This Secret World That Exists Right There in Public
The first group exhibition of gallery Rampa in Istanbul this secret world that exists right there in public brings together the works of Etel Adnan, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Francis Alÿs, Otto Berchem, Attila Csörgő, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Cengiz Çekil, Nilbar Güreş, Berat Işık, Çağdaş Kahriman, Yasemin Özcan, Funda Özgünaydın, İz Öztat & Zişan, Kiki Smith, and Ali Taptık until July 12th.
Bringing together works that twist, open up or change perceptions, the exhibition aims to create a space where the secret world that exists right there in public appears as a possibility. The exhibition hails the social movements that will surely leave a mark on the 10’s of this century by taking a fresh look at history, geography, architecture, and nature.
Co-curated by Lara Fresko and Esra Sarıgedik Öktem, the exhibition takes its inception and title from a scene in Noah Baumbach’s 2012 film Frances Ha, in which Frances, talking to strangers in semi drunken fervor, points out a fleeting moment when the transformative potential of love as well as the miracle of unmediated communication is rendered possible and visible. Focusing on the potentials of interpersonal relations and social movements to envision alternative worlds, the exhibition brings together works from different histories and geographies.
Frances Ha – Official Theatrical Trailer
The exhibition successfully depicts three central works that explore the many facets of travel, crossing borders, creating channels of communication, instituting solidarity, storytelling and imagining utopian and dystopian alternatives through a cartographic approach.
Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Image from SALT Research Hüseyin-Alptekin-Archive, Courtesy of the Estate of Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin and Rampa Istanbul
We want to put a special emphasis on the work by Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin The Black Sea Map / Kéraban Lé Têtu (1999). The installation constists of a black sea map expanded originally by a reprint of a postcard showing a story teller in the black sea region and a deck of cards. This installtion became already 1999 an inspiration for further works by various artists.
The work by Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin follows Jules Verne’s stubborn tobacco merchant in a journey all the way around the Black Sea in order to get to Istanbul’s Asian coast without crossing the Bosphorus. A remnant of what became the Sea Elephant Travel Agency focussing on networks of communication among the contemporary art scene of Turkey with its northern neighbors and what is not only a vision of alternative routes but also a cultural project of solidarity formation.
Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Image from SALT Research Hüseyin-Alptekin-Archive, Courtesy of the Estate of Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin and Rampa Istanbul
At gallery Rampa, Istanbul until July 12th