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Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, is pleased to announce In and Out of Istanbul, on display in the Slought Foundation galleries from December 10, 2008-January 9, 2009. The exhibition highlights contemporary artistic practice in Turkey and is curated by Osvaldo Romberg, Slought Foundation. The opening reception will take place on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 from 6:30-8:30pm, with the artists present.
The exhibition In and Out of Istanbul at Slought Foundation is among the first of its kind in the United States and focuses on the issues and conflicts that define modern Turkish identity, with particular emphasis given to the extreme social and political tensions. It features the work of seven artists including Erdag Aksel, Hale Tenger, Elif Ayiter, Osman Dinc, Selim Birsel, Canan Tolon, and Michael Morris. Indeed, for the first time in Philadelphia, Slought Foundation is presenting a group exhibition devoted to contemporary art made by artists who live in and out of Istanbul. The exhibition is by no means an extensive thematic exhibition representing a summary of contemporary art in Istanbul or Turkish art. In fact, the artistic selection clearly avoids permanent residencies or entrenched nationalist alliances. The artists selected are not necessarily Turkish and in fact several reside in Istanbul, while others reside elsewhere, in other cities.
Elif Ayiter, Erdag Aksel, Hale Tenger and Selim Birsel live primarily in Istanbul, Canan Tolon in San Francisco, Michael Morris in New York City, and Osman Dinc in Paris. The common denominator is that all of these transient artists frequently live, work, and exhibit in and out of Istanbul. The exhibit therefore has the dual aim of giving visibility and space to this emerging and vigorous artistic culture, but also paying homage to a city that spans two continents. Straddling the narrow Bosporus Strait, Istanbul links the great land masses of Europe and Asia. Indeed, since its founding as Byzantium in 657 B.C. the city has functioned as a crossroads between East and West for numerous people of varying cultures and backgrounds. In like manner, the exhibition at Slought aims to explore these ideas, providing a meditation on transience and mobility.
"In these days of global economy that force our culture to be replete with the most varied items from everywhere, tidbits that we collect with a sort of democratic laissez-faire, it is difficult to find evidence of scenes that resonate not only locally but also internationally for our jaded eyes. Certain sites do try to transform local iconographies into an art that keeps international aspirations, but very few succeed. It is indeed very hard to balance adequately elements that come from folk culture or local history with codes that would be legible in the international scene.
In my visit to Istanbul last September, I discovered a remarkable show of works spanning the last half-century. If you take away the pioneers of the 1950s, all highly influenced by French modernism, you will notice a slow movement towards a more original iconography. This tendency has led to the inclusion of Eastern cultural elements. More specifically, you will see images and subject matters that are singular to Turkish culture, which is all more obvious in a city that blends so well modern life and traditions from the Middle East like Istanbul.
Coming from Argentina, I witnessed this phenomenon in my country as well. In the 70s, I participated in the kind of conceptual art that flourished in parts of Latin America like Brazil, Argentina, etc. After I visited the Istanbul show, I chose artists in whom I recognized the same complicated dialectical interaction between a local and an international iconography. This movement from the local to the international has flourished in the last 10 years all over the world. I have wanted to show these artists in a context like Philadelphia, first because they would never be shown here otherwise, and then because it proves that it is possible to use a local phenomenon (since Philadelphia has kept most of its local flavor intact) while raising its particularity to the level of a universal language."
- Osvaldo Romberg, Curator
 Browse Upcoming Programming at Slought Foundation...
4 exhibitions and 2 events are upcoming;
join us for our next program on Saturday, October 25.
The following is a random selection:
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Futurism: Rupture and Tradition | Opens Fri, Nov 21, 2008
Righteous Dopefiend | Opens Fri, May 08, 2009
In and out of Istanbul | Opens Wed, Dec 10, 2008
Peter Weibel, Rewriter | Opens Sat, Jan 31, 2009
ART LIMINA: A Gary Hill Retrospective | Opens Sat, Mar 21, 2009
Werner Moebius in Concert | Audio Culture | Sat, Oct 25, 2008
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This program is made possible in part through the generous sponsorship or support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Society of Friends of the Slought Foundation.
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