Turkey’s contemporary artists take their place at Frieze Fair

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This year Frieze Art Fair hosts Turkish galleries in exclusive parts. Turkish artists such as Güneş Terkol’s work from Non Gallery and Cengiz Çekil’s works are shown.

This year the Frieze London Art Fair, the leading international contemporary art fair, will host artists and galleries from Turkey when it kicks off Oct. 11 and continues until Oct. 14.

As the world’s leading contemporary art event, hosting galleries and exhibitors from 35 countries, the 10th edition of the Frieze London Art Fair is the most international event organized by Frieze and one of the world’s leading contemporary art events. Participants this year include galleries from Argentina, China, Columbia, Hungary, India, Korea, South Africa and Turkey.

This year the inaugural edition of Frieze Masters, the first fair for historical art organized by Frieze, will take place on Gloucester Green in London’s Regent’s Park and feature Turkish artist Cengil Çekil.

“Çekil’s works will be exhibited at the Spotlight part of the fair, which is curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the curator of 12th Istanbul Biennial. Among 22 artists that have chosen for the exhibition, the only Turkish artist is Çekil,” Rampa Art Gallery director Özkan Cangüven said about the Frieze Masters exhibition.

Çekil’s works titled “Towards Childhood, Since Childhood” and “Things” will be exhibited at the fair.

“Those works of Çekil belong to his early years [between 1974 and 1977]. His work “Things,” was created with the use of 144 burnt coca cola bottles. Last year, Çekil’s work titled “Diary” was added to the MoMA collection and by the end of December his work “Towards Childhood, Since Childhood” was also exhibited. This time a very large presentation will be at Frieze Art Fair, Cangüven said.

According to Cangüven the increase in the amount of Çekil’s work being featured shows the growing interest that has developed within the international community for Çekil. Rampa Gallery will present Nevin Aladağ, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Vahap Avşar, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Cengiz Çekil, İnci Furni, Leyla Gediz, Hatice Güleryüz, Selma Gürbüz, Nilbar Güreş, Servet Koçyiğit, Ahmet Oran, Güçlü Öztekin and Erinç Seymen.

Participating galleries in the Frieze Masters exhibition will display art ranging from the ancient era and old masters to work created during the 20th century. Representing 18 countries, participating galleries include galleries in Paris, New York and London.

Frieze Masters is a selected presentation of over 90 of the world’s leading galleries, with 79 in the main section and 22 in a special spotlight section. The fair aims to give a unique contemporary perspective on art throughout the ages. Coinciding with, and within walking distance of, Frieze London, the two fairs will make London the focus of an international art audience, each benefitting from a crossover between audiences of contemporary and historical art.

Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s commissioned work

Gallery Non will be among the participating galleries at Frieze Frame with Güneş Terkol. Turkish artists Aslı Çavuşoğlu will be show her commissioned work titled “Murder in Three Acts,” which was inspired by the representation of art in popular media, particularly in television crime shows where the artwork does not solely exist in the background of the show, but becomes a vital part of the script. Çavuşoğlu’s exhibition functions as crime scenes and art works act as murder weapons.

As the imagining of the decision-making process behind props based on representations of forensic science and art “Murder in Three Acts” is structured as a real-time performance involving a professional crime drama crew and actors. An ‘exhibition’ scene from a presumed crime drama will be discussed and rehearsed transparently during the opening hours of Frieze London as part of the work. The project will draw links between the role of evidence in a televised crime scene set and real artwork.

The work encourages audience participation and invites special ‘advisors’ and visitors to participate in discussions with the professional cast and crew. Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News about her project, Çavuşoğlu said this is a performance piece that would be performed during the fair with repeat performances held for three days. Çavuşoğlu wrote the scenario of this performance piece.