PERTAVSIZ

FASS Art Gallery is pleased to announce “Pertavsız” the group exhibition of three emerging artists Deniz Akural, Elifsu Dağdeviren and Başak Ertekin at Sabanci University, Istanbul. Both artists being İstanbul based and sharing the same art studio for a couple of years, they all ended up with connections in their art ideologies. Under the curatorship of Ilke Alkan, this show is a relevant instance for a Group exhibition that completes each other rather than finding their own territories at the same gallery. Briefly, we can explain their works by saying that their destinations are the same, yet their routes are different.

To begin with the meaning of the title of the show, “Pertavsız” is an old Turkish word originated from Arabic that stands for a loupe. The reason for their name choice is the concept behind their exhibition. Just as a loupe functions as a tool for making tiny, unseen things enlarged and visible, their artworks are aiming to emphasise different ways of seeing the unseen and the misseen. Also the choice of an uncommon word like “pertavsız” is on purpose as an instance of making the unseen obvious.

To talk about the works of three artists in more detail, we can begin with Deniz Beren Akural’s work inside and outside the exhibition. Akural’s work “The Absconsion” and “I am tired" is done with the aim of being a gesture rather than an indication, just as the moment you feel when alone in the middle of our chaotic everyday life. As she explains her work, “Our individuality exists in a space filled with others. It becomes critical when there is different elements and energies floating around that makes everything heavier. Sometimes this creates a moment that the need of being other-less emerges. Either from others awareness or either to create a moment we find a place to feel lighter.” The work is a gesture she offers to any passerby. It is a public common space that carries out a moment to have self awareness which would create a gift by yourself from yourself. In her other work “Family 1”, which is a wood ruler for recording height that travels inside of the campus. She wants to emphasise that family is an emotion similar to love but not completely the same. As an instinctually and naturally created emotion, it can exist in different social groups. Her work is to unite the people that live together and remind them that little elements can create the moment of being a family.

Moving to Elifsu Dağdeviren’s installation “Birthroom”, we will be witnessing an installation aiming to revisit the notion of birth and perceive it from a different way. In the book “The Body” by Anthony Smith, the “The History of Midwifery” chapter begins with the idea that the work of bringing babies to the world started well, but later the methods and those who dealt with it were degenerated. The dexterous became undexterous, and limited knowledge of anatomy has been transformed into ignorance by combining with impulses and superstitions. The existence of birth in the field of medicine and so-called “magical possibilities” about birth by the modern medicine and provided techniques and the new industrial machines developed with technology creates a huge new anxiety form in people. These facts can not be unseen. Those who believe that a newborn to be perhaps not “proper” even if they went to the controls hundreds of times, will go back to the hospitals, that is to say a legitimate care house and they ask the doctor, that is to say a legitimate care giver. What is a legitimate care house? What about midwifery? When did the laws of medicine involve the midwife as a subject to be learned during the medical education? When did the clinics open and the rituals began to be forgotten? When we change the narrator, it's the story that changes with the narrator. The artist invites the viewer to a panic-free thinking belly.

Finally to mention about the works of Başak Ertekin, we will be seeing the works “Untitled” and “Viral”. Both of her works address the idea that when things come to mind first, they are embodied in their usual form.Even though they are perceived as if they have specific forms, they become solid the way they are used. Just as when the size of the keyboard grows and the plane changes, the meaning also changes and so it is opens different doors to different stories. To focus another work her, “Viral” aims to make the fishing line stop hiding and prove the existence of itself by being obvious rather then invisible. This time she uses the appearance of the fishing line to hunt down those who act like it does not exist. Thus, we can conclude that neither her work “Untitled” nor the “Viral” are as they seem or known. She reminds us the question “Actually, what really is?”

As a foreshadowing of the show, the visitors are not only going to be witnessing a show of artworks offering a vision to a world of different perspectives, but also common concerns of the three emerging artists.