Nilbar Güreş: Erzähl mir

The solo exhibition Erzähl mir (Tell me) by Nilbar Güreş deals with the effects of hegemonic structures and conflicts on human coexistence and the environment. Central themes of the exhibition are identity, internal and external migration, as well as the organization of minorities in relation to ruling power mechanisms. The focus is on people and their relationships to each other in private and public space.

The artistic praxis of Nilbar Güreş is based on a performative approach and a precise observation of the cultural environment. Güreş often collaborates with women and specific social groups, including them as leading figures in her projects. On display are various media such as photography, collage, drawing, sculpture and film from recent years and from different projects. In addition, new productions will be on view that are specially created for Kunstverein Reutlingen.

Key work of the exhibition is the 3-channel video projection Open Phone Booth (2010-2011), which is displayed for the first time in Germany. Güreş follows family roots and portrays the Kurdish-Alevi inhabitants, a self-conscious, modern and open-minded minority in Turkey. Living in a village in Eastern Turkey, they are cut off from the major metropolises of Turkey in infrastructure, social and political terms. Open Phone Booth is a sensitive poem about how survival is part of human condition determined by the state-controlled everyday reality and the direction of global change. The large-format textile work life-proof curtain (2019), a curtain especially created for the exhibition and made of specific fabrics and traditional patterns, combines concepts of home and identity. It marks the separation between the inside and the outside. The opaque curtain once more symbolizes the isolation of the Kurdish-Alevi minority. Generally, it intends to provoke a dialogue between cultures by consistently referring to the impressive window front of the institution’s architecture and being visible from afar. For Güreş, textiles and fabrics are a productive source and means of expression of subversive criticism. The new collage Location / Konum (2019) addresses the complexity of the literally interwoven interactions between technological progress, environmental challenges, and ethics towards living beings.

Nilbar Güreş uses a highly nuanced, sometimes provocative set of signs and symbols, expressed with precise aesthetic enactments of material. At the same time, she relies upon a characteristic humor to offer possibilities of immediate accessibility.

Curated by Imke Kannegiesser

Nilbar Güreş lives and works Vienna, Austria and Istanbul, Turkey. In 2012, she completed a residency at International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, supported by BMUKK, Vienna. She received the Hilde Goldschmidt Award in 2013, the Otto Mauer Award of 2014, Fifth edition of the BC21 (Belvedere Contemporary) Art Award 2015 in Austria, and De’Longhi Art Projects Artist Award of London Art Fair in 2018.

Her work has been showcased in several solo shows (selection): See/Saw, Gallery Martin Janda, Vienna (2019); Magnet and the Moon, Galerist, Istanbul, (2019); Lovers, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2019); Overhead, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz (2018); Jumping bed and Female Lovers, Gallery Tanja Wagner, Berlin (2018); Wien-Na, Gallery Martin Janda, Vienna (2013); Self-Defloration, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart (2011); Nilbar Güreş: Window Commission 2010, INIVA Institute of International Visual Art, Rivington Place, London (2010); Unknown Sports. Indoor Exercises, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2009).

Some of the exhibitions Güreş participated in: Vienna Biennale for Change 2019, Museum MAK, Vienna (2019); Ecology of Darkness, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2019); From the Inside Out, DRAWING ROOM, London (2018); The Time Needs Changing, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2018); The Atlantic Project, Plymouth (2018); The Way Beyond Art, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2017); 20th Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island, Australia (2016); Open Phone Booth, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon; SeMa Biennale Mediacity Seoul (2014); EVA International Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City (2014); The 31st Bienal de Sao Paulo (2014); Dream and Reality, İstanbul Museum of Modern Art (2011); What is Waiting Out There, 6th Berlin Biennale (2010); Where Do We Go From Here?, secession, Vienna (2010); What Keeps Mankind Kind Alive?, 11th International İstanbul Biennial (2009).

Special thanks to Ayşe Umur; Gallery Martin Janda, Vienna; Gallery Tanja Wagner, Berlin; Galerist, Istanbul.