— Exhibition: Ubiquitous Surfaces

Exhibition: Ubiquitous Surfaces

Artists: Ara Güler, Artıkişler Collective & Sevgi Ortaç, Berkay Tuncay, Erdal Inci, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, Lara Ögel, Larissa Fassler, Oddviz Collective and Serkan Taycan Location: SEAGER Gallery, London Date: 14-30 November 2019. Organised as part of Open Space's Curatorial Residency Programme.

Ubiquitous Surfaces explores two kinds of surface that have become integral to the human experience; the surfaces of the city and the surfaces of images; the architectural facade and the screen. The two are not separate, but they increasingly resemble each other; the discolouring of a facade is now most reminiscent of a degrading image.

Bringing together works by nine Istanbul-based artists, as well as works from the Huma Kabakcı Collection, the exhibition takes Istanbul as a case study and explores how the production and recording of images shape our relationship with they city.

The works of Serkan Taycan, Larissa Fassler and Erdal Inci all reference Taksim Square, a politically significant public space in Istanbul. Looking at it through different means of image making, from GIFs to cartography, the artists follow the surface movements of people on the concrete expanse, observing, tracing and rearranging their interactions.

Oddviz Collective, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar and Lara Ögel look more closely at the actual surfaces of walls, facades and streets, which have become the sites of inscription for political histories. The surfaces they play with are the interfaces between the city and its inhabitants, carrying both expressions and erosions.

Ara Güler, Berkay Tuncay, Artıkişler Collective & Sevgi Ortaç’s works question how images build collective visual memories of the city. Reaching from mid-century analogue photography to handy-cams and broken jpegs, they look at how images disseminate meaning and affect.

All these artists record, document, reproduce, montage, erase and manipulate images of the city - either those that are formed directly on its surfaces, or those transposed onto screens - in an effort to process the density of information and find new possibilities for interaction.

Air Conditioners, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, 2016, archival pigment prints on self-adhesive wallpaper, 230 x 280 cmAra Güler, Boat and workers at the dock, Karaköy, 1957, A view from the hillsides of Eyüp, 1975, Entrance to Beyoğlu Avrupa Pasajı, 2004, all inkjet print on paper, 63 x 44 cmErdal Inci, Centipedes, 2015, single channel video on loop, 6 min 18 sec.Artıkişler Collective and Sevgi Ortaç, Dictionary of Waste: Recycling Definitions and Images, 2014-2019. Fragments from The Dictionary of Waste, single channel video, 32 min 22 sec. Fragments of Squatting The City, single channel video, 14 min 10 sec. Dictionary of Waste, Fascicle 1 and 2, risograph poster, A3.Larissa Fassler, Taksim Square, May 31 - June 9, II, 2015, pen and pencil on paper, 120 x 140 cm Lara Ögel, Marginal Grays, 2019, edition of three, digital print on paper, 18 x 6 cm.Serkan Taycan, Agora #04, 2014-2019, vinyl grid, foam boards, 54 digital prints, 20 x 24 cm each. Oddviz Collective, Kadıköy I, 2018, self-adhesive wallpaper, 226 x 127 cm, and Kadıköy on a Push Cart, 2019, 3D photogrammetric model on touch-screen tablet.Berkay Tuncay, You have no chance to see these pictures anywhere else!!!, 2012, paper scroll and hanging apparatus, 20 x 16 x 200 cm.Ubiquitous Surfaces, curated by Rita Aktay, organised by Open Space. Photo credit: Liz Gorman. Courtesy of Open Space.

Ara Güler (1928-2018), also known as Istanbul’s Eye was a photojournalist and documentary photographer. He worked for newspapers such as Yeni Istanbul, Hürriyet, Rime and Life, as well as international magazines such as Stern, Paris Match and The Sunday Times. He joined Magnum Photos in 1960, and was part of the exhibition Ten Masters of Color Photography at MoMa in 1968. During his career, he conducted photo-interviews with important figures such as Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Alfred Hitchcock, Imogen Cunningham, Bertrand Russell, John Berger and Pablo Picasso.

Artıkişler Collective includes Özge Çelikaslan (b.1979, Ankara) and Alper Şen (b.1977, Ankara) amongst others. Focusing on issues such as urban transformation, forced migration, labour, archiving and collective social memory, they create collective production and distribution spaces. Recent solo exhibitions include Surplus of Istanbul (DEPO, 2015) and The Fire and the Wedding (2012) taking place in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Belgrade and Berlin. Recent group exhibitions include The Good Cause: Architecture of Peace and Vocabulary of Hospitality (Studio-X, 2015) and 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015).

Berkay Tuncay (b.1983, Istanbul) investigates the effects of the internet on global society, by copying, combining and transforming cultural codes such as images, texts and memes. He holds an MA in Digital Art from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Recent solo shows include Life Is What Happens To You While You Are Busy Watching Cute Cat Videos (Gaia Gallery, 2016) and We Are All Accidents Waiting to Happen (49A, 2013). Selected group shows include Me and You (5533, 2017) and Stay With Me (Apartment Projects, 2014).

Erdal Inci (b.1983, Ankara) is a new media artist, painter, photographer, filmmaker and street artist based in Istanbul. Recent solo exhibitions include Urbanscapes (2016, ArtOn), The Mass Ornament (2015,Galerie Michael Schultz) and Patterns of Motion (2013, Bauart Gallery). Selected group exhibitions include The Incident of Art / The Art of Incident (2016, Akbank Gallery), Asymmetric Kin (2016, Seed Space), Waves (2015, Block Art Space) and Focus I: Free Association (2014, Daire Gallery).

Kerem Ozan Bayraktar (b. 1984, Istanbul) produces work focusing on transformation, mutation, diversity and cloning, employing animation, CGI, models and text. Recent solo exhibitions include Chance and Necessity (Sanatorium, Istanbul, 2018), et cetera (PGArt, Istanbul, 2015). Group exhibitions include Colony (Abud Efendi Konağı, Istanbul and Schwules Museum, Berlin, 2017), Deep Darkness and Splendor (Galerist, Istanbul, 2017), Habitat (Istanbul Modern, 2016) and VIVO (KASA Gallery, Istanbul, 2015).

Lara Ögel (b.1987, Izmir) received her bachelorettes degree in Screen Studies from Clark University in Worcester, MA. Ögel attended the Intensive Summer Foundation at Slade School of Fine Art in London. Recent solo shows include İmtidad, Galata Greek School Open Library, Istanbul (2018); Come Back! All is Forgiven, Protocinema, Paris (2016); The Happy Average, Öktem & Aykut, Istanbul (2014). Selected group shows include Restless Monuments, Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul (2018); Driftwood or how we surfaced through currents, Athens (2017); Past in Each of its Moments be Citable, DEPO, Istanbul (2016).

Larissa Fassler (b.1975, Vancouver) completed her BFA at Concordia University, Montreal and MFA at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and currently lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo shows include The Esker Foundation, Calgary, The Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, The Hessen State Museum Darmstadt, Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris. Selected group exhibitions include The MAC, Belfast,The 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris, and ArtInternational Istanbul.

Oddviz Collective was founded by architect Çağrı Taşkın (b.1983, Ankara), engineer Serkan Kaptan (b.1983, Ankara) and artist Erdal Inci (b.1983, Ankara) in 2016. Documenting urban spaces with photogrammetry, the collective has produced works in Istanbul, Berlin, New York and Venice for their ongoing Inventory series. Their first solo exhibit opened at ArtOn in 2018, and they have taken part in international projects such as The Arte Laguna Prize and Plums Audio-Visual Experiments Festival.

Serkan Taycan (1987, Gaziantep) focuses on the dynamics of ecological and urban transformations caused by human activities in his researched based art practice. His works have been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Helsinki Biennial of Photography, Mardin Biennial and Sinopale. He has also taken part in exhibitions at SALT, MAXXI, MuCEM, Istanbul Modern and Malmö Museum, and completed residency programs in Cité Internationale des Arts and Delfina Foundation.

Sevgi Ortaç (b. 1984, Istanbul) is a visual artist and academic, focusing on issues of cultural heritage, the politics of memory and the transformation of urban space. Her video Missing the Place was realised in the framework of the project Global Prayers and co-produced by Heinrich Böll Stiftung for the exhibition The Urban Cultures of Global Prayers in NGBK, Berlin (2011) and Camera Austria, Graz (2012). Her books include The Monument Upside Down: City Walls of Istanbul (Dutch Art Institute, 2010).

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