Salt art venue to host universal works

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A new collaborative project between SALT and Van Abbemuseum is set to evolve over the course of three exhibitions presented at both of Istanbul’s SALT venues throughout 2012.

The first exhibition, “İstanbul Eindhoven-SALTVanAbbe: Post ’89” opens Jan. 27 at SALT Beyoğlu and presents art works on loan from the Van Abbemuseum. In collaboration with the team at Van Abbemuseum, SALT has selected over 40 individual works by 15 international artists who have either never shown in Istanbul or have been rarely exhibited despite their fame.

In addition to believing that these particular works are of inspirational importance and should be seen first-hand, the selection also revolves around several key themes explored within artistic practices in pieces produced after 1989. These include “portraiture” with photographs by Rineke Dijkstra and an installation of paintings titled “Models” from Marlene Dumas; “literature and text” for which Allen Ruppersberg’s homage to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” takes center stage; “film” as referenced throughout the practices and works of Douglas Gordon and Rodney Graham among others; as well as “time and space,” which is conceptually explored most intimately by Stanley Brouwn.

Works by local artists that relate to these loose thematic sections are positioned to encourage visual and conceptual conversations between similar ideas and approaches. These include paintings by Leyla Gediz that afford an alternative appreciation for portraiture, Cevdet Erek’s studies of rhythm and measure, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt’s plays on translation and geographical positioning and İnci Eviner’s quirky, film-set-like panoramas that read along one horizon line. The exhibition extends to SALT Galata with the inclusion of three sculptural works that inhabit the building, two by the late Juan Munoz that can be found in the entrance stairwell and a third by Eviner located on the first floor. The first exhibition of the series will feature the artists Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Abdellatif Benfaidoul, Brouwn, Dijkstra, Dumas, Erek, Eviner, Gediz, Gordon, Graham, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt.