‘Touched by Humankind’ at Kalyon Kültür
ISTANBUL
Kalyon Kültür’s new group exhibition “Touched by Humankind” can be visited at Nişantaşı Taş Konak.
Curated by Ceren and Irmak Arkman, “Touched by Humankind” is the second in a series of exhibitions, investigating the relationship between nature and digital art. Looking from a different angle, this exhibition focuses on the human impact on the environment, drawing attention to one of the most important problems of today: The climate crisis.
Taking place in line with and parallel to the framework of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, the exhibition brings together nine international artists, while at the same time supporting the exhibition with talks and workshops on nature, recycling and sustainability that will also take place.
The exhibition, spanning two floors of Nişantaşı Taş Konak, features an installation by Spanish artist Félix Luque, who, while exploring the relationship between human and technology, also touches upon current issues such as the development of artificial intelligence. In the 20-minute video installation titled JunkYard III, he shows piled up car wrecks as archaeological remains for the future. Focusing on the idea that car accidents came to exist due to the invention of the automobile, the artist makes the audience question whether the total damage done by the industry is a historical accident that affects the existence of humankind.
Canadian artist François Quévillon conveys through his works how technology changes people, culture, the environment, time, space and our relationships with each other. With his video installation Pyroclastic Trails, he draws attention to the research on the impact of mining activities which take place in the extinct volcanoes of the Sierra de Santa Catarina, located south of Mexico City.
Canadian artist Sabrina Ratté’s video collage Objets-Monde (World of Objects), which displays objects such as abandoned cars and computer screens that are disproportionately reinterpreted within remote landscapes, creates a tension between a sense of apocalypse and nostalgia, precious objects and waste, and idealized nature and the indelible presence of human traces.
Producing works somewhere between still and moving images, artist Volkan Kızıltunç’s three-screen installation titled Beyaz Kaleler (White Castles) can also be seen in the exhibition. In this installation, he uses drone footage of the marble quarries around the city of Burdur.
Artists Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács meet with Kalyon Kültür audiences with their film After Eden, which they created by making a quick montage of scenes from Hollywood film culture, ranging from classic Western movies to today’s war films. This time, epic Hollywood invites art lovers to a pursuit of reality through the lens of a more aggressive camera that shows destructions, floods and wire fences.
In his video installation Fallen Water, artist Kevin Cooley explores local waterfalls and waterways flowing towards Lake Ontario along the geological formation known as the Niagara Escarpment, drawing attention to the worsening global freshwater crisis. The artist is known for his works that question the system of mankind’s relationship with the five classical elements being earth, air, fire, water and space.
Lined up on the wall of Kalyon Kültür, Evan Roth’s work titled Landscapes refers to infrared camera shots and infrared lights carrying data on internet cables, thus drawing attention to the existence of internet lines that pass under remote landscapes that seem untouched by human hands, while emphasizing the physicality of the digital world.
The exhibition “Touched by Humankind” can be viewed for free at Kalyon Kültür’s Taş Konak building in Nişantaşı through Dec. 17.