Artists' Film International 2014-2015

Istanbul Modern presents video art and artists’ films from 16 countries

Istanbul Modern brings Artists’ Film International to Istanbul, a program dedicated to moving image by featuring videos, animations and films of visual artists from around the world. Artists’ Film International’s
2014-2015 is on view between January 20 and March 12, 2015 with a pop-up exhibition curated by
Çelenk Bafra, curator of Istanbul Modern. The exhibition features two video installations from Turkey,
Burak Delier’s “Crisis and Control” and Vahap Avşar’s “Road to Arguvan”, along with recent works by artists
from 15 countries in thematic selections.

The video selections displayed in projections or screens are programmed under various titles such as “conflicts”, “performative interpretation of the urban”, “physical boundaries” and “narration/s of events”, etc. Moreover, the exhibition’s only video room, namely “Blackbox” hosts every week throughout the exhibition a different video work as installation. Talks and presentations about video art and artists’ films will be held within the scope of the exhibition. The first exhibition event is a conversation on video art in Serbia between artist Milica Tomić and curator Zorana Đaković on January 28.

Initiated by the Whitechapel Gallery in 2008, Artists’ Film International is organized in partnership with 17 art institutions from different parts of the world. Every year, partners select a new work by a prominent artist in their country and share it with the other partners. Following the curatorial work by each program partner, selected videos are displayed in thematic screenings or exhibitions. Istanbul Modern had participated in the program with works by Ali Kazma, İnci Eviner, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Sefer Memişoğlu and Bengü Karaduman in the past. Having worked with Burak Delier in 2014 within the scope of the program, Istanbul Modern invited Vahap Avşar for 2015. Avşar’s video will feature in the exhibitions and screenings organized by the program partners throughout the year.

Artists: Yuri Ancarani, Vahap Avşar, Lee Kai Chung, Burak Delier, Dalila Ennadre, Provmyza Group, Mattias Harenstam, Oded Hirsch, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Tran Luong, Jorge Macchi, Nicole Miller, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Uudam Tran Nguyen, Masooda Noora, Pallavi Paul, Elisabeth Price, Tejal Shah, Anatoly Shuravlev, Angela Su, Milica Tomic, Diego Tonus, Amir Yatziv, Tanya Busse & Emilija Škarnulytė

Program Partners

CCAA / Centre for Contemporary Art Afghanistan

Ballroom Marfa, USA

Belgrade Cultural Centre, Serbia

Cinémathèque de Tanger, Morocco

City Gallery Kfar Saba, Israel

City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand

Fundación PRóA, Argentina

GAMeC / Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contamporanea di Bergamo, Italy

Hanoi DOCLAB, Vietnam

KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Norway

Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k), Germany

Para/Site, China

Project 88, India

Tromsø Kunstforening, Norway

NCCA / National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Russia

Whitechapel Gallery, UK

GUEST OF 2015: VAHAP AVŞAR

Road to Arguvan, 2013

Employing various techniques such as photography, painting, installation, performance and moving image, Vahap Avşar’s works are marked by the influence of conceptual art history. Avşar aims to reveal issues that have remained veiled in our region by using images that are engraved in memories as well as everyday objects and popular culture aesthetics. The artist’s occasionally minimalist and shocking style conceals a critique of power relations, mechanisms of political repression, as well as social violence and conflict.

In the video, Vahap Avşar focuses on a gigantic crack that was formed in the 1980s on the only road connecting Arguvan, artist’s native town for generations, to the city of Malatya. Depth of the cracks in the asphalt has rendered the road useless, yet the government neither repairs it nor builds a new one. Cut off from the world, gradually deprived of fundamental facilities, and above all the hospital and courthouse, the town was abandoned to its fate. The main image and metaphor of “Road to Arguvan” is this deep crack. Shot with a hand-held camera, this short, shaky and intensive video full of mystery and associations can be read as a testament of the past and recent sociopolitical conflicts in Turkey. What or who was the cause of this fracture? Was it a natural phenomenon such as an earthquake that displaced the ground, or was it “an unknown force”? What has been happening beneath the earth covered by asphalt? Would it be possible to understand the cause of this rupture by gazing deep intothe chasm?

GUEST OF 2014: BURAK DELİER

Crisis and Control, 2013

Delier examines the relationship between capitalism and contemporary art in the way that it intervenes into the system through the use of guerilla strategies and tactics he derives from everyday life. He tries to open up a fresh space against the oppressive cultural practices and endeavors to position himself at a distance from power structures. Thus, he problematizes himself and his art through constant research.

Delier’s video “Crisis and Control” focuses on how the modern-day relationship between the individual and their self, labor, and environment is shaped by the life-style imposed by neo-liberalism and flexible work conditions of the business world in which the individual is forced to participate to fulfill their personal needs and desires. Careerism, future anxiety, the focus on success, brutality of the business world and competitiveness are being "performed" and deciphered by real professionals. Delier asks these professionals to do yoga exercises wearing their suits. By doing so, he emphasizes the prevalence of a crisis within which the boundaries between organizational and private conflict are forced to clash through physical challenge. Via the human body’s ability to resist, the work establishes a relationship between yoga – an alternative method of relaxation which could be considered as a by-product of the new capitalist order – with concepts such as flexibility, freedom and relaxation usually associated with the uniform organization of an office environment. The video, inholding the privacy of a therapy room, becomes a session in which neo-liberal economy lies on a couch and pours its heart out. Delier discusses current artistic practices and their relation to economics. While having an intersection of both domains in hand, his discussion aims at making escape strategies and all kinds of submission visible.

Exhibition Event:

In Conversation with Milica Tomić and Zorana Đaković: Video Art in Serbia

Wednesday January 28, 2015, 18.30

Artist Milica Tomić is in conversation with Zorana Đaković, the curator of Belgrade Cultural Centre, one of the program partners. The conversation centers on Tomić’s artistic practice such as her world-renowned films, videos and performances, as well as video art in Serbia.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Milica Tomić is an independent conceptual artist, exploring different fields, genres, and methods of artistic practice. Her work centers on researching, unearthing and bringing to public debate issues related to political violence, trauma and social amnesia with a particular attention to the relation, short circuit between intimacy and politics. The author of numerous international art projects and workshops, Tomić has been a lecturer/guest artist at international institutions of contemporary art.