calendario eventi  :: 

X

2/9/2011

Two exhibitions

Overgaden - Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen

Ahmet Ögüt & Cevdet Erek: Ahmet Cevdet Bey Presents Tunnel of Fear
curated by Celenk Bafra and Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen

Welcome to Ahmet Cevdet Bey’s universe of tricks, thrills and everyday magic! Two of Turkey’s prominent artists, Ahmet Ögüt and Cevdet Erek, turn part of Overgaden’s top storey into a horror chamber full of surprises.

In their first joint project, the two artists have fused to become one and the same person: the failed but proud alchemist Ahmet Cevdet Bey. In a site-specific installation which includes quaint and kitschy objects collected from the street vendors of Istanbul, Ahmet Cevdet Bey invites us to take a journey into a world where our senses and orientation shift into a new experience, where the borderline between fear, excitement and exhilaration become vague.

As in a hall of mirrors, everyday personal negotiations for recognition and respect, or about right and wrong, are distorted and magnified, along with the general human fear of loneliness, exclusion and alienation. In the work, Ahmet Cevdet Bey presents all these worries and speculations to the viewers, who are invited to find themselves reflected in the tunnel’s polyphonic choir of absurdities, oddities and grotesque banalities.

Both artists work in a wide range of media, and in Tunnel of Fear, Ögüt’s critical and subtly humorous studies of everyday social and political relationships are combined with Erek’s interest in the viewer’s perception and experience of a given space. In a playful manner, the charactistic ‘low budget’ concept of the horror tunnel is informed by the minor troubles of everyday life, as well as issues relating to global economics, transnational corporations and cheap labour.

The exhibition is curated by Celenk Bafra and Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen. The project has been organised in co-operation with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and is realized under the auspices of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the contribution of The Promotion Fund of the Turkish Prime Ministry and the Danish Arts Council’s International Committee for Visual Art.

-----------------

Terms of Belonging
curated by Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh

What is a community? How can it be reconciled with contemporary pluralism? In an increasingly globalised world, where the coherence of the nation-state is challenged by migration, local organisational forms and changing perceptions of belonging, the concept of community is due for renewal.

In the international group exhibition Terms of Belonging, 8 artists and artist groups examine the current sense of community in an experimental and critical manner. Before and during the exhibition, through works that create social formations, the artists will enter into unexpected relations with local partners, the average Dane on the street, and the audience.

Thus in several of the works, temporary communities are established in which alternative modes of action and being together can be tested. Canadian artist Althea Thauberger, for example, has created a mothers’ group on the basis of statistical information about age, income and ethnicity, in which new mothers are invited to participate in the production of her work. Meanwhile, the project Your Country Doesn’t Exist by Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson challenges the very notion of the nation-state as a natural entity, and points to rethinking forms of society.

With these examinations and tests of the concept of community, the exhibition invites us to reflect on both existing and future social relationships; and, not least, to explore ways of being together in the world that are not defined by the nation-state or the existing legislation.

The project is curated by Aileen Burns (CA) and Johan Lundh (SE) and also includes a production residency, a website and a one-day seminar focusing on future communities. The website www.termsofbelonging.org will regularly be updated with information and texts about the project and related events.

For more information contact Anna Holm +45 3257-7273 ah@overgaden.org

Image: Tunnel of Fear, 2011. Installation view.

Overgaden.
Institute of Contemporary Art
Overgaden Neden Vandet 17
DK-1414 Copenhagen K
Tuesday-Sunday 1-5pm, Thursday 1-8pm

stampa

permanent link