Botella Lucas questions Seven Sleepers myth

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Foam-rubber sponge is a major element in Lucas’ work in the show. He uses other ready-made objects in his works.

Juan Botella Lucas’ solo exhibition ‘’Seven Sleepers (as)’’ is at Pi Artworks Tophane from April 28 to June 26. The exhibition features Lucas’ latest work, which questions the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, through a look into the uncanny nature of sleep.

The exhibition mainly brings out the unconsciousness of everyday life. The extraordinary and sometimes even confusing features of Lucas’ work invite the audience to investigate and question the inner self and the reproduction of rational thought. With sculptures, video art and textual works that are combinations of both the artist’s perception and the reality of the world, seen as a riddle or puzzle, Lucas seeks to focus on the status of reality. Riddles and puzzles are modes of behavior produced out of boredom. Although they could be understood as meaningless mischievousness, they represent materialized life force, rather than being simply time-consuming activities that avoid any mental and physical effort.

Second part of the exhibition in September

Foam-rubber sponge is a major element in Lucas’ work in this show. He also uses other ready-made objects in his artistic practice. The first part of the story, “Seven Sleepers (as)”, is visualized in the form of a mattress, because the mattress as a metaphor is a stage for birth, death, illness, thought, nightmares and dreams, the back door of reality.

The second part of the exhibition, which is planned to be held in September and will be titled “Seven Sleepers (The Second Awakening),” is the final step of the project. The second exhibition also revolves around the legend of the “Seven Sleepers,” mentioned in Bible and the Quran.

Juan Botella Lucas was born in Madrid in 1970, and graduated from the sculpture department of Madrid Universidad’s Complutense de Madrid’s Faculty of Fine Art in 1995. He has lived in Turkey since 1998 and is currently working as a lecturer at the Mersin University Faculty of Fine Arts. He has been represented by Pi Artworks since 2007, and has had two solo exhibitions titled “Bailes de mente II” (2008) and “70% Water 99% Sponge” (2009). Among his other exhibitions have been “Museen on Line” at the Lügen Museum (Germany, 1999); “Death=Death,” curated by Levent Çalıkoğlu (Istanbul, 2001); the 22nd Alexandria Biennial (Egypt, 2003); the 10th Istanbul Biennial, as part of Hafriyat Group (Istanbul, 2007); “Fasa Fiso” at Cer Modern (Ankara, 2010); and “Where Fire Has Struck” at Depo (Istanbul, 2011). He was honored with the “Meister Schüler” award by Berlin’s Fine Arts Academy in 1999.

Lucas’ exhibition “Seven Sleepers (as)” is open to view at Pi Artworks Tophane through June 16, between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. except Sundays and Mondays.