Not Easy to Save the World in 90 Days (print version)

Universes in Universe / Nafas Art Magazine / Not Easy to Save the World in 90 Days

http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2010/not_easy
(Published: January 2010, print version)

Not Easy to Save the World in 90 Days
Works by 10 young Turkish artists
By Haupt & Binder

When this exhibition in "Tanas", the Berlin project space for Turkish art, ends in March 2010 after 90 days, the world will certainly not have been saved. Nor can that be expected at the next station, the art association on the Danish Baltic Sea island Møn. But as René Block suggests, of course ironically, with the title of his catalog text, "…but one could attempt it…"

A year and a half after the opening of "Tanas", this is the first exhibition for which the director himself takes conceptual responsibility. In conversation, René Block said that the preceding program was under his aegis as well, of course, but because of his close collaboration with the artists, he didn’t want to call himself the curator of such solo exhibitions.

This current project is something different, he says, because it is based on a broader curatorial concept that was long under development. Block had two primary interlocked intentions. First, he wanted to draw more attention to the fact that Turkey’s contemporary art scene extends beyond Istanbul and that interesting artistic positions can be found on the other side of the Bosporus. Most of the artists comprised in the exhibition are of Kurdish descent and come from southeastern Turkey. Four of them live in the city of Diyarbakir and in nearby Batman. Among the participants from Istanbul, Halil Altındere is an important link between that city’s art scene and his friends in his southeastern Anatolian homeland.

René Block said his second and surely more important intention was to present a younger, critical generation of artists. He wrote on what unites them: "All of these artists share a clear aesthetic language since after all, their work involves a critical reappraisal of conflicts and prejudices, opposition to authoritarian structures, or the unmasking and breaking of cultural and political taboos that still exist in Turkey. Another commonality among the artists is that they advance their critique subtly through the icy bite of irony, through exaggeration to the point of absurdity, or simply through the poetic feel of allegory." (Booklet text)

In a photo tour through the exhibition with aids to understanding the background of individual work, we show what the curator means.

>> Photo tour
24 pages of pictures, in part with commentary

On the Tanas project space and René Block's almost 20-year close relationship to the art of Turkey, see the interview by Sabine Vogel in the Nafas Art Magazine of August 2008.
>> Interview with René Block

Haupt & Binder
Gerhard Haupt and Pat Binder. Publishers of Universes in Universe - Worlds of Art; co-publishers and editors-in-chief of Nafas Art Magazine. Based in Berlin, Germany.

(Translation from German: Mitch Cohen)

Not Easy to Save the World in 90 Days
14 Dec. 2009 -
13 March 2010

Curator:
René Block

Tanas
Heidestr. 50
Berlin 10557
Germany
Website: http://www.tanasberlin.de
Email: info@tanasberlin.de

Next station:
3 April -13 June 2010
Kunstforeningen 44 Møen
Møn Island
Denmark

Şener Özmen
* 1971 Idil, Turkey. Lives in Diyarbakır, Turkey.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/oezmen_sener

Cengiz Tekin
* 1977 Diyarbakir, Turkey; lives there.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/tekin_cengiz

Nasan Tur
* 1974 Offenbach, Germany. Lives in Berlin, Germany.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/europe/deu/tur_nasan

Halil Altindere
* 1971 Mardin, Turkey. Lives in Istanbul, Turkey.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/altindere

Fikret Atay
* 1976 Batman, Turkey; lives there.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/atay

Köken Ergun
* 1976 in Istanbul, Turkey. Lives in Berlin, Germany.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/ergun_koken

Ömer Ali Kazma
* 1971 Istanbul, Turkey; lives there.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/kazma_oemer_ali

Servet Kocyiğit
* 1971 Kaman, Turkey. Lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Istanbul, Turkey.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/kocyigit_servet

Ahmet Öğüt
* 1981 Diyarbakır, Turkey. Lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/ogut_ahmet

Erkan Özgen
* 1971 Mardin, Turkey. Lives in Diyarbakir, Turkey.
http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/tur/ozgen_erkan