Sarkis readies for new solo show

ISTANBUL

Sarkis aims to exhibit a new installtion at Gallery Mana. He will also aim to bring his latest workd together at the solo exhibtion that will open in May.

Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis is preparing to open a new solo exhibition at Galeri Manâ on May 23.

The artist’s first solo exhibition at Galeri Manâ will present a new installation, bringing together his most recent works. The exhibition will be complemented by a conversation between Sarkis, Uwe Fleckner and Nico Anklam at the nearby Galata Greek Primary School on May 24 at 6 p.m.

In “İkiz/Twin,” Sarkis creates a universe of dualities at work in multiple layers. Copper surfaces with their reflective and transmissive properties take center stage in a setting where each floor of the gallery space acts as an original twin to the other. The twins are endowed with minor distortions expressed in the time lapse and spatial divide between the two floors, and also in the substance and the form of each work. Each object is encountered twice but both are of essence, referring to the founding dualisms of the human experience and conception of the universe. This duality is transcended only by the sound element of the exhibition.

A musical score also fills the entire space, also connecting the exhibition to Sarkis’ “Ballads” installation at the former shipyard in Rotterdam, while the distant, ringing sound of bells conveys the song of two whales in dialogue as Sarkis engages in his own conversation with John Cage.

A fully illustrated catalog will accompany the exhibition with contributions by Fleckner and Anklam focusing respectively on Sarkis’ use of visual phenomena in relation to memory and on this latest installation of works.

Since the earliest stages of his artistic practice, Sarkis has searched for an aesthetic language and experience characteristic of contemporary times. A constant urge to create a new language underlies Sarkis’ oeuvre, which is always reflective of the nature of the materials, media and sites he uses. Taking inspiration from autobiographical elements as well as art history, literature, music and film, he emphasizes the historicity and performativity of objects and sites. Through the physical, historical and conceptual encounters he stages, the artist brings new life to fixed and frozen depositories of memory.

The exhibition will continue until July 6.