Louis Vuitton hosts Turkish art exhibit

ISTANBUL

Turkish contemporary artist Halil Altındere’s new work ‘No Man’s Land’ is among the newly exhibited works at the Louis Vuitton Espace Culturel venue in Paris.

Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton is in the process of organizing an exclusive exhibition for Turkish contemporary art in Paris scheduled to open Oct. 10. Artists Murat Akagündüz, Halil Altındere, Silva Bingaz, CANAN, Gözde İlkin, Murat Morova, Ihsan Oturmak, Ceren Oykut, Tayfun Sertaş, Ali Taptık and Hale Tenger will participate in the exhibition.

The upcoming exhibition, Wanderings in contemporary Turkey, will continue the cycle of exhibitions initiated at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in 2006 that explore the contemporary art scene of a foreign country. After focusing on Indonesia in 2011, the Espace has now turned the spotlight on Turkey.

With its mosaic of populations, Turkey is home to a vibrant art scene that shows the modern face of this rapidly changing country, said a written statement by Louis Vuitton.

Eleven artists from different generations use a variety of techniques to evoke, each in their own way, a theme dear to famous clothing designer Louis Vuitton: travel. Some wander through Turkey – vast not only in geographical terms, but also in the scope of its history and the multicultural essence of its people – while others embark on an intimate, introspective journey, touching on universal themes.
According to Vuitton’s statement, the strength, beauty and immensity of the Turkish landscape unfolds in Murat Morova’s polyptych, in the surprising photographic mise-en-scene by Halil Altindere, and in the installation by Murat Akagündüz, which brings together video and resin painting. Photographer Silva Bingaz shows a reportage featuring the inhabitants of Istanbul, while Ali Taptik creates a patchwork of intimate urban photographs, revealing the mystery of this enigmatic country.

Inspirations from daily life

Ceren Oykut, meanwhile, takes inspiration from everyday life to express, through her drawings, the fevered, chaotic activity of the city, said the statement.

Childhood and the past provide another rich vein of inspiration for the involved artists. İhsan Oturmak paints uniformed schoolchildren from class photographs, while Tayfun Serttaş appropriates an astonishing series of archive images in which young girls adopt the same hackneyed pose before the photographer’s lens.

Finally, Gözde İlkin’s embroideries, composed of objects the artist found on her travels, and Hale Tenger’s globes hanging beneath a starry vault, invite the visitor to wander beyond the borders
of the country.

The curator of the exhibition is Hervé Mikaeloff.