AKBANK SANAT TODAY’S ARTISTS EXHIBITION

The design of the Akbank Contemporary Artists Prize Exhibition was laid out according to the “situation”.

The works that are exhibited are the sole objects that condition this situation, furthermore they are the leading actors. Each one tells its own specific story. They seem to have no intention to, nor do they display any effort to engage in a relationship with one another. In fact, the background of the coalescence of these actors does not appear to be conceived on such a relationship either. Obviously, the potential burden that any conceptual framework would impose was deliberately avoided. The specific potential and brilliance of each one of the works was assessed according to an implicit framework of virtue.

Precisely in such a volatile state, the exhibition design comes into play, perhaps in an unexpectedly reckless way. The design renders itself almost entirely independent of the fundamental elements of the existing structure. At first glance, the fact that the formal references are derived from the polyphonic yet fragile tissue of the milieu comes forth. Almost an uncanniness and even an arbitrariness that humors it, emerges as a first impression. Before long, “that” actor comes into play unexpectedly. Floors or walls, and sometimes both, come into close proximity to the physical existence of the artworks on each occasion. They create a home, a base specific to each one of them. Now it is time for the artworks to be reckless. The new space is now just aiding and abetting. Furthermore, with the visual barriers it designates between the works, it aims to single out the perception of the experience of each work. Occasionally it becomes vaguely inclined. In some places the ground beneath our feet becomes blurred and is transformed as if supporting the feeling of uncanniness in the background. The state of being blurred gradually melts away the usual perception of the horizontal and vertical planes into one another.

As for the works…

Perhaps unaware of the scheme prepared for them, the artworks are poised facing the viewer with all their might and uniqueness, and are inscribed into the memory as the particular elements of this one-time occasion.