CDA Projects welcomes 'Young Fresh Different' for the third time

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Without any constraints on subject or materials, the Young Fresh Different-3 exhibition accepts the works of artists under 35 years of age.

CDA-Projects and Galeri Zilberman at Beyoğlu’s Mısır Apartmanı have begun exhibiting the victors in their annual curtain-closing contest, Young Fresh Different.

Lacking any constraints on subject or materials, the exhibition accepts the works of artists who are under 35 years of age.

With a different and independent jury established each year for evaluating the applications, Young Fresh Different-3’s selections of artists around the country were made this year by a jury composed of Toni Stooss, Pelin Tan, Burçak Bingöl and directed by Ferhat Özgür.

In addition to the visibility offered to young artists, the gallery has broken new ground this year by donating 500 Turkish Liras to each winning artist.

Young Fresh Different-3 is exhibiting the works of the 22 artists selected out of 347 applicants. The artists participating in the show are Alpin Arda Bağcık, Aşkın Ercan, Ayşegül Karakaş, Aysel Alver, Berkay Tuncay, Damla Yılmaz, Deniz Dökmeoğlu, Engin Konuklu, Erdal İnci, Esra Sağlık, Eylül Ceren Ersöz, Gülşah Bayraktar, Havva Altun, Kıvılcım Güngörün, Mustafa Kemal Yurttaş, Ömer Kaya, Reysi Kamhi, Sencer Aygün, Sercan Apaydın, Tuğba Saylam, Uygar Demoğlu and Zeynep Beler.

Stooss, a Swiss art historian who directed the national prize jury for the Swiss Awards, told the Hürriyet Daily News that the selection process had three phases. “After the applications were all submitted, all members of the jury immediately got together for selection. In the first phase we did not look at the artists’ résumés and wanted the works of art to speak their own language. After this elimination, we had around 70 works at hand,” Stooss said.

During the second phase, the jury began eliminating artists based on their other works. The number of the works was reduced to 40 by the end of the second stage. It was not until the final stage that the jury inspected the artists’ résumés to select the best 22.

Stooss said that in the first plan they were planning to display the exhibition only at the CDA Gallery. However, because they were unable to eliminate more works from consideration, they had to ask the gallery owner’s permission to extend the show to Gallery Zilberman on the story above.

Stooss began his career with an extensive exhibition activity as curator for the New Community of Visual Arts, Berlin, and later became the director of the Bern Art Museum from 1996 to 2001. In February 2003, Stooss took over the artistic management of both the Liner Foundation and the Liner Museum, as well as Appenzell and the Ziegelhütte Art Gallery. From spring 2004 until the end of 2005, he worked as the conservator and curator of the Liner Foundation. Since the beginning of 2006, Stooss has worked as the director of the Museum of Modern Art Salzburg of Mönchsberg and Rupertinum, where he organized many thematic exhibitions and publications on classical modern art, as well as presentations of contemporary art. As of 2012, Stooss plans to organize an exhibition of Dieter Roth’s self-portraits with the cooperation of Aargau Arthouse, Aarau.

Exhibition’s highlight: Zotemin

The most striking work in the show is the oil on canvas work “Zotemin” by İzmir-based artist Bağcık, who completed his undergraduate studies at the Department of Painting of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dokuz Eylül University in 2008. Examining the perception of reality through his works, with his impressions at individual and social scales, Bağcık’s work builds an ambivalent, from place to place schizophrenic structure.

Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, Bağcık said his first Istanbul show was in 2010 at Galeri İlayda. He also participated in the 2011 Art Beat in Myra Gallery’s booth. He has not signed with any Istanbul gallery so far.

Also at the exhibition is a striking video installation by Aysel Alver, who is a graduate of of Hacettepe University. In her work “Portrait,” Alver calls attention to the current situation in the cosmetics sector and its power to redefine forms. With plastic surgery applications, features peculiar to people are lost and physical features become entirely changeable. At this point, it becomes impossible to talk about a self-portrait; each copy transforms into a portrait without the original.

Speaking to the Daily News, Alver said she was previously working on paper sculptures, titled Collage Counterparts Series. Her most recent exhibition was in 2011 at Gallery Artist in Ankara. For the current exhibition she worked on video for the first time and seems to enjoy what she has done with it.
“I will definitely continue with this medium from now on,” said Alver, who has not signed with any gallery in Istanbul.

The show will continue at CDA-Projects and Galeri Zilberman until July 21.