17/1/2014
Gulsun Karamustafa / Irwin
Rampa, Istanbul
An Ordinary Love. Two works, produced in different periods and geographies with different materials, which propose diverse readings of the transition of the cultural codes the artist has been pursuing for 3 decades. In addition to the series of new works dedicated to the monochromatic paintings the Slovenian art collective also presents well renowned Dadaist works.
IRWIN
The Uninterrupted
Production of the Object
Rampa hosts Slovenian art collective IRWIN’s exhibition
titled The Uninterrupted Production of the Object
between January 18 and February 15, 2014 at its main
gallery.
IRWIN, an artist collective founded in 1983 and
composed of Dušan Mandic, Miran Mohar, Andrej Savski,
Roma Uranjek and Borut Vogelnik, has been working in
very diverse mediums ranging from oil painting to art in
public space, from sculpture to installation and publishing
books for thirty years. In accordance with their own “retro
principle”, IRWIN combines motifs and signs of different
historical political and artistic movements; reconstructs
these motifs through different political and artistic
ideologies, and deconstructs and transforms them in the
visual sphere.
IRWIN’s exhibition at Rampa, The Uninterrupted
Production of the Object, brings together the icons that
comprise the corpus of the hundred plus framed paintings
and objects the collective has been working on and
expanding since 1985.
Icons do not build an image of reality; to the
contrary, they are a semantic whole constructed
according to strict moral teachings. Since icons seek to
convey the original rather than to reconstruct reality
as if looking at the world from a different window they
propose to repeat the structure of the first icon. In
fact, the preservation of the original in essence is only
rendered possible through its constant reproduction.
In addition to the series of new works dedicated
to the monochromatic paintings which have been the
focus of the collective’s exploration in recent years, and
historical Orthodox and modern icons, IRWIN will also
present well renowned Dadaist works resituated in a
new context for their exhibition at Rampa. Building the
system of thick heavy frames which could be considered
IRWIN’s signature, the collective strives to encourage the
audience to adopt a critical approach.
Icons are regarded as some of the best works among
IRWIN’s artistic practice both formally and conceptually.
While in the collective’s early works it is possible to
observe abstract relations in the seemingly “iconophile”
icons at first glance, in the monochromes series they have
been producing in recent years one can readily discern
a reversal: the main concern for IRWIN is no longer the
definition of a contemporary artwork solely through its
appearance but also though its intrinsic logic.
IRWIN’s exhibition The Uninterrupted Production
of the Object reflects the relentless explorations of the
collective, which have been testing the boundaries of
painting for three decades.
The IRWIN group was founded in Ljubljana / Slovenia
(1983). Its members are Dušan Mandič (born in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, 1954); Miran Mohar (born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia,
1958); Andrej Savski (born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1961); Roman
Uranjek (born in Trbovlje, Slovenia, 1961); Borut Vogelnik (born
in Kranj, Slovenia, 1959). IRWIN is also a cofounder of “Neue
Slowenische Kunst (NSK) established in 1984 in the Slovenian
republic of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia.
Recent exhibitions and project include: Former West,
HKW, Berlin, 2013; A Bigger Splash, Tate Modern, London; NSK
Passport Office, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Manifesta,
Genk, 2012;The Global Contemporary. The Art Worlds after
1989, ZKM /Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe,
Barcelona, The International, MACBA, 2011; The Promises of the
Past, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2010, State in Time, Kunsthalle
Krems, 2009; Here Is Every, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA),
2008–09; NSK Passport Holders, Taipei Biennial, Taipei Art
Museum, 2008; Birds of a Feather, Akbank Art Center, Istanbul,
2006–07; Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum,
Kassel, 2005; IRWIN: Retroprincip 1983–2003, Künstlerhaus
Bethanien, Berlin, 2003; and Individual Systems, 50th Venice
Biennale, Venice, 2003. Members of the group live and work in
Ljubljana.
http://irwin.si/
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Gulsun Karamustafa
An Ordinary Love
“An Ordinary Love” reunites viewers with the artist’s 1984 work An Ordinary Love, which was presumed to be lost. Karamustafa presents her 2011 installation titled Shrine Online alongside the fabric collage An Ordinary Love. These two works, produced in different periods and geographies using different materials, propose diverse readings of the transition of the cultural codes the artist has been pursuing for three decades. While An Ordinary Love speaks through an aesthetics that has emerged from the migration the village to the city, Shrine Online explores a similar fracture via mass production and contemporary consumer systems.
An Ordinary Love is the second fabric collage rug Gülsün Karamustafa produced in scope of the nine collage rug series she made between 1983 and 1986, and was awarded the Contemporary Artists Exhibition Prize in 1985.
The wall rugs and kitsch objects that adorned the interior spaces of shantytown houses and the popular color and style trends of the 80s which constituted the basis of the hybrid culture emerging from the rapidly momentous phenomenon of migration from the rural to the urban provided the inspiration for the artist in making these wall rugs. The primary material of the fabric collage rugs she produced in this period are the materials used by people who migrated to the city at that time. The research conducted for the artist’s comprehensive exhibition this year has revealed An Ordinary Love, presumed to be lost because it was not returned from Grenoble where it had been sent to be exhibited 25 years ago, had in fact been preserved by an arts patron, upon which the work was retrieved.
Artists’ works are in constant circulation for exhibition in the international sphere in recent years. Resolving the transportation and customs problems they frequently encounter at international exhibitions requires plenty of labor. Karamustafa has been searching for new ways to minimize these problems for many years. The installation titled Shrine Online, which is another work of the artist featured in the exhibition, is one of the best examples of this quest. Shrine Online, which was exhibited in New York in 2011, combines pedestals and colorful porcelain bird figures bought online. Karamustafa acquires all the materials she will use for her installation from online stores or internet auctions and has them transported to New York. The artist then makes her intervention and produces her installation by bringing together these pieces she signs. The artwork creates a colorful shrine with various species of birds perched on cast pedestals and evokes the “union of technology with the traditional and the sacred” through its production process.
Gülsün Karamustafa (Ankara, 1946) graduated from the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy in 1969.
Her solo exhibitions include “A Promised Exhibition”, SALT Beyoğlu, SALT Galata, Istanbul (2013), “Mobile Stages”; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2008); “Bosphorus 1954”, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (2008); “Memory of a Square / 2000-2005 Video Works by Gülsün Karamustafa”, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2006); “Black and White Visions”, Prometeo Gallery, Milan (2006); “PUBLIC/ PRIVATE”, Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg (2006); “Memory of a Square”, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2006); “Men Crying presented by Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris”, Galerie Immanence, Paris (2005); “Galata:Genoa (Scavere Finestrini)”, Alberto Peola Gallery, Torino (2004); “Mystic transport, Trellis of My Mind”, Musée d’Art et Histoire Geneva, (1999), among others.
She took part in many group exhibitions including Thessaloniki Biennale (2013); Kiev Biennale (2012); Singapore Biennial (2011), 3rd Guangzou Triennial (2008); 11th Cairo Biennial (2008); “The 1980s: A Topology”, Museu Serralves, Porto (2006); “Soleil Noir, Depression und Gesellschaft”, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2006); “The Grand Promenade”, National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST, Athens (2006); “Why Pictures Now”, MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stifung Ludwig, Vienna (2006); “Projekt Migration”, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2005); “Centre of Gravity”, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (2005); “Contour 2nd Video Art Biennale”, Mechelen (2005); “Ethnic Marketing”, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (2004); 1st Seville Biennial (2004); “In den Schluchten des Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum”, Kassel (2003); “Blood & Honey”, Sammlung Essl, Vienna (2003); “When Latitudes Become Forms”, Walker Art Center, Minnesota (2003); 8th Havana Biennial (2003); 3rd Cetinje Biennial (2003) 3rd Kwangju Biennial (2000); and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th International Istanbul Biennials (1987, 1992, 1995).
Gülsün Karamustafa lives and works in Istanbul.
Image: Gulsun Karamustafa
For additional information, images or to request an interview please contact:
Üstüngel İnanç Mobile: +90 530 5693221 uinanc@rampaistanbul.com
Opening at Rampa tonight! Saturday, 18 January, 6.30pm
Rampa
Şair Nedim Caddesi No: 21a 34357 Beşiktaş İstanbul
Opening Hours:
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