Getting to Know Hayırlı Evlat

Online Talk

April 21, 2021 / 19:00

A Question of Taste exhibition brings together works of thirteen artists and collectives and deals with the concept of kitsch, and the intimate relationship this concept has established with today's visual culture as well as its critical role in shaping taste. As part of the exhibition’s public programming, the artist Hayırlı Evlat is having an online conversation moderated by the curator of the exhibition Ulya Soley.

Hayırlı Evlat’s work titled Let Yourself Go is a pop song and video inspired by Sinop, the happiest city in Turkey according to survey results. Judging by the responses given to most of the questions posed by the collective to the residents of Sinop, this statistic, despite being useful for tourism companies, does not reflect reality. Hayırlı Evlat, who describe happiness as “a soft resistance” within the political climate of Turkey, makes references to the fake happiness featured in advertising images in this video, which starts on a beach, and moves to the forest to a game table to a dinner with rakı, where the acting is exaggerated. The talk focuses on Hayırlı Evlat’s art practice and how it relates to the concept of kitsch as well as popular culture.

The event is organized as part of “Senkron: Simultaneous Video Exhibitions”.

The Zoom talk will be in Turkish. Reservation is required.

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Temporary Exhibition

A Question of Taste

A Question of Taste was a group exhibition that deals with kitsch, a concept whose meaning has shifted since the 19th century, and the intimate relationship this concept has established with today's visual culture as well as its critical role in shaping taste.

A Question of Taste

Audience with the Mad King

Audience with the Mad King

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Pera Museum invites artist Benoît Hamet to reinterpret key pieces from its collections, casting a humourous eye over ‘historical’ events, both imagined and factual.

Good News from the Skies

Good News from the Skies

Inspired by the exhibition And Now the Good News, which focusing on the relationship between mass media and art, we prepared horoscope readings based on the chapters of the exhibition. Using the popular astrological language inspired by the effects of the movements of celestial bodies on people, these readings with references to the works in the exhibition make fictional future predictions inspired by the horoscope columns that we read in the newspapers with the desire to receive good news about our day. 

Transition to Sculpture

Transition to Sculpture

If Manolo Valdés’s paintings convey a search for materiality, his sculpture does so even more. Today, sculpture has taken over most of his workspace, his time, and his efforts.