Δεν είναι λίγοι οι ομογενειακοί χώροι που ανοίγουν τις πύλες τους για να φιλοξενήσουν εκθέσεις και καλλιτεχνικά δρώμενα στο πλαίσιο της 13ης Μπιενάλε της Πόλης.
Ο ομογενής Ζαν Πολ Καπούνταγ ο οποίος επιμελείται την έκθεση "While/Stocks/Last" χρησιμοποιεί τον κήπο του Ζωγραφείου Λυκείου, στα στενά του Πέρα, ως ιδανικό φόντο της εγκατάστασης του Viron Erol Vert η οποία ανιχνεύει τη σχέση με την πόλη.
Τα εγκαίνια της έκθεσης η οποία πραγματοποιείται στο πλαίσιο των παράλληλων εκδηλώσεων της Μπιενάλε θα πραγματοποιηθούν το Σάββατο, 14 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013 στις 19:00.
For the exhibition happening concurrently to the Istanbul Biennial 2013, which is in conformity with its theme „Mom, am I a Barbarian?“ Viron Erol Vert is showing a sculpture of oversized replicas of the typical Istanbul mobile counters in the garden of Zografyon Greek High School in Beyoglu, Istanbul. As a project co-organized by doorandmountainproject, Greek community Foundations Society, Zografyon High School, Galerist and Kultur Departmani, the public space intervention/installation will be open to the audience between the dates September 14th to October 20th.
Exhibition: 14.09.2013 - 20.10.2013
Vernissage: September 14th, 19:00
Istanbul, as a city in which the tradition of multicultural exchange of numerous peoples, convictions and religious orientations has flourished for centuries.The cultural and economic exchange with other nations prospered here long before globalization was even defined. The mobile counters influenced the face of the city already in early times of the Ottoman Empire till present time and are symbols of the everday culture of Istanbul. Even though, or maybe because the number has decreased as well as the diversity of offered wares in times of modernisation, they still represent a pure form of economy which is becoming less and less important today: the personal exchange of wares against money - face to face! This stands in stark contrast to hypermarkets, online-shops and present national and global economical issues as the mobile counters are a social place of gathering where people of all kinds of different nationalities, religious or social origin meet to share the moment of dining, choosing and communication. On one hand the counters imply a feeling of familiarity which is evoked by the identification of common items from daily routine, on the other hand the viewer feels small and insignifant in comparison to the enormous size of the sculpture, which also leads to the inability to see what is offered on the mobile counters from close proximity. The change of position not only compensates size, it also reveals that there is actually nothing for sale on the counters. This insight is supposed to encourage the viewer to seize initative to fill the counters again with their own ideas and new solutions. It gives the invitation to rethink values like democracy, community spirit, communication and fair trade.
About Viron Erol Vert:
Viron Erol Vert born (*1975) in Germany, lives and currently works between Istanbul and Berlin. He is strongly influenced by his multicultural background that arches between Orient and Occident. This cultural matrix is one of the reasons that leads him to question identity and affinity which are the central subjects in his artistic work. Vert analyses human kind regarding social and cultural topics in society. He is interested in the contrasts evolving from the results of combining antagonizing elements. By confronting mythological as well as figurative elements with issues of the present, he is searching for new realities. His choice of media is related to the topic at hand and involves a wide range from sculpture and collage over painting on paper and canvas to print on fabric and sound. The diversity of his work is mirrored in his artistic expression and his unique way of selecting and combining unusual materials reflects his contentual artistic aspects. The collision of all those aspects allows Vert to override fixed positions and to look for new solutions in form and content. Vert studied at the UdK in Berlin and the Department for Visual Art at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. He has graduated with mentionable honor his master class in Fashion design at the HTW, Berlin and at the Department for Experimental Surface at the KHB in Berlin. From 2004 on he participated in several exhibitions in the national and international field. Vert presented his works at “Enough Room for Space“, Gent; “Centro Cultural Montehermoso,Vitoria-Gasteiz”, Spain; “Gallery Opendahl”, Berlin; “Colette“, Paris; “Die ungarische Methode”, Ascherleben; “Galerie Reinhard Hauff”, Stuttgart; “Fellethuset”, Berlin; “Berghain“, Berlin and “Galerist“, Istanbul. In 2008 Viron Erol Vert won the first prize in the category Painting and Illustration, of the turkish Society for Sculpting and Arts awarded by Aksanat, Istanbul.