September 18–November 10, 2012
Galeri Manâ
Kemankes Mah.
Alipasa Degirmen Sok.
No: 16 34425 Beyoglu
Istanbul, Turkey
Galeri Manâ is pleased to announce Reflecting on Reflection, curated by Abaseh Mirvali between the dates September 18–November 10, presenting works by Saâdane Afif, Abbas Akhavan, Francis Alÿs, Kutluğ Ataman, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Özgür Demirci, Olafur Eliasson, Cevdet Erek, Lara Favaretto, Alicja Kwade, Matt Mullican, Sarkis, Simon Starling, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Mario Garcia Torres and Alexander Wagner.
Investigating the concept of “reflection” in reference as much to the materiality of the works as to the intellectual reflection they produce on human experience in both perceptual and cognitive terms, the exhibition is composed of works that dialogue through the phenomenological experience of reflection to convey the process through which concepts and ideas are formed in relationship to the material, social and historical contexts that surround us.
Olafur Eliasson‘s Emergence Lamp 9 creates an immersive experience actively engaging the viewer. The meaning and concrete materiality of the work is revealed only through its encounter with the viewer’s perception. In Nanjing Particles, Simon Starling proposes a reflection on photography as a medium and on its relationship with historical truth by scratching silver particles off the two dimensional surface of a 19th century archival footage to create large, stainless steel sculpture replicas. Cevdet Erek takes the Turkish word for reflection, “yansima,” also meaning “onomatopeia,” and builds a conceptual link between visual and auditory forms beyond language, through an investigation of different forms that human beings develop by imitating nature with their bodies and physical movements. “Reflection” thus refers both to the mimetic mechanisms of imitation and representation and to abstraction through dialectic encounter in a single act and through different variations, proposes to consider “mimesis” and “performativity” together.
The second floor of the gallery is turned into a cinema, projecting 3 films everyday at 11am, 2pm and 4:45pm. Rirkrit Tiravanija‘s Chew The Fat is a series of autobiographical conversations between Tiravanija and 12 well-known artists of his generation offering self-reflective analysis of their respective artistic practices. The/Tea is an essay and documentation of Mario Garcia Torres‘ artistic gesture surrounding Alighiero Boetti’s One Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, reflecting on the inevitable presence of the artist in his own work as a persona. Francis Alÿs‘ film Reel/Unreel reflects on our relationship to image and representation by connecting a film roll to the children’s game of rolling a wheel with a stick in the streets of Kabul.
Reflecting on Reflection also presents a self-reflective stance by displaying works that engage with Galeri Manâ’s space and the history of its building: Ozgur Demirci‘s Penalty Area, with its chalk-on-blackboard imagery, installed on the front façade of the gallery building, becomes a self-reflective sign of the gallery and the exhibition echoing into the street. A site-specific work by Hera Buyuktasciyan, installed on the wellhead that has been long devoid of its function, activates the cistern beneath the gallery building and its invisible history.
Abaseh Mirvali is the Chief Executive Officer and President, Comisaria of Platform 5280, Biennial of the Americas, a biennial of contemporary art and critical thinking taking place in July 2013. Mirvali resided in Turkey between 1998-2002 and has returned annually since then. Between 2005 and 2008, she served as Executive Director of the Jumex Foundation/Collection, a post in which she institutionalized and developed one of the largest and most important collections of contemporary art of a private institution in Latin America. Invited to be a juror of the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize in 2010, Mirvali also coordinates lectures on emerging scenes in contemporary art in the “Conversations” series of Art Basel in Basel and Miami.
Galeri Manâ, located in the Tophane district of Istanbul, is a converted wheat mill that dates to the 19th century and features 400 square meters of exhibition space. Founded by Mehveş Arıburnu in 2011, the gallery seeks to establish an inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue through its artistic program, special events and publications. Galeri Mana works with artists who stand on the edges of contemporary artistic practice by investigating the boundaries of their mediums and expanding their conceptual reach.