Friday, September 07, 2012

‎"The Castle of Vooruit"

‎"The Castle of Vooruit" 
The Castle of Vooruit | helium-filled balloon floating above the ground at a height of eleven meters and diameter of eight meters, Waalse Krook, Ghent | Commissioned by S.M.A.K. for TRACK | 2012 | photo by Clément Philippe
‘The CASTLE OF VOORUIT’
Ögüt takes the socialist history of Ghent as the starting point for his contribution to TRACK, which is entitled ‘The Castle of Vooruit’. He concentrates on the Vooruit, the cooperative where the working-class people of Ghent assembled from the end of the nineteenth century until the early 1970s and which ran both a centre for festive occasions and a newspaper. Making reference to ‘Le Chateau des Pyrénées’ (1961) by the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, Ögüt is sending up a gigantic helium balloon in the shape of Magritte’s floating rock, launched near the Vooruit Arts Centre. He is replacing the mysterious castle on top with a replica of the Vooruit building. Ögüt captures the traces of a set of utopian social ideas in a single surreal image.



Thursday, September 06, 2012

Artforum: 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE: ART’S NEW MEDIA


50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE: ART’S NEW MEDIAArtforum has turned fifty: To mark the occasion, we devote our special anniversary issue, titled “Art’s New Media,” to an examination of the past five decades in media, technology, and art—from the Plexiglas and Porta-Paks of the 1960s to the networked production of the present. For the story of media is in many ways the story of contemporary art, both its history and its future. If, in 1962, when the magazine was founded, artists were beginning to question traditional categories of painting and sculpture, now the language of new media and social media abounds in galleries, exhibition titles, and press releases. How can we rethink the art medium in terms of new media, while reckoning with the fact that new media is always becoming old? How can we understand Artforum itself as a medium for criticism and for art, while looking at the ways in which it registered sea changes in how information is transmitted and indeed defined? These questions open onto a vast and ever-shifting terrain, explored in this landmark issue—the magazine’s thickest to date—by ninety distinguished critics, artists, curators, and historians:
Ai Weiwei · Stephen Antonakos · Cory Arcangel · Alex Bag · Jack Bankowsky · Eric Banks · Lynda Benglis · Daniel Birnbaum · Claire Bishop · Mel Bochner · David Bordwell · Hans Breder · Merlin Carpenter · Paul Chan · Jake Chapman · Tony Conrad · Lynne Cooke · Douglas Crimp · Thomas Crow ·Tacita Dean · Liz Deschenes · Eric C. H. de Bruyn · Thomas Demand · Diedrich Diederichsen · Mark Dion · Stan Douglas · Harun Farocki · Lara Favaretto · Peter Fend · Hal Foster · David Frankel ·Michael Fried · Isa Genzken · Dan Graham · Tim Griffin · Wade Guyton · Ed Halter · Thomas Hirschhorn · J. Hoberman · Eva Horn · David Horvitz · Robert Irwin · Joan Jonas · Caroline A. Jones ·David Joselit · Branden W. Joseph · John Kelsey · Alison Knowles · Max Kozloff · Rosalind E. Krauss ·Barbara Kruger · Oliver Laric · Pamela M. Lee · Rhonda Lieberman · Glenn Ligon · Greil Marcus · Dave McKenzie · Shana Moulton · Takashi Murakami · Molly Nesbit · Hitoshi Nomura · Albert Oehlen ·Ahmet Ögüt · Ida Panicelli · Robert Pincus-Witten · John Rajchman · David Rimanelli · Scott Rothkopf ·Ed Ruscha · Cindy Sherman · Richard Serra · Dayanita Singh · Ingrid Sischy · Michael Snow · Keith Sonnier · Morton Subotnick · Bruce Sterling · Amy Taubin · Wolfgang Tillmans · Ryan Trecartin ·Bernard Tschumi · David Velasco · Anthony Vidler · Anne M. Wagner · Kara Walker · Jeffrey Weiss ·Robert Whitman · Stephen Willats · Geoffrey Winthrop-Young · Yang Fudong
Visit Artforum online at www.artforum.com.
To subscribe, visit www.artforum.com/subscribe.

Artforum is pleased to introduce its new iPhone application for artguide—the international art world’s most comprehensive directory of exhibitions, events, and art fairs in more than 500 cities. Download the artguide app here.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

ZWÖLF IM ZWÖLFTEN

ZWÖLF IM ZWÖLFTEN
Duration: 10/12/2011 - 3/3/2012

TANAS Berlin
Heidestraße 50

10557 Berlin
Germany

Artists:
Nevin Aladağ
Vahap Avşar
Ergin
Çavuşoğlu
Nezaket Ekici

Şakir Gökçeba
ğ
Nilbar Güreş
Servet Koçyiğit
Ahmet Öğüt
Ebru Özse
çen
Anny & Sibel Öztürk
Canan Tolon
Nasan Tur


curated by René Block and Ece Pazarbaşı

http://www.tanasberlin.de/

Friday, November 11, 2011

The Walls That Divide Us

The Walls That Divide Us

apexart, 291 Church Street, NYC, 10013

November 9 - December 22, 2011

Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 9: 6-8 pm

Exhibition Walk Through: Friday, November 11: 6:30 pm


Featuring work by:
Gisele Amantea, Kader Attia, Carolina Caycedo, Chen Chieh-jen, Sam Durant, Leor Grady, Ivan Grubanov, Shilpa Gupta, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Runo Lagomarsino, Teresa Margolles, Locky Morris, Carlos Motta, Ahmet Öğüt, Anna Ostoya, Amalia Pica, Rigo 23

curated by Miguel Amado

http://www.apexart.org/exhibitions/amado.php

Monday, October 10, 2011

12th Istanbul Biennial

THE 12TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL

September 17 / November 13, 2011

The visual identity and the title of the 12th Istanbul Biennial—Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), 2011—reference the work of the Cuban American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996), one of the most important artists of the contemporary era.

The five group exhibitions of the 12th Istanbul Biennial are titled Untitled (Abstraction), “Untitled” (Ross), “Untitled” (Passport), Untitled (History), and “Untitled” (Death by Gun). Each departs from a specific work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. More than 50 solo presentations carry further the discussions broached by the group exhibitions.

solo presentations:

Zarouhie Abdalian
Bisan Abu-Eisheh
Eylem Aladoğan
Jonathas de Andrade
Nazgol Ansarinia
Edgardo Aragón
Ardmore Ceramic Art Studio
Marwa Arsanios
Yıldız Moran Arun
Nicolás Bacal
Taysir Batniji
Letizia Battaglia
Milena Bonilla
Mark Bradford
Geta Bratescu
Teresa Burga
Adriana Bustos
Elizabeth Catlett
Claire Fontaine
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Nazım Hikmet Richard Dikbaş
Adrian Esparza
Simon Evans
Geoffrey Farmer
Dani Gal
Simryn Gill
Group Material
Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt
Newell Harry
Zarina Hashmi
William E. Jones
Tamás Kaszás & Anikó Loránt
Tim Lee
Leonilson
Renata Lucas
Dóra Maurer
Tina Modotti
Füsun Onur
Catherine Opie
Ahmet Öğüt
Vesna Pavlovic
Rosângela Rennó
Meriç Algün Ringborg
Martha Rosler
Wael Shawky
Gabriel Sierra
Nasrin Tabatabai and Babak Afrassiabi (PAGES)
Francisco Tropa
Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor
Hank Willis Thomas
Camilo Yáñez
Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck & Media Farzin
Ala Younis
Akram Zaatari

Monday, September 12, 2011

4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art
Commissioner of the Fourth Moscow biennale of contemporary art - Joseph Backstein.
Curator of the Main project - Peter Weibel.

The title for the Biennale, “Rewriting Worlds”, proclaims that art is a sphere where new things are unceasingly generated, and contemporary artists rewrite the world as it exists around them by conveying new ideas and viewpoints in their artistic work. Peter Weibel believes that the exhibition’s main goal is “to demonstrate different levels of artistic thought — technological, political and psychological.”

The main project will be located at two venues — the ARTPLAY Design Center, and the TSUM Art Foundation, both in central Moscow. There will also be 6 special guests, as well as 69 special projects and parallel programs at different venues. In addition, the Biennale expands its geographic boundaries beyond Moscow, with special projects planned in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kiev, and London.

List of artists:
  1. Nadezhda Anfalova (Russia)
  2. Marina Alekseeva (Russia)
  3. Kader Attia (France)
  4. Catalina Bauer (Chile)
  5. Bernadette Corporation (USA)
  6. Michael Bielicky / Kamila B. Richter (Czech Republic/Germany)
  7. BlueSoup (Russia)
  8. Alexei Borisov & Olga Nosova and VTOL (Россия)
  9. Roberto Cabot (Brazil)
  10. Jim Campbell (USA)
  11. Daniel Canogar (Spain)
  12. Rejane Cantoni & Daniela Kutschat (Brazil)
  13. Chen Chieh-jen (Taiwan)
  14. Valery Chtak (Russia)
  15. Stan Douglas (Canada)
  16. Claire Fontaine (France)
  17. Electroboutique (Russia)
  18. Olafur Eliasson (Denmark / Germany)
  19. Michael Elmgreen (Denmark) & Ingar Dragset (Norway)
  20. EVOL (Germany)
  21. Thomas Feuerstein (Austria)
  22. Gints Gabrans (Latvia)
  23. Andrea Galvani (Italy / USA)
  24. Kate Gilmore (USA)
  25. Paolo Grassino (Italy)
  26. Shilpa Gupta (India)
  27. Alina Gutkina (Russia)
  28. Richard Hamilton (UK)
  29. FX Harsono (Indonesia)
  30. Jeppe Hein (Denmark / Germany)
  31. Susan Hiller (UK / USA)
  32. Rebecca Horn (Germany)
  33. Manabu Ikeda (Japan)
  34. Wang Jianwei (China)
  35. Isaac Julien (UK)
  36. Olga Kisseleva (Russia / France)
  37. Jürgen Klauke (Germany)
  38. Taisia Korotkova (Russia)
  39. Learning Film Group (Yevgeny Fiks, David Riff, Ilya Budraitskis, Nikolay Oleynikov) (Russia)
  40. Armin Linke (Italy / Germany)
  41. Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico/ Canada)
  42. Ken Lum (Canada) and Zheng Shengtian (China)
  43. Ingeborg Lüscher (Switzerland / Germany)
  44. Anna Maria Maiolino (Brazil)
  45. Igor Makarevich / Elena Elagina (Russia)
  46. Taus Makhacheva (Russia)
  47. Fabián Marcaccio (Argentina / USA)
  48. Casey McKee (USA / Germany)
  49. Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan)
  50. Achim Mohné & Uta Kopp (Germany)
  51. Lada Nakonechna (Ukraine)
  52. Yong-seok Oh (Korea)
  53. Ahmet Öğüt (Turkey / Netherlands)
  54. Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands)
  55. Anna Marta Overaa (Norway)
  56. Walid Ra'ad (Lebanon / USA)
  57. rAndom International (Germany / UK)
  58. Neo Rauch (Germany)
  59. Rosângela Rennó (Brazil)
  60. Ki-bong Rhee (Korea)
  61. Gerhard Richter (Germany)
  62. R&Sie(n) (France)
  63. Charles Sandison (UK / Finland)
  64. T. V. Santhosh (India)
  65. Christoph Schlingensief (Germany)
  66. Ruth Schnell (Austria)
  67. David Shrigley (UK)
  68. Christa Sommerer (Austria) & Laurent Mignonneau (France / Austria)
  69. Jonas Staal (Netherlands)
  70. Joulia Strauss (Germany/Russia)
  71. Yasuhiro Suzuki (Japan)
  72. Yuken Teruya (Japan)
  73. Timo Toots (Estonia)
  74. Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (Lithuania) in collaboration with Tracey Warr
  75. Guido Van der Werve (Netherlands)
  76. Mariana Vassileva (Bulgaria/ Germany)
  77. Martin Walde (Austria)
  78. Ai Weiwei (China)
  79. Tintin Wulia (Indonesia)
  80. Cerith Wyn Evans (UK)
  81. Kijong Zin (Korea)

Saturday, September 10, 2011

RUN, COMRADE, THE OLD WORLD IS BEHIND YOU at Kunsthall Oslo



Kunsthall Oslo
RUN, COMRADE, THE OLD WORLD IS BEHIND YOU

16.09 - 16.10.2011

A new artwork everyday for 23 days. Exhibition, concerts, performances.

Dina Danish, Marius Engh, Søren Thilo Funder, Ahmad Ghossein, Marianne Heier, Runhild Hundeide, Hassan Khan, Guro Moe, Ahmet Öğüt, Pia Maria Roll, Benjamin Seror og Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Dan Starling, Pilvi Takala, Mario Garcia Torres, Synnøve G. Wetten, Dan Wolgers a. o.

'Run, Comrade, the old world is behind you' is an exhibition showing a new work each day from the 16th of September to the 16th of October. 23 artists will present performances, objects, films, lectures, concerts etc., during a month in line with our opening hours (wednesday-sunday).
The exhibition will start with an empty room, progressively filled with new artworks until it becomes a group exhibition. The show will end on a finissage, concert and party on Sunday the 16th of October.

www.kunsthalloslo.no

Monday, August 29, 2011

Ahmet Cevdet Bey presents Tunnel of Fear



Ahmet Cevdet Bey presents Tunnel of Fear
03.09.2011 - 06.11.2011
Ahmet Ögüt & Cevdet Erek

Overgaden.
Institute of Contemporary Art

Overgaden Neden Vandet 17
DK-1414 Copenhagen K

http://www.overgaden.org/exhibition/index/92


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Car Fetish. I drive, therefore I am.

Car Fetish. I drive, therefore I am.

June 8 - October 9, 2011

Museum Tinguely | Basel

Car Fetish presents the automobile as a source of inspiration for the art of the last hundred years. Starting with the Futurists, who saw in its beastly roar and thrilling, dangerous speed a new ideal of beauty, the book provides an overview of the most beautiful and inspiring artworks we owe to this tin muse. Among them are examples of Pop Art and creations by the Nouveaux Réalistes, with Jean Tinguely as biggest Formula 1 fan. The extensive catalog places the automobile in the context of cultural history as a key cultural artifact of the twentieth century.

Among the included artists are Kenneth Anger, Giacomo Balla, Edward Burtynsky, Andrew Bush, César, John Chamberlain, Liz Cohen, Stephen Dean, Jan Dibbets, Don Eddy, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Sylvie Fleury, Franz Gertsch, Allan Kaprow, Peter Keetman, Edward Kienholz, Konrad Klapheck, Annika Larsson, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Zilla Leutenegger, Arnold Odermatt, Ahmet Ögüt, Julian Opie, Mel Ramos, Robert Rauschenberg, Pipilotti Rist, Peter Roehr, Mimmo Rotella, Bruno Rousseaud, Luigi Russolo, Franck Scurti, Roman Signer, Stefan Sous, Peter Stämpfli, Anton Stankowski, Superflex, Andy Warhol, Patrick Weidmann, Virgil Widrich, and Dale Yudelman.

http://www.tinguely.ch/en/ausstellungen_events/austellungen/2011/Fetisch-Auto.html

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Solo exhibition @ SALT Beyoglu Istanbul



MODERN ESSAYS 1
AHMET ÖĞÜT
ACROSS THE SLOPE

JUNE 16 – OCTOBER 1, 2011


SALT Beyoglu
Istanbul

The first work to be exhibited in the series Modern Essays at SALT is Ahmet Öğüt’s Across the Slope. Originally shown in 2008 at Centre d’Art Santa Mònica in Barcelona, the installation consists of a modified Fiat 131 Mirafiori balanced precariously across a slope that takes over the floor of the gallery space.

The Fiat 131 Mirafiori was the dream car of the 1970s middle class in Turkey. In addition to domestic production, the 131 was manufactured in Turkey’s Tofaş factory as Murat 131, in Spain as Seat 131 and in Soviet Russia as Lada. It was also assembled in Southeast Asia, South America and North Africa. While Mirafiori’s design and engine were imported to these foreign markets, its assembly was local. The classic middle class car of its era, today Mirafiori remains a symbol of modernization, and an early example of a developing culture around custom-made cars. Öğüt’s version of the 131, like the American automobiles of the 1950s, is elongated beyond the needs of luxury.

Is this car on the slope just a modified Murat 131, or is it a middle class dream, suspended in mid-air?

An earlier work by artist Vahit Tuna titled
The President’s Car (1998) tackled issues that arose from the transformation of the luxurious American cars imported to Turkey during the Democrat Party era. These cars that were used first by wealthy families, later became taxicabs and, finally, were modified in Dolapdere as eight-person shuttle buses. Ironically, these local articulations were visually reminiscent of limousines.

A comparison between American brands like Dodge or Chevrolet and Mirafiori embodies not only a Euro-American duality, but also the contrasting fantasies of the American and European middle classes. The helplessness of the working class eluded to in Öğüt’s
Across the Slope can also be perceived in the composite photograph series Hip Activities-Escorts (2003-2005) by Aydan Murtezaoğlu. The car in Murtezaoğlu’s photographs is a 1968 Opel Rekord, manufactured the year of worldwide protests that represented the first great disappointment of the middle class after World War II.

In the 1960s, Turkish engineers produced the Devrim [Revolution], a prototype hand-made car. Öğüt first explored the Devrim in
Today in History (2007), a series of stories and illustrations based on Turkish newspaper texts. Öğüt’s interest in the Devrim stemmed from the historic failure of its inaugural test-drive, the embarrassing result of an empty gas tank. Like the Devrim project, Across the Slope references the competitive spirit of national pride projects, as well as the invisible obstructions that middle class aspirations stumbled upon. It provides an alternative vantage point from which to deconstruct Turkish history.

Across the Slope can also be viewed as an extension of Öğüt’s Ground Control (2008), featured in the 5th Berlin Biennial, in which he covered a 400 sq. m. exhibition space with asphalt. Creating a chain of associations - including the demand for gas, asphalt’s origins in Southeastern Turkey, the country’s position as a cheap production base for the rest of the world, the dependency inherent to Turkey’s industrialization, the development of the autobahn, tire production and the assemblage industry - Öğüt’s work shapes a dialogue that touches on political, as well as economic issues.

Across the Slope will be accompanied by a video program exploring alternative readings of the work, to be presented in SALT Beyoğlu’s Walk-in Cinema.


Thursday, June 02, 2011

COMMERCIAL BREAK


COMMERCIAL BREAK

Garage Projects, 54th Venice Biennale
June 1 - June 5, 2011

Participating artists include:

Aaron Young; Adam McEwen; Adel Abdessemed; AES + F; Agathe Snow; Agnieszka Kurant; Ahmet Öğüt; Aida Ruilova; Aleksandra Mir; Alex Hubbard; Andrea Chung; Annika Larsson; Anton Ginzburg; Ari Marcopoulos; Assume Vivid Astro Focus; Baptist Coelho; Barbara Kruger; Blue Soup Group; Brendan Fowler; Bruce High Quality Foundation; Cevdet Erek; Christian Jankowski; Collier Schorr; Cyprien Gaillard; Dan Colen and Nate Lowman; Daniel Newman; Dima Gutov; Dmitry Bulnygin; Dominic Nurre; Dzine; Electroboutique; Eloise Fornieles; Erika Verzutti; Gardar Eide Einarsson; Gelitin; Gillian Wearing; Hanif Kureshi; Hank Willis Thomas; Hans Op De Beek; Helmut Lang; Heman Chong; Hu Jieming; Huang Kui; Ilya Korobkov; Janaina Tschäpe; JD Walsh; Jen DeNike; Jennifer Wen Ma; Jeppe Hein; Jitish Kallat; Johan Grimonprez; John Pilson; Jonathan Horowitz; Josephine Meckseper; Julião Sarmento; Kaari Upson; Karen Kilimnik; Kon Trubkovich; Kris Martin; Lais Myrrha; Lara Favaretto; LaToya Ruby Frazier; Liz Cohen; Liz Magic Laser; Lu Yang; Marcel Odenbach; Marco Brambilla; Marcos Chaves; Maria Petschnig; Marilyn Minter; Martin Murphy; Martynka Wawrzyniak; Matias Faldbakken; Matthew Day Jackson; Maurizio Cattelan; Melodie Mousset; Meredith Danluck; Michael Sailstorfer; Mika Rottenberg; Mike Bouchet; Miltos Manetas; Monica Narula; Munir Kabani; Narendra Yadav; Natalie Czech; Nicolas Provost; Norma Jeane; Olaf Breuning; Olympia Scarry; Paola Pivi; Paolo Canevari; Pascual Sisto; Pavel Buchler; Peter Coffin; Pinar Yolacan; Prasad Raghavan; Rashaad Newsome; Raymond Pettibon; Richard Phillips; Rirkrit Tiravanija; Riyas Komu; Rodrigo Matheus; Ruangrupa; Ruben Bellinkx; Ryan Gander; Ryan McNamara; Ryan Trecartin; Samar Jodha; Sara Ramo; Sarah Morris; Scott King; Sergey Bratkov; Shreyas Karle; Shwetal Patel; Slater Bradley; Stefan Brüggemann; Sudarshan Shetty; SUPERFLEX; Terence Koh; The Propeller Group; Thiago Rocha Pitta; Tintin Wulia; Tom Sachs; Tony Oursler; Uri Aran; Valeska Soares; Vanessa Beecroft; Wilfredo Prieto; Wilhelm Sasnal; Xu Tan; Yi Zhou; Yoshua Okon; Zhou Xiaohu.

For our second project in Venice, we are presenting Commercial Break from 1 to 5 June 2011 as part of the opening week of the 54th Venice Biennale.

Commercial Break is a conspicuous intervention into the historic city of Venice, featuring over one hundred artists, each engaging with the relationship between advertising and culture. Short digital works by globally recognized and emerging artists from around the world will bring the form and language of advertising to Venice. The project is curated by Neville Wakefield and powered by POST magazine.
Commercial Break is both an intervention with the architecture of the city and an iPad application created by POST, the world’s first magazine created specifically for the iPad. The special art issue will allow readers to explore individual artists and films for the 5 months of the Biennale as well as on location in Venice.

Neville Wakefield: Curator
Emma Reeves: Director of Content
Aimee Ehrman: Artist Liason and Film/Editing Coordinator
Nicolas Galetta: Editing Assistant
Video Post-Production: My active Driveway NY
Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio (Arthub Asia) and Shwetal Patel: Content Consultants

With thanks to all the participating artists and their galleries.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Yes, we don't



Yes, we don't
Bernard Bazile, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Vaast Colson, François Curlet, Ahmet Öğüt, Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, Francesco Finizio, Richard Hughes, John Knight, Sener Özmen & Erkan Özgen, Julien Prévieux, Michael Rakowitz, Santiago Sierra, Javier Téllez, Carey Young + Links *

* Free access links to other projects, artistic or not

CURATORS:
Joël Benzakin, independent curator based in Brussels
Nathalie Ergino, director of the Institut d'art contemporain

20 May–14 August 2011

Opening:
19 May 2011, 6.30 p.m.

Press Preview:
19 May 2011, 11 a.m.

Institut d'art contemporain
Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes
11 rue Docteur Dolard
69100 Villeurbanne
France
www.i-ac.eu

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Solo show @ Fondazione Giuliani, Rome



Ahmet Öğüt
Once upon a time a clock-watcher during overtime hours

curated by Adrienne Drake

30 April–23 July 2011

Preview:
Thursday, 28 April 2011
6:00 to 9:00pm

Fondazione Giuliani per l'arte contemporanea
Via Gustavo Bianchi 1
00153 Rome Italy

www.fondazionegiuliani.org


With a keenly perceptive and sharp wit, Ahmet Öğüt examines everyday happenstance, modes of behaviour and informal gestures which bear witness to broader global social and political structures. Through diverse means of expression, from installation and performance to drawing, video and interventions in public space, Öğüt weaves loose narratives that meander between artistic practice and social life to provoke critical consciousness and subtle shifts in perspective.

In Once upon a time a clock-watcher during overtime hours, Öğüt's solo exhibition at the Fondazione Giuliani, the artist moves his practice in a new direction, using an art collection as source material. Öğüt has selected works by Marina Abramovic, Giovanni Anselmo, Carl Andre, Mircea Cantor, Peter Coffin, Cyprien Gaillard, Joseph Kosuth and Sislej Xhafa from the Giuliani Collection to create "atmospheres" or interventions around each work which call attention to the characteristics of the works themselves, while also appropriating them to create multi-layered narratives with an open trajectory to generate and expand upon new meanings. Underlining these interventions is the consideration that no artwork has one single reading but is open to subjective interpretation. While paying homage to the works by these artists, Öğüt questions authorial originality and intentionality. He creates visual texts, which invite the viewer to really ponder a work of art while formulating new considerations and multiple readings.

Interspersed throughout the exhibition spaces are a body of artworks by the artist himself, several of which have been produced specifically for the show. These works underscore Öğüt's continuing interest in time, sociological structures and mechanisms of surveillance and control. The 16mm film collage, Wikipolis, juxtaposes a scene from Metropolis, Fritz Lang's seminal 1927 film on urban dystopia, with an image of a former nuclear bunker in Stockholm that now houses a data centre with 8,000 computer servers, two of which belong to WikiLeaks. The interactive installation, River Crossing Puzzle, transforms a traditional children's puzzle into a playful but politically charged game, while with My Spy Desk, the exhibition's viewers become unintentional protagonists. Ultimately, Once upon a time a clock-watcher during overtime hoursinvites the viewer to bear witness to and participate in an exercise of irony, nuance and layered interpretation.

Born in Diyarbakir, Turkey in 1981, Öğüt currently resides in Amsterdam. Winner of the Volkskrant Art Prize 2011, Öğüt's recent solo exhibitions include Stones to Throw, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon; Underestimated Zones, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis; Ricochet # 4, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich; Speculative Social Fantasies, Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney; Things we count, Künstlerhaus Bremen; Mutual Issues, Inventive Acts, Kunsthalle Basel; Across the Slope, Centre d'Art Santa Monica, Barcelona. Selected group exhibitions include Performa 09, New York; 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art; 9th International Istanbul Biennial. In 2009 he co-represented Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale together with Banu Cennetoğlu.

The exhibition will officially open Saturday 30th April from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.

Fondazione Giuliani per l'arte contemporanea
via Gustavo Bianchi, 1 – 00153 Rome Italy
Tuesday through Saturday from 3:00pm to 7:30pm, and by appointment
www.fondazionegiuliani.org - info@fondazionegiuliani.org - +39 06.57301091
Press contact: Elena Bari | NewRelease – press@newrelease.it - 02.47956722 – 3289781241


With support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Rome

http://www.fondazionegiuliani.org/

Monday, March 14, 2011

solo show @ Kunsthalle Lissabon




Stones to throw

Ahmet Öğüt

Kunsthalle Lissabon

02/04/2011
14/05/2011

Rua Rosa Araújo 7-9
Lisbon, Portugal

Kunsthalle Lissabon is proud to present Stones to throw, Ahmet Öğüt's first solo show in Portugal. In Stones to throw, an installation specifically developed for Kunsthalle Lissabon, Öğüt departs from nose art, the decorative paintings or designs on the fuselage of military aircrafts, which can be seen as a form of aircraft graffiti, to present a series of 10 painted stones that feature the same kind of designs seen in airplanes. Throughout the exhibition, and gradually, all of the stones, except the last one, will be removed from Kunsthalle Lissabon's exhibition space and sent to Diyarbakir, Öğüt's hometown. The stones will then be received by a friend of the artist and left abandoned on the streets. All the process of removing the stones from the exhibition and abandoning them on the city will be documented and presented in Kunsthalle Lissabon as part of the artist's installation. Diyarbakir, located in southeast Turkey has been witnessing an increase of children arrested on charges of stone throwing.

The exhibition will also include older works such as Somebody else's car (2005), Short circuit (2006) and This area is under 23 hour video and audio surveillance (2009).

The exhibition Stones to throw is generously supported by the Embassy of The Netherlands in Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and EDP Foundation.