Burcu Yağcıoğlu, 1981

Burcu Yağcıoğlu was born in 1981 in Istanbul. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Painting at the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in 2001 and her master’s degree from the Department of Visual Art and Visual Communication Design at Sabanci University in 2005, then continued her graduate degree education at Goldsmiths University in London until 2008. The artist now lives and works in Istanbul and London.

Yağcıoğlu’s art practice comprises a variety of different techniques of representation, including video, painting, drawing, and sculpture. The artist deliberates on the concept of mutability in terms of images, objects, experiences, ideas, and forms. Created for the

2016 “Ohne” (Without) group exhibition in Vienna, “Elancholia” emerges from the exhibition theme, which was structured on the concept of loss as well as the dimensional limitations set for the participating works. Specifically, participating artists were asked to create works not exceeding 40 by 40 cm. Rather than occupying the entire space specified, Yağcıoğlu decided to propose a tangible “loss.” In the middle is a drawing of worms as a reference to decay, which is strengthened by a barely legible word, KRONOS. Related to the concept of time, Kronos was a titan in Greek mythology who defeated his father, Uranus, but subsequently was defeated by his son Zeus. In the work, the artist portrays the titan as a spirit who reinvents himself to become virtuous after being castrated by his son. Kronos represents the basic mechanism of melancholic creativity for the artist, and seems to disappear toward one side to obtain a new totality in the viewer’s mind.