Halil Altındere: Abrakadabra

Curator: Hou Hanru

Abracadabra will be take up two floors brings more than 25 works of Halil Altındere that manifest the transgressive interactions between reality of daily life and fantasy world. Most of his 3D works will be exhibited for the first time together as an ensemble in Turkey, among which new commissioned pieces are created specifically for this occasion. This sheds new light to an often overlooked aspect of the artist’s work: “hyperrealism.”

Here, the artist acts as a magician with the works as props and the exhibition venue as a stage. With little but  magnificent gestures, the artist transforms ordinary objects and usual situations in daily life into extraordinary events.

The exhibition puts forward Altındere’s critical reflections and actions vis-à-vis both the art scene and everyday social struggle: a piano playing on its own, a weightless hat, an “illegal” street vendor, an asleep museum guard, and a visitor probing a painting become issues for Altındere while the police car blocking the street…

Attending 58th Venice Biennale, with his three works in the international exhibition section, Altındere’s works has been exhibited in many prestigious museums in solo and group exhibitions such as MoMa PS1, Centre Pompidou, MAXXI, MAK, CA2M, Les Abattoirs, Tensta Konsthall ve Moderna Museet and his works got into the collections of most of these museums. In addition to his exhibitions in institutions such as Moderna Museet, Maat, ACC Gwangju, Secesssion, Mambo, Akademie der Künste, CCBB Rio, Andrew Kreps Gallery, n.b.k. Berlin and his works exhibited in important biennials such as Sao Paolo, Berlin, Istanbul, Sharjah and Gwangju, and exhibitions such as Documenta and Manifesta.

Along with the exhibition, a comprehensive monography book on Halil Altındere is being prepared. Edited by Fisun Yalçınkaya and designed by Aslı Altay, this book will include the texts of Hou Hanru, Maria Lind and HG Masters.