Cold Black
What do you think about home?
Müşerref Öztürk Çetindoğan, lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts, says that “(…) one of the most basic needs of humans is to position themselves in the universe that they live in. In Merleau-Ponty’s words, since our existence is spatial, human self-expression has always been through spaces. As material beings, humans exist within space and move within space. Therefore, the human body, as a spatial object, belongs to space. Not only the body, but also the emotions and thoughts of humans are dependent on space.” With these words, she asks us to rethink space as an alterna- tive body that carries the soul. In this context, does every damage done to the space also harm humans?
We are relocating in the midst of devastating earthquakes, disasters and wars, which cause immense physical, psycholog- ical, social and economic damage, turning us all upside down. Whereas Şerife Bilgili Ercantürk builds undamaged cities with a sensitivity that cares to talk about the sociological and psychological effects of the problems caused by physical losses, she also does not hesitate to show the destruction experienced. The artist intervenes in the ready made nature of industrial objects that she adopts as her material this time. She holds the unplanned urban construction responsible for the destruction, which is a human-induced problem. Her dramatic canvases accompanying her cities, where she makes formal and dimensional interventions by cutting into rising and falling symbolic structures, carry a permanent despair due to “alienation” and “distancing” from our human qualities. Ercantürk’s view of the city-individual relationship which constitutes the focal point of her production, carries the same alienation, distancing and despair. The exhibition is covered with bodies carrying a fragile and vulnerable state of mind.
Müşerref Öztürk Çetindoğan, lecturer at the Department of Performing Arts, says that “(…) one of the most basic needs of humans is to position themselves in the universe that they live in. In Merleau-Ponty’s words, since our existence is spatial, human self-expression has always been through spaces. As material beings, humans exist within space and move within space. Therefore, the human body, as a spatial object, belongs to space. Not only the body, but also the emotions and thoughts of humans are dependent on space.” With these words, she asks us to rethink space as an alterna- tive body that carries the soul. In this context, does every damage done to the space also harm humans?
We are relocating in the midst of devastating earthquakes, disasters and wars, which cause immense physical, psycholog- ical, social and economic damage, turning us all upside down. Whereas Şerife Bilgili Ercantürk builds undamaged cities with a sensitivity that cares to talk about the sociological and psychological effects of the problems caused by physical losses, she also does not hesitate to show the destruction experienced. The artist intervenes in the ready made nature of industrial objects that she adopts as her material this time. She holds the unplanned urban construction responsible for the destruction, which is a human-induced problem. Her dramatic canvases accompanying her cities, where she makes formal and dimensional interventions by cutting into rising and falling symbolic structures, carry a permanent despair due to “alienation” and “distancing” from our human qualities. Ercantürk’s view of the city-individual relationship which constitutes the focal point of her production, carries the same alienation, distancing and despair. The exhibition is covered with bodies carrying a fragile and vulnerable state of mind.
