CONTEMPORARY ARTIST
NEWS
Ali Alışır "In Motion"
12 July 2024 — 10 November 2024
Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art proudly presents a solo exhibition by the renowned Turkish artist Ali Alışır who creates virtual worlds reflecting real life issues
Throughout his oeuvre Ali Alışır has always been fascinated by vision, perception and cognition, both subjective and objective. Initially this orientation was manifested through his focus upon virtual worlds and some of these works will be shown throughout the exhibition at Erarta. Another later series will also be shown at the museum, which continues on with the exploration of cognition albeit from the perspective of capturing action (Hybird Souls Series). Here, the artist documents the singular movements of a woman in constant motion, seemingly dancing.
The works are unusual in their success at itemising the fluid movements of dance; managing to showcase a singular image of a dancer and her dress in flux. In addition to echoing a series of architectural structures which remind one of classic Romanesque style and sculpture, they also have a very modern aesthetic. The female body blends into the structure of her dress effortlessly, becoming a human sculpture hybrid. In fact, the photos present are the exact physical representation of how the brain perceives motion as a sequence of standstill images.
Alışır’s Virtual Places on the other hand, also to be shown at the exhibition, at first glance look like a digital collage of various thin slices of architectural fragments all superimposed upon one another, thus creating an image. Here, interiors and exteriors of churches and towers emerge in front of the viewer, typically monochrome in fashion. Segments of waterways, courtyards and building facades altogether give an illusion that the viewer is really glimpsing into a city from a different world. At closer inspection the fragments are in fact circuit boards, such as the ones you would find in a computer or other hardware. Hence the image is created by entwining these slices of motherboards, creating ‘virtual’ cities.
The concept of the virtual was always an interest to Alışır, as he created four distinct series: Virtual Bodies, Virtual Places, Virtual Wars and Virtual Landscapes between 2009 and 2015. He chose to concentrate on this concept due to his relentless pursuit in understanding the impact of technology on the structuring of society, especially in the context of accessing information. The rapid evolution of technology has ensured that images are disseminated instantly, globally and without context. Through these works Alışır wanted to show that as members of society we are saturated by these images and our visual language has lost its authenticity and reliability.
Ali Alışır 2009-2019 “Book Launch and Selection of Artworks”
24 September – 26 October 2019 Mongeri Building
Ali Alışır will be at the Bozlu Art Project Mongeri Building with a promotion of his book published by Bozlu Art Publications titled “Ali Alışır 2009-2019” written by Derya Yücel accompanied by a display of a selection of his artworks encompassing all periods of his career.
Treating Ali Alışır’s artistic practice in periods, the book reveals the visual-imaginative journey of his individual civilizational narrative by presenting to readers his 2009-2019 series Hybrid Souls (2017), Cosmos (2016), Virtual Landscapes (2014), Virtual Wars (2012), Virtual Places (2011), Virtual Bodies (2009), as a path leading from the body’s creation, to the body’s association with space/place, the body’s abandonment of this place and entry into war with other bodies, the body’s relinquishment of warfare and self-surrender to nature and landscapes, all the way to the body’s discovery of the cosmos by orienting itself from the world to the universe, and then from the universe to its own inner and spiritual existential search. The exhibition held in parallel to this book on Ali Alışır’s decade-long artistic journey allows art audiences to visually validate the book’s content.
This exhibit that shares with viewers what Alışır, who always includes historical foundations, an emulation of the past in his works without overlooking present-day circumstances, has accumulated over a decade shall be open to visitors at the Bozlu Art Project Mongeri Building from the 24th of September to 26th of October 2019.
Ali Alışır born in Istanbul in 1978, Ali Alışır started his graphic education in 1996 upon being awarded a success scholarship by the Faculty of Fine Arts of Yeditepe University. He studied his master degree in photography at Florence Accademia Italiana. He concentrated in digital editing during his master degree education. Through his exhibitions of "Virtual Bodies", "Virtual Spaces", "Virtual Wars" and "Virtual Landscapes" held between 2009-2015, Ali Alışır, has exhibited the desperation and helplessness, experienced by the individuals under the image bombardment, as well as the virtual and artificial worlds, created against such bombardment. In his exhibitions of "Cosmos" and "Hybrid Souls" held after 2016, Ali Alışır pays attention to the stress experienced by humans, who try to stand in balance despite of the complexity of the modern life and the corrosiveness of the time spent rapidly, in their inner world. The artist, who aims to emphasize the conflicts and mental state of the human in their inner world by means of body movements, examines the social problems in different disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, literature and cinema through the works he has produced by means of digital interventions, and he brings up such problems to the agenda, and also, he warns about an alternative “Space” with new image editing he has produced. Ali Alışır’s works are exhibited on many private and foreign collections including Istanbul Modern Art Museum, Presidential Palace of the Republic of Turkey and 94 embassies.
For further information: contact@bozluartproject.com
+ 90 212 232 7 232
