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TÜRKIYE´DE GÜNCEL SANAT
A book series published by YKY Istanbul
December 10, 2011 - March 3, 2012

The Contemporary Art in Turkey series, published by Yapi Kredi Kültür Publications, consists of twelve volumes, eleven of them monographs on individual artists. An important feature of this series is that each monograph includes an original print by the artist that ingeniously doubles as the book jacket. The artists in this series of monographs are Hale Tenger, Gülsün Karamustafa, Füsun Onur, Kutlug Ataman, Ayse Erkmen, Halil Altindere, Cengiz Cekil, Aydan Murtezaoglu, Bülent Sangar, Esra Ersen and Sarkis. The twelfth volume presents the artists Nevin Aladag, Vahap Avsar, Ergin Cavusoglu, Nezaket Ekici, Sakir Gökcebag, Nilbar Güres, Servet Kocyigit, Ahmet Ögüt, Ebru Özsecen, Anny und Sibel Öztürk, Canan Tolon and Nasan Tur, whose works are currently on view in the exhibition "Zwölf im Zwölften" (12 in the 12th) at TANAS - project space for contemporary Turkish art. Esen Karol, the designer of the entire series, was asked to create the graphic work for this volume. The publisher's desire to bring the fascinating developments in Turkish art during preceding years to the attention of a larger audience was the impetus for the book series in 2007. Artists were selected who, in the 1980s, radically broke with the conventions of Turkish art, which made them outsiders not only in the global, Western-oriented art scene but also in their own land. They had no support from state institutions and none from private foundations either. Largely ignored by both Turkish art critics and the local market, they worked for a small circle of art lovers consisting for the most part of other artists. Virtually unnoticed by the mainstream art scene, an entire generation of artists burgeoned and matured until the Istanbul Biennials of the 1990s catapulted them into the international limelight. There they were hailed as provocative, political, critical, aesthetically radical, and fresh - there was talk of the "miracle of Istanbul." Since that time, these artists have regularly taken part in international exhibitions. The twelfth volume of the series, titled At Home, Wherever, presents twelve artistic positions that seem initially to have only one thing in common: that the artists live and work, entirely or for the most part, outside Turkey. Some of them took steps of their own free will to make their way in a new environment. Others were unable to decide on their own, having left Turkey with their parents when they were still children. They grew up in an unfamiliar country, learned the foreign language, went to school there and later to art schools, just like those who were born Turkish abroad. Even if twists of fate took these artists to these particular places for the most disparate reasons - the texts by the book's twelve authors profoundly relate their stories - an additional commonality among the artists can be mentioned: their thinking and their work have been inspired by a new energy emanating from Istanbul. Especially the youngest artists, who did not grow up in Turkey, are again and again drawn to the Bosporus by the tension between their workplaces abroad and the dynamic Istanbul scene. From a thoroughly distanced foreign perspective, they search for their (second?) identity.

Hale Tenger World Cracker, 1992 / 2007 Offset print, 62 x 88 cm   Gülsün Karamustafa Like Squirrel..., 2007 Offset print and gold hot stamp, 88 x 62 cm   Halil Altindere Surrender, you have been surrounded!, 2005-2008 Offset print, 62 x 88 cm   Sarkis Untitled, 200 / 2010 Offset print, 88 x 62 cm   Cengiz Cekil What time is it?, 2008 Offset print, 62 x 88 cm

more on exhibitions to have been shown prevoiusly here