A CLANDESTINE DOOR ::: 7th International Istanbul Biennial
published in Barcelona Art Report 4, Experiencies
"A Clandestine Door: 7th International Istanbul Biennial, 2001"
"Una Porta Clandestina: VII Biennal Internacional d'Istanbul"
"Una Puerto Clandestina: Istanbul Biennial, 2001"
(both in English, Spanish and Catalan)
© Barcelona Art Report, 2001.
It is a dark scene… A tough life… Economic crisis in Turkey has accelerating consequences on various areas and levels of life. Now everything is so difficult to afford, to tolerate and to grasp. The struggle for survival eliminates the other needs of life. Any further expectation from life turns out to be an extravagance and almost a state of madness. The situation seems to be even more desperate for Turkish artists, curators and art critics. Within this depressing state, The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts challenges the inhabitants of Istanbul with “art”. Miraculously, The 7th International Istanbul Biennial is being realized followed by other independent exhibitions around. This time the Biennial introduces a rather distinctive view filtered by the Japanese curator Yuko Hasegawa. It is a view that proposes way outs from the gloomy “perception of life” blocked by the restless and knotty future narrations of the 21st century. Hasegawa carries a different mode of being to this cosmopolite geography mostly from the Far East.
The works easily integrate with the city texture. As a result, the texture of the city is an amalgamation of techno-surrealist images, picturesque sights, hi-life regions, poverty-stricken districts with anarchic street aesthetics, glamorous entertainment zones with cut and paste designs, hygienic and synthetic shopping centers, hi-tech buildings and superimposed historic references. Istanbul is a beautiful and mysterious city with a chaotic order. Like a spider net, the works of the Biennial surround the city. Apart from the main venues of the Biennial, it is possible to come across any of them in various corners of the city -such as in Sultan Ahmet Square, on the Bosphorus Bridge, over the billboards, on platforms throughout the city, and in many other unpredictable locations. The city welcomes the Biennial with the Turkish hospitality and with the infamous Turkish curiosity for the unknown treasures of other geographies. Hence, the concept of the Biennial could have a healing effect over the dim thoughts of life. It shows different paths and routes to various kinds of doors of hope – of course, for the ones who are capable of using the keys.
Hasegawa elucidates the concept of the Biennial along with the term “Egofugal” - which indicates various sources of life. Sharply diverging from the Cartesian Logic, it designates diffusing away from the center by possessing diversities and identities. It proposes “a mode of being” that never loses the productive and constructive part of the “Ego”, while being careful about not being trapped by “similarity” or totally being “indifferent and self-centered”. For the works and the artists, “invading territories” is not the case, however showing the ways to share a metaphysical space is the key point. “This is a story of a metaphysical space shared by creators living in consciousness, information, body, intelligence, time and speed, instead of space” *. It is possible to follow the traces of this story within the works. Most of them are located in Hagia Eirene Museum, Imperial Mint, The Yerebatan Cistern, Beylerbeyi Palace, and Platform: Ottoman Bank Contemporary Art Center.
The Hagia Eirene Museum is originally a Byzantine basilica. Owing to its historical background and architectural structure, it appears to be an ideal but at the same time challenging space for such an exhibition that heavily requires electronic equipment. The works in the museum become more visible when sunlight leaves the space. As if Hagia Eirene itself gets activated with the sunlight; instead of absorbing the light, it amplifies its brightness. Most of the works need close-reading and concentration. The various range of mechanical noise/sound coming from different directions fills the space. It seems that the space has been transformed into a spatial organism of information. The vivid colors of the Far East spreading around the ground add more life this very being.
Hagia Eirene hosts 22 artists. Among these artists, there is Magnus Wallin whose video still was used as the image of the Biennial’s poster and the catalogue cover. Hussein Chalayan with his refined designs and short film, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer with his algorithmic mechanism which poses questions reflected to the balcony walls, and Ana Maria Tavares with her work “Exit II” are also outstanding artists in the Hagia Eirene. Furthermore, Jan Fabre’s exceptional work along with films which operate opposite each other have a special place regardless of its different tone from the other works in Hagia Eirene.
The stunning structure of the Imperial Mint provides a solely massive space for the Biennial. The Imperial Mint welcomes its spectators with a “UFO” that was constructed in 1970 with polyester by Matti Suuronen. Most of the works in this area question the various discourses raised around technology. In one of the rooms, there is Kim Young Jin’s “Swing” that illustrates how personal experiences are altered into episodic texts. In the next room Rachel Berwick’s tropical corner comes out as an excerpt from a tale. The parrots that speak a language of a destroyed tribe raises questions concerning memory, preservation, loss and recovery. In another room, Dominique Gonzales-Foersters’s video animation underlines future worries and uncertainties of communication. “Ann Lee” as the very same 2D character of this piece takes a role in Philippe Parreno’s video animation as well. In this touching animation of Parreno, in reference to “Ghost in the Shell” **, Ann Lee utters the climax statement of the Biennial: “I am no ghost, just a shell”. In the same context, Chris Cunningham’s video clips for Bjork in “All is full of love” and for Aphex Twin in “Come to Daddy” and “Window Licker” loop constantly in a room out of site.
The Imperial Mint welcomes 33 artists with different tendencies, cultures, backgrounds and ages, thus, “egofugality” brings them together. Hasegawa simply shows us that “egofugality” requires “collective consciousness”, “collective intelligence”, and “co-existence”. Hence, most of the works share a common stance and magnetism. For instance, although David Moonan-Simon Trevaks’s work seems to pole apart from Motohoki Odani’s “9 Room”, the magnet like attraction and their source of reference which re-animates in little box-like rooms are nearly the same. Likewise, more daily-life oriented works such as Francis Alys’ “Sleepers”, Leandro Erlich’s “Neighbors” and Omer Ali Kazma’s “Super Sonic Family” lead the audience to a puzzling and mind-expanding experience.
Without a doubt, Yerebatan Cistern (Sunken Palace Cistern) is the most attractive venue of the Biennial. This Cistern used to provide water to the Byzantine Palace. It dwells the spectator in a dark and wet zone of dreaminess. The humid, huge shining columns, the spell of rain water, slippery ground of stones, the greenish shallow water with the humming sound of the works makes the Cistern a perfect platform for a sci-fi theme. After entering the Cistern from wet staircases, the very experience of the space instantly transforms to a journey through cyberpunk fictions. Under the dorms of the Cistern, this journey passes through Masume Shirow’s drawings of “augmented” humans wired to an Electronic net, William Gibson’s fictions, cybernetic extensions and prosthesis, information highways, semi-cybernetic human agents and virtual environments. Lee Bul’s cyborgs designs, bodiless beautiful semi-ghosts, and many screens displaying “Ghost in the Shell” operate together. They conquer the space and freeze it with the ultimate question and objective to become truly human. On the other side, Hinterberg’s work of “aeriology”, beneath copper wires, holds the pulse of the Cistern by gathering the resonation. Omer Ali Kazma’s tricky animation breaks the silence of the space like a techno-agent.
The works of Evgen Bavcar, Leyla Gediz, Osikato Nagata and Henrietta Lehtonen are located in the Beylerbeyi Palace. Platform: Ottoman Bank Contemporary Art Center introduces an exhibition by Cartein Nicolai. Nicolai presents a sterile combination of works on formation of intuition and thought loops, emotions and chemical attraction via the whiteness and coldness of snow crystals. Gabriel Orozco, on the other hand, replaces city furniture with his designs; they are all around the city. The billboards of Fuat Sahinler, Murat Sahinler, and Ahmet Soysal are a kind of call for “collective consciousness” to the inhabitants of Istanbul. In the front part of the Tuyap Exhibition Center, Rirkrit Travanija projects cult films. James Turrell’s work, which is located on Maiden's Tower, can be seen at night from both sides of the Bosphorus. Meanwhile, Alber Garutti lights the Bosphorus Bridge starting from Zeynep Kamil Hospital each time a baby is born. On Kawara realizes the “Pure Consciousness” project in a Kindergarten; this project has traveled 5 countries before Istanbul. Cambalache Collective Street Museum is having a journey throughout the streets following the labyrinth-like map of Istanbul. Maja Bajevic’s performance took place in Cemberlitas Hammam, whereas Sislej Xhafa’s performance was in Sultan Ahmet Square – which is one of the crowded and busy locations of Istanbul. Last but not least, Ma Liuming realized two performances both in the isle of Maiden's Tower and The Imperial Mint. His awe-inspiring performances allocate a clandestine door to a different world where all the deliberate/calculated/premeditated conceptions of life are buried with a serene dignity.
Subsequently, The 7th International Istanbul Biennial carries exceptional beauties and information to Istanbul; it is certainly a different mode of knowledge. The Biennial will be held for two months. During these two months, not only the spectators, but the works as well will be transformed throughout “collective” experiences shared with the inhabitants of Istanbul.
* Hasegawa, Yuko. “Next Emergence From The Edge Of Chaos: Istanbul”.
Egofugal: 7th International Istanbul Biennial.
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. 2001, Istanbul p:9 ISBN 975 –7383 – 22 – 7
** Ghost in the Shell is a cult manga and animated film written by Masamune Shirow, directed by Mamoru Oshii, 1995.
