Ali Kazma

Talk and Book Launch

July 5, 2017 / 18:30

Join artist Ali Kazma for a talk with curator Alistair Hicks, in relation to Pera Museum’s Doublethink: Double Vision exhibition. The talk will focus on Kazma’s video in the exhibition, “House of Letters” and on the recently published book “A Voyage around Our Minds” written by Hicks and composed around the video work.  

Ali Kazma is a video artist whose works have been exhibited in biennials and art institutions worldwide. Having received his MA degree in 1998 from The New School in New York City, he returned to Istanbul in 2000 where he still resides. He has participated in biennials including Venice, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Thessaloniki, Lyon and Havana. The Venice Biennial of 2013 featured the solo show of the artist at the Pavilion of Turkey. Among the institutions that have exhibited his works are Musée d’art Contemporaine, Lyon; ARTER, Istanbul; Lenbachhaus, Munich; MAXXI, Rome; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; and MEP, Paris.

Alistair Hicks is the author of 'The Global Art Compass' (Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2015) and a brand new book about Ali Kazma, 'A Voyage around our Minds' (The Museum for New Art, Freiburg, 2017). He was the Senior Curator of the Deutsche Bank art collection. His previous books include New British Art in the Saatchi Collection, The School of London: The Resurgence of Contemporary Painting and Art Works: British and German Contemporary Art, 1960–2000.

Image Credits:
Ali Kazma, Resistance Series/ House of Letters, two-channel video, 5 mins., 2015

Courtesy of the artist

Temporary Exhibition

Doublethink
Double vision

Thinking has changed radically, but many people don't appear to have noticed. Our institutions have been stuck on linear Neo-Platonic tracks for 24 centuries. These antiquated processes of deduction have lost their authority. Just like art it has fallen off its pedestal. Legal, educational and constitutional systems rigidly subscribe to these; they are 100% text based.

Doublethink <br>Double vision

From two portraits of children…

From two portraits of children…

The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Orientalist Painting Collection includes two children’s portraits that are often featured in exhibitions on the second floor of the Pera Museum. These portraits both date back to the early 20th century, and were made four years apart. One depicts Prince Abdürrahim Efendi, son of Sultan Abdulhamid II, while the figure portrayed on the other is Nazlı, the daughter of Osman Hamdi Bey.

At the Order of the Padishah

At the Order of the Padishah

In this piece, Żmurko presents an exotic image of a harem chamber, replete with gleaming fabrics and scattered jewels, as a setting for the statuesquely beautiful body of an odalisque murdered “at the order of the padishah”. 

Memory of Objects

Memory of Objects

In his book exploring the cultural history of souvenirs, Rolf Potts discusses how such objects assume meaning through personal stories: Objects turn into memories with the stories they hold.