Talk
May 10, 2019 / 20:15
Belonging and Companionship presents a selection of Aykan Safoğlu’s video and films that he produced between 2013 – 2015. An immigrant himself, Safoğlu traces loss, death, belonging and relationships in his art practice.
The artist’s films pose questions that prompt the audience to think collectively. He deciphers the production and transformation of tools and forms, i.e. language and image, that characterize life and death. Using exposure, light and shutter, Safoğlu’s latest works borrow Barthes’ quotes on life trapped in a moment/image; for us to reflect on “a photograph’s certain and fugitive testimony that eliminates one’s emotional and symbolic sense of time”. Woven into the extending temporality of migration and loss, his archaeological narratives question our relationship with death.
The screening to be held on 10 May will be followed by an artist talk with Aykan Safoğlu, moderated by Bilge Taş. All screenings and events of Belonging and Companionship are free of admissions.
About Aykan Safoğlu
Born in Istanbul and graduated from the Art in Context MA program at Universität der Künste, Berlin. He received his MFA in Photography from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College, NY. In 2013, he received the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen at the 59th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Safoğlu was a fine arts fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart in 2018. Safoğlu is currently an artist-in-residence for the January - August term at Kulturakademie Tarabya in Istanbul.
About Bilge Taş
She worked for several film festivals, including Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, Festival on Wheels, Ankara International Film Festival as well as co- founding Pink Life QueerFest. She received an MA in Women and Gender Studies from Ankara University. She is currently writing her PhD thesis on political economy of film festivals in Turkey.
The series of paintings depicting the audience ceremonies of European ambassadors hold a unique place among the works of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour of Valenciennes, who lived in İstanbul from 1699 until his death in 1737.
The exhibition “Look At Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection” examined portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos shaped a labyrinth of gazes that invite spectators to reflect themselves in the social mirror of portraits.
He had imagined the court room as a big place. It wasn’t. It was about the size of his living room, with an elevation at one end, with a dais on it. The judges and the attorneys sat there. Below it was an old wooden rail, worn out in some places. That was his place. There was another seat for his lawyer. At the back, about 20 or 30 chairs were stowed out for the non-existent crowd.
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 - 19:00
Friday 10:00 - 22:00
Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
On Wednesdays, the students can
visit the museum free of admission.
Full ticket: 300 TL
Discounted: 150 TL
Groups: 200 TL (minimum 10 people)
