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3/2/2009

In Praise of Shadows

Istanbul Modern, Istanbul

curated by Paolo Colombo

İstanbul Museum of Modern Art calls everyone to discover the influence of traditional shadow theatre on the cinema of the turn of the 20th century and on contemporary art of today, with its new exhibition “In Praise of Shadows”. The exhibition to be opened on January 22nd and to continue until May 5th, brings together the most important works of eight contemporary artists from seven different countries and of two master filmmakers from the first half of the 20th century.

By means of the exhibition realized through the support of the European Cultural Foundation, İstanbul Modern, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Benaki Museum will have collaborated for the first time. The exhibition is curated by Paolo Colombo, Advisor of İstanbul Modern. “In Praise of Shadows”, to be displayed in Dublin from November 5, 2008 to January 4. 2009, will travel to the Benaki Museum in Athens from May 23 to July 26 2009.

“In Praise of Shadows”, reflecting the influences on contemporary art of the long history of the shadow theatre in Turkey and Greece comprises works that are based on folk tales or simple contemporary narratives and presents more than 100 works of shadow theatre with dance, opera and music, silhouettes, drawings, texts, manuscripts, and films.

The exhibition explores the parallels between the traditions of shadow theatre and the new narrative spirit in contemporary art, while transmitting the traces of the traditional art form on the contemporary world of art in recent years. It addresses not just art-lovers but visitors interested in the history of cinema, animation, and shadow theatre and a great mass from all age groups.

The exhibition “In Praise of Shadows” brings together works and films of Haluk Akakçe (Turkey), Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden), William Kentridge (South Africa), Katariina Lillqvist (Finland), Jockum Nordström (Sweden), Lotte Reiniger (Germany), Christiana Soulou (Greece), Ladislas Starewitch (Poland), Andrew Vickery (Great Britain) and Kara Walker (U.S.A.).

“In Praise of Shadows” which invites one to discover the influences of traditional shadow theatre on the contemporary world of art, comprises illustrations inspired by opera by South African artist William Kentridge which are among his key works; playful drawings and collages of Jockum Nordström; drawinigs, silhouette installations and videos by the well-known African-American artist Kara Walker; Silver Bear awarded puppet animation, films, hand-made puppets by Katariina Lillqvist; most celebrated and still topical films of the pioneering German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger who’s source of inspiration is Karagöz and who created the first silhouette films in the 1920’s; the unique works of Ladislas Starewitch, one of the most well-known filmmakers of the 20th century and the master of stop-motion technique; the independent theatre of Andrew Vickery, the video of Haluk Akakçe, the videos of Nathalie Djurberg made with clay-animation technique and the drawings in which Christiana Soulou reflects the human conditions.

Karagöz samples, Ara Güler photographs, works of Yurdaer Altıntaş

At the ground floor of the museum and the entrance of the exhibition hall; Karagöz play figures, books, brochures, posters, newspapers, magazines and various objects showing the vividness that Karagöz has added to our daily life, brought together both from private collections and state collections are exhibited. Further, several Karagöz plays and the backstage of those plays from the DVD set “Traditional Turkish Shadow Theatre: Karagöz”, composed as a result of intense work by the Turkish Cultural Foundation in 2007 is also presented to the interest of the exhibition visitors.

Samples of Greek Karaghiozis and books written on the subject also meet the visitors in order to emphasize the effects of Turkish Karagöz in Greece. A play named “The Wedding of Uncle Iorgos” on the Greek Karagöz will be shown at the exhibition as well.

Furthermore, the photographs of Ara Güler on the subject of Karagöz are displayed. A selection of the works in which the graphic designer Yurdaer Altıntaş has re-interpreted the world of Karagöz will be presented to the visitors on the LCD screen at the video area. The graphic interpretation of Yurdaer Altıntaş reflects the light-dependent features of the Karagöz play with the impressions of the colour distributions diffusing on the screen.

“The Karagöz character is at the heart of the exhibition”

The curator of the exhibition Paolo Colombo states that he got the title “In Praise of Shadows” from a lecture given by William Kentridge at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001 and that Kentridge himself has borrowed it from a pamphlet of 1935, named “In Praise of Shadows” written by Junichiro Tanizaki.

Paolo Colombo, arguing that Shadow Theatre has a privileged place in pre-cinema history due to its long-established tradition, richness and essence, says “At the heart of this exhibition, and its central metaphor, are the shadow theatre traditions from Turkey and Greece, and in particular, the character of Karagöz”.

Mentioning that the works in the exhibition were chosen because of their special relationship to the world and categories of the Turkish and Greek shadow theatre, Colombo gives voice to his opinion on this subject, saying “These works form a good network relating the high and low culture and the popular shadow theatre tradition in Turkey and Greece, they weave a wide net of cross references among individual works, the culture they derive from, and Karagöz and Karaghiozis plays. Finally, they bear witness to a new narrative spirit lying at the heart of the practice of art”.

Oya Eczacıbaşı, the Chair of Board of İstanbul Modern, emphasizes that İstanbul Modern has undertaken the leadership and coordination of the exhibition as from the conceptual formation throughout all the preparation process and that for the first time an authentic exhibition is realized by the co-operation of three museums. “İstanbul Modern thus takes its place in the map of international travelling exhibitions by its commonly organized projects, as with the exhibition of ‘Design Cities’ previously”, she says.

Oya Eczacıbaşı, mentions the fact that activities and shows organized parallel to the exhibition will provide Karagöz, an important cultural heritage of ours extending from the past to our day to once more come on the agenda. She expresses her opinion, saying “The exhibition in particular presents a unique opportunity for viewers to witness how the tradition of the shadow theatre which is about to fall into oblivion employed in the production of contemporary art of Europe”.

Artists

Haluk Akakçe (1970) who creates videos that explore man’s relation with technology, at times alluding to biology, geometry and architecture, presents with “Shadow Machine” from this exhibition a parade of objects and revolving wheels, to the accompaniment of the music of Offenbach. Haluk Akaakçe’s video works, dealing with the structure that facilitates the life of the body, the world of the mind and socializing, are frequently accompanied by music that is either originally composed or adapted from an existing classical work. The hypnotic quality of images produced in the computer is more powerfully emphasized by the music of his films.

Nathalie Djurberg (1978) participates in the exhibition with two works in which she has employed the technique of clay-mation to construct short and intense narratives: “Madelaine the Brave” and “Viola”. In these narratives, a world is created where subconscious references are frequently made but a cynic sense of humour which is at times brutal dominates. The artist continues the “lonely man” spirit, which is the most important feature of shadow play productions, in these videos the production and animations of which she undertakes single-handedly. The soundtrack by Adam Berg, her usual collaborator, is all-pervasive, obsessive, and paces the images towards the outcome of her tales in a taught, clockwork manner.

Among the important works of William Kentridge (1955) in the exhibition are early drawings and a miniature theatre model for “Preparing the Flute”, a short interpretation of Mozart’s “Magic Flute”. The artist has worked with the technique of silhouettes since “Shadow Procession”, a video presented at the 6th Istanbul Biennial that comprises direct references to the Turkish and Greek shadow plays. As for “Procession”, which is also in the exhibition, it is derived from the characters in the video “Shadow Procession” and is a retinue of persons representing human characters. Silhouettes create “human typologies” rather than express identifiable individual emotional worlds; this feature of the method enables Kentridge to concentrate on universal themes and to create works that influence the viewer personally. Kentridge, who has produced works that entail art, theatre, and opera, has collaborated with actors, singers and musicians to create plays and operas in which he discovers the borders of a multifaceted and “total” work of art.

Katariina Lillqvist (1963) is a filmmaker who uses the puppets that she makes as actors in her movies. Her stories are frequently adapted from existing tales or from literary classics, history and old beliefs. Her films have a unique dark quality, a clear awareness of human despair, and they probe the destructive effects of work and the conflicts it creates on people. The artist participates in the exhibition with two films and the puppets and decors she has made for the films. In her puppet animation titled “Country Doctor”, which received the Silver Bear in the Short Film category from the 1996 Berlin Film Festival, the memories of Sarajevo refugees are dramatized, set in the subject of Franz Kafka’s story. Both “Country Doctor” and “The Maiden and Soldier” stand as a tribute to theatre director and artist Tadeusz Kantor who is known to be a major influence in Lillqvist’s art life.

Employing the technique of drawing or collages, Jockum Nordstrom (1963), constructs complex narratives in which popular culture, traditional tales, sexuality and desire mingle to give life to scenes that have both depth and width. Nordström often jumps from era to era, with frequent references to an idealized XVIII century and to an early XIX Century, all the way to our liberated present. With his works that in form resemble Greek and Balkan folk art in many ways, he presents us sweeping views of life on the social dynamics and interpersonal plays of Sweden. Touching on naïveté, the images of surrealism, and popular culture with his playful mood of improvisation, Nordström takes part in the exhibition with his 19 works on paper and his video animation titled “In His Loneliness”.

Lotte Reiniger (1899), who has developed silhouette films technique in the 1920s and is one of the first filmmakers to employ the most important animations and film tricks of the first half of the 20th century, completed “The Adventures of Prince Ahmed”, which is the product of extraordinary technical mastery and one of the principal works of animated poetry, when she was 25. The style of Lotte Reiniger, who has corresponded with Metin And on Turkish shadow theatre for many years, is based on the Chinese shadow play which she has developed with cinematic techniques. Reiniger has created many films based on fairy tales or operas in general throughout her career, but for several years she has acted in plays she wrote for shadow theatre.

Lotte Reiniger will take part in the exhibition with her films: the first feature animation film of cinema history, “The Adventures of Prince Ahmed” made by Reiniger between 1923-1926 in Berlin, which was greatly praised by filmmakers like Jean Renoir and René Clair and which keeps its topicality even today after eighty years; “Carmen” the brilliant parody, embroidered by the artist who was fond of fairy tales and a passionate admirer of Mozart, on Bizet’s opera; the happy bird hunter “Papageno” from Mozart’s “Magic Flute”, a musical which invites everyone to sing, murmur and whistle together; “A Night at the Harem” which she quoted from “The Abduction from the Seraglio“; as well as the original silhouettes used in her films and various materials like the original stage drawings borrowed from the Lotte Reiniger Collection in Tübingen.

Christiana Soulou (1961), taking part in the exhibition with “Water”, a series of 70 drawings, explores with these drawings that are statements on human condition, an inner world that is ever changing, mobile, transforming at the whim of an emotion. Soulou’s drawings focus on conditions of the mind; they have a direct relationship with dance and theatre. She continues and develops a tradition that extends from Heinrich Kleist’s puppet theatre to Oskar Schlemmer and Hans Bellmer. An animation that the artist has prepared specially for this exhibition will also be displayed.

In the films of the Polish filmmaker Ladislas Starewitch (1882), one of the most celebrated filmmakers of the 20th century and the master of stop-motion technique, it is possible to witness many puppets moving at the same time especially in the difficult scenes of complicated stories, distilled popular lore and traditional fairy tales. Ladislas Starewitch, who designed and produced all the puppets in his films and also served as scriptwriter, set designer, light and sound technician, and director, was surrounded by a minimal team composed of his daughters Irene and Nina and his wife Anna. Influencing contemporary filmmakers like Tim Burton, Starewitch created original interpretations for his stories culled from the fables of La Fontaine, by blending humour, irony and an astounding technical skill.

In the exhibition the following films of Ladislas Starewitch will be screened: his only feature length film “The Tale of the Fox”, which is full of action and humour and censored in some countries because of its implications against fascism and in which he tells the story of a sly and malevolent fox that has become prime minister by abusing the trust of all animals, including lion king; his most famous short film “The Mascot” narrating the attempts of a puppy cloth doll named Fétiche, the strongest character of his films, to make a little girl happy; “Love in Black and White” where Hollywood is satirized with Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, Mary Pickford, and other puppet caricatures; “Town Rat, Country Rat”, showing the sharp contrast between country and urban life, an extraordinary adaptation of the fable of La Fontaine about rats living in the so-called “roaring Twenties”, which is a praise to modernity inspired by the glory and the misery of the entertainment business.

Andrew Vickery (1963) exhibits his miniature theatre stage that is from the collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art and is a kind of contemporary puppet presentation. The artist photographs his drawings and projects them as slides in tiny theatres he builds himself. His work titled “Do You Know What You Saw?” refers to an imaginary diary account of a trip to Bayreuth to attend a performance of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal.

In the exhibition both Kara Walker’s (1969) videos and silhouette installations that share quite a number of characteristics with Karagöz and Karaghiozis plays, plus her drawings and pictures are displayed. Walker, embracing shadow play techniques in recent years, employs them both in video animations and in real shadow plays. Most of Walker’s works are closely related to the traditions and techniques of shadow theatre which she employs to explore the subjects of race, social gender and sexuality in her video animations and real shadow plays. Kara Walker revives the pre-civil war time in the United States in order to expose the heresy of slavery. She bases her work on silhouettes to reflect the aberrations of the social and economical system based on slavery. Her works are explosive mixes of violence and interracial sexuality. Her stories have a nightmarish quality to them, and yet are pervaded by a provocative sense of humour, drawing our attention to the horrors and the contradictions of a system based on abuse.

In “The Battle of Atlanta”, which is part of the exhibition, Kara Walker reconstructs historical events through a series of vignettes that focus on anecdotes that are apparently collateral to the battle itself, but that nevertheless, and more appropriately, indicate the tragic toll of the institution of slavery on individuals and families. “Burning African Village”, a 22 parts laser cut-out steel figures work of Walker, is a play set that has no definite configuration, and is a work with which the collector should interact, creating his / her own special narrative.

Istanbul Museum of Modern Art
Meclis-i Mebusan Ave. Liman Isletmeleri - Sahasi Antrepo No:4 Karakoy - Istanbul

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