audience who stands on the white surface. The actors

narratives.

DICTIONARY 1.

2.

3.

4.

Mac Dictionary says that tabula rasa means an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals. It is a clean slate. In Latin, it literally brings ‘scraped tablet,’ denoting a tablet with the writing erased.

In Old Philosophy, a skeptic is an ancient or modern philosopher who denies the possibility of knowledge, or even rational belief, in some sphere.

Mac Dictionary defines a structuralist as someone who has a method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system that reflect patterns underlying a superficial diversity. It is the doctrine that structure is more important than function. Originating in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and extended into anthropology by Claude Lévi-Strauss, structuralism was adapted to a wide range of social and cultural studies, esp. in the 1960s, by writers such as Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan.

Old Philosophy says that solipsism is the view or theory of that -the self is all that can be known to exist.

Contact: (a) Global Art Programme Waiting for Expo 2015 – Milano, Italy

St am p at o a Mil an o n el M a g g i o 2 01 2 d a L IB ER T Y