Ali Kazma at ARTER: Reflections about Time
Right beside the entrance the exibition starts with a close up of a “Clock Master” srewing on an 18th century clock. The symbol of a man working on a clock gives the starting point for a reflection about conceptions of time and labour, of body and space. Themes that stands out through all of Ali Kazma’s works. Throughout his current exibition at ARTER, it is not only the exploration of the working time’s specific nature that is documented, but also the notion of how time is being constructed and controlled – and how time disciplines and controls human beings.
[widgetkit id=17702]
Besides “Clock Master” the different videos being part of the serie “Obstructions” show people at work. Work, which “is producing things, which is transforming things”: Impressions of a jean and an automobile factory, a glasblowing garage and “Rolling Mills” among others aim at considering the notion of time spent at work as well as questioning the subject-object relationship between the worker and its creation.
The other serie called “Resistance” explores work which treats the body itself, and is thereby constructing it: Stitching tatoos, operating an eye or working in a laboratory, trying to brake human’s genetic code – all in order to optimize the body or transform it, adding new symbolic meaning. In this way the body is not only the subject, the active creator, but becomes the space of performance itself – like an actor in a theater.
[widgetkit id=17711]
Moreover “Resistance” is the reflection on how human bodies are created, disciplined and controlled in a Foucaultian sense: Impressions of the Galatasaray school in Istanbul – classrooms, clocks, pinned house rules, the picture of Atatürk seeming to watch individual’s behaviour. Or a prison: barbered wire fences, sterile corridors, devastated staircases. The latter video, situated right next to the work “Home” which shows a homelike flat full of memories in Kuzguncuk, the two videos reflect on the environment people spend their lifetime in, and how space and time influence each other.
Instead of a photo installation, Kazma choses a slide show of impressions – the disciplinary notion of time is thereby implemented on the observer itself who is forced to patiently wait for the pictures to come and go.
“Timemaker” as an exibition questions the role and place of the human being inbetween time, space and work. Showing work realised in the last decade the artist himself contributes to this dialogue about time and production. Kazma is a turkish video artist, born in 1971, who represented Turkey at the 55th Venice Bienale in 2013.
The exibition at ARTER Istanbul, İstiklal Cad. No:211, runs untill 5th of April.
Photos: Murat Germen
For more reflections on time, visit Sense of Time and find out about the Millenium Clock.