NEIGHBOURS
Contemporary Narratives from Turkey and Beyond
January 9 – May 8, 2014
Within the scope of its 10th year anniversary celebrations, Istanbul Modern presents Neighbours Contemporary Narratives from Turkey and Beyond, an exhibition that investigates contemporary art practices in Turkey and the surrounding region. This exhibition brings together artists from neighboring geographies that have historical, political, and cultural ties with Turkey: the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.
Neighbours explores practices that relate to social life in the public space, such as spectacles and ceremonies, and the way these have seeped into today’s visual arts. The exhibition focuses on two aspects that are ingrained in the regions cultural weave: narratives and travel. These dovetail into a number of works tangent to themes like mobility, nomadism, inner journeys, language, and cultural and oral transmission.
Neighbours explores the visual arts, as well as performance and spectacles, including extensions of disciplines that have developed outside the academic circles of art, like political cartoons and folk art. Paradigms of this wide region’s layered narrative traditions are shadow theater, the a??ks (travelling bards), and the meddahs (public storytellers) of old, whose voice, in a new form, still echoes in the work of artists today.
Neighbours features works by 35 artists from 17 countries and a rich program of events including screenings, performances, panels, talks, and workshops dedicated to the regions art and culture. Come Again?, a video program comprising works by 13 artists from the exhibition, will be screened in a special video room as part of the main exhibition.
Artists
Abdülcanbaz (Turhan Selçuk), Furat al Jamil, Mounira Al Solh, Maja Bajevic, Sonia Balassanian, Vesna Bukovec, CANAN, Eteri Chkadua, Ana ?igon, Rena Effendi, Nezaket Ekici, Cevdet Erek, Adib Fattal (Installation by the Museum of Everything), Mona Hatoum, Hamlet Hovsepyan, Gül Ilgaz, Babak Jalali, Lamia Joreige, Hayv Kahraman, Hatice Karada?, Sevdalina Kochevska, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Fahrettin Örenli, Adrian Paci, Michail Pirgelis, One Square Meter (A Festival by ACCEA), Younès Rahmoun, Yehudit Sasportas, Wael Shawky, Slavs and Tatars, Asl? Sungu, Nasra ?immes, Burcu Ya?c?o?lu, Nil Yalter, ivadinov::Zupan?i?::Turi?
Curators
Çelenk Bafra, Paolo Colombo
Assistant Curator and Come Again? Program
Birnur Temel
Advisors
Negar Azimi, Zdenka Badovinac, Magda Guruli