Labor, the future and business life in focus of art works in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

As an artist Burak Delier likes to examine the relationship between capitalism and contemporary art. In his latest solo exhibition, which is at Pilot Gallery, he focuses this examination in a way that it intervenes into the system through his use of guerilla strategies and tactics derived from everyday life. Delier tries to open up a fresh space against the suppressing cultural practices and endeavors to position himself from a distance away from that of power structures. By doing so, he makes the audience question how they live in the capitalist world and with this world’s notions. The way Delier problematizes his expression in life and his art opens a new dimension in the perception of contemporary art.

The exhibition titled “Play your part and the script will follow” is comprised of video, sculpture and installations wherein current artistic practices and their relation to the economics are being discussed. While having an intersection of both domains in hand, the discussion aims at making escape strategies and all kinds of submission visible.

Artistic approach

The work in the exhibition reveals the perception Delier’s approach to his own artistic life. Delier’s work tells the audiences the way he does things is not easy. Delier, as an artist who loves challenges, never wants to make art work or the creation easier for him. As a result, the audience encounters an exhibition, which contains challenging art work concepts.

In order to discover Delier’s concepts and the meanings that he has dealt with in his art work, one has to know the artists’ approach to “labor,” “modern life,” “capitalism” and many more. With his work, he tries to reflect the relation between the artist and the market in sarcastic and ironic ways.

One of the videos in the exhibition, “Crisis and Control,” considers this relationship by using notions of careerism, the future and anxiety. On the other hand, he emphasizes the relationship between the individual and him/herself, his/her labor and his/her environment through the perception of the life-style that is imposed by neo-liberalism and flexible work conditions. The video reflects the brutality of the business world, while Delier likes to show us the banality of daily life for some working people. The video of Delier shows the audiences how competitiveness is being “performed” and deciphered by real professionals.

Real life yoga teachers

The video shows real life yoga teachers doing Yoga with their suits on. Delier asks them to do yoga exercises wearing their suits. By doing so, he emphasizes the prevalence of a crisis within which the boundaries between the organizational and the private conflict with each other inevitably through physical challenge. The video becomes a session in which neo-liberal economy lies on a couch and pours. It holds the privacy of a therapy room.

The works titled “The Deal” tells the story of a trader, who is trying to make money via equities. However, the money that he is working with is a loan that Pilot Gallery received from a bank. Delier asked the trader to make a profit on the loan above 18-months’ interest within 30 days. If the trader raises the money he takes all of it and if he cannot Delier takes the money. This is a way to show how Delier tries to express the relation between art work and the market. The art work and the money stay in the market and are offered to someone.