Minor Truths
Egeran Galeri is pleased to present “Minor Truths”, a group show that brings together five artists who employ minimal gestures to engage with larger issues both political and existential. The concept of time and its various aspects are embedded in the works on view. Curated by Elif Kamisli, the exhibition features photographs, video works and installations by Selim Birsel, Ali Kazma, Ali Emir Tapan, Nasan Tur and Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz.
The title of the show is taken from the novel The Institute for the Readjustment of Clocks by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. In order to avoid the displeasure and anxiety associated with our mortality, people turn away from time and evidence of its passing. In spite of this, minor truths force us to acknowledge our march toward the end; our attempts to freeze the moments and busy ourselves with daily issues are futile. This position is a starting point of the exhibition. Here the artists explore how we perceive time and its impact on our lives.
A main theme in “Minor Truths” is the attempt to capture the moment. By stopping time we are able to enjoy the event and its emotions without the threat of decay. The photographs of Selim Birsel, for example, depict a perfectly spinning top. Time appears to have stopped and in that moment the spinning top will neither lurch nor fall down. As the artist states, this is like being in limbo—between life and death—in a place where time doesn’t exist.
Embodying memory is another theme in the exhibition. As the seconds, minutes and hours race by, our desire to record time raises the issue of memory. The habit of collecting objects is a result of this need to secure a place in time. Several works in the exhibition explore the relationship between the objects and memory. Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz’s “memory map” is a record of the artist’s memories. She combines found objects and stream of consciousness writings, inviting the viewer to embody and witness an intimate experience.
The last theme in the show is the fight against time. The works in this theme explore ways of resisting the eventual end of time, and the desire to continue despite the traces time leaves. The installation “Like New” by Nasan Tur is almost a manifesto against the passage of time. The shining but deformed shoes shaped by their previous owners’ feet are transformed into poetic objects in the exhibition space. A testament to lives lived, the shoes are a strong metaphor for eternal youth.
with Selim Birsel, Ali Kazma, Ali Emir Tapan, Nasan Tur, Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz
6 September to 6 October 2012