Sophia Pompéry
The Silent Shape of Things
21 June–26 August 2012
ARTER – space for art
Istiklal Caddesi, 211
Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey
Hours: Tue–Thu 11–19
Fri–Sun 12–20
Admission is free
Curated by Ece Pazarbaşı.
ARTER is hosting Sophia Pompéry’s first solo exhibition in Istanbul. Curated by Ece Pazarbaşı, The Silent Shape of Things will run until 26 August 2012.
Sophia Pompéry produces video works and objects derived from her interest in everyday objects and physical phenomena. Her works are motivated by a desire to slow down the sense of time, characterised by a picturesque quality and a subtly arranged visual element. The Silent Shape of Things features Pompéry’s video installations, projections, and objects, including Kawala Play, Miralamentira, Still Water, Two Meters, and Plenty Empty.
The viewer is usually transported to another realm of experience when encountering Pompéry’s works for the first time. The process that occurs between the initial viewing and the moment that the viewer departs for another encounter is nothing but a chain reaction, linking the visitor’s emotions and perceptions, and a vague provocation created by the artist. With each of her works, be it Plume, Plopp Plopp or Quader Luft, we are caught up in Pompéry’s highly elegant and poetic trap. Instead of denying the realities we are already experiencing, the artist builds another reality on top of what we currently observe in our lives. While doing this, she also plays with our perception of perspective very poetically, as in Kawala Play or Still Water.
Sophia Pompéry
Born in Berlin, 1984, Sophia Pompéry lives and works in Berlin and Istanbul. She studied fine arts with Karin Sander and Antje Majewski at Berlin-Weissensee School of Art. She then became a participant at the Institute for Spatial Experiments, an educational research project by Olafur Eliasson, affiliated with the College of Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). Since 2010, she has been a recipient of the Karl Hofer Society studio grant. Pompéry received the MART STAM Award in 2008 and was recently awarded the Toni and Albrecht Kumm Prize, an award from the Friends of the Berlin University of the Arts. She is also the laureate for the DAAD Fellowship for a residency in Istanbul in 2012. Her works have been exhibited at various institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2011); Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden (2011); Schauhalle Dezer, Miami (2011); and Fridericianum, Kunstverein Kassel (2010). Her video installation Lighting Up, Burning Down“was previously shown at ARTER as part of the institution’s inaugural exhibition Starter (2010). Pompéry recently had a solo exhibition entitled Nothing But a Transient Light at Wozownia Gallery, Torun, Poland, in 2011.
Ece Pazarbaşı
Ece Pazarbaşı lives in Berlin and Istanbul. She is the co-founder and the co-director of CUMA /// Contemporary Utopia Management (Istanbul) and working as a curator at TANAS – Space for Contemporary Turkish Art (Berlin). Pazarbaşı has been working up to this day as a director, curator, and manager of culture and contemporary arts projects. Since 2009, she has been curating Audio Tours and public space projects in the urban and rural domains under the umbrella of CUMA. Recently, she has co-curated two exhibitions with René Block for Tanas: Turkish Art New and Superb (2012) and Zwölf im Zwölften (2011). Pazarbaşı will be lecturing at the New York Transarts Institute’s MFA Creative Practice, PhD Studies, and Summer Certificate Program in Berlin in July 2012. In 2009 and 2010 she worked as a strategic planner, consultant, and visual arts program specialist for Turkey at the Strategic Planning and Development Department of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, in the United Arab Emirates. Between 2002 and 2009, she took on the role of executive assistant to the director of the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, where she was assigned to several different freelance projects. Some of her recent professional responsibilities include her role as assistant curator of the Turkish Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial (2007); creator and director of the educational festival programme Meeting Point (since 2007); and project manager of the exhibition Orhan Pamuk: Museum of Innocence to be held during the Frankfurt Book Fair at the Kunsthalle Schirn (2007–2008).