"Undetectable"
PILEVNELI Dolapdere
October 8 - November 22, 2020
PILEVNELI is pleased to present “Undetectable” - a new solo exhibition by Tayfun Serttaş between October 8 – November 22, 2020.
At least two people are required for one person to be free. In this context, freedom is neither an ideology nor a proposition. Individualization cannot be rewarded solely with freedom. The core of freedom is based on the asymmetry in social relations despite society itself.
Undetectable refers to a series of possibilities that are shaped by the reinterpretation of a phenomenon in microbiology in a social context. From the artist’s point of view, the period we spend between data, statistics, figures and polemics is the projection of the undetectability between the public strata. The virus plays a trick on the public order and the result has extensively deepened the ongoing crisis of social sciences that focus on the individual. While the pandemic brings along an obligatory individualization, it also brings together humanity with more common concerns than ever before. In today's world where the conceptual framework of public security, the freedom-authority balance and the state of emergency is being re- drawn, the cult of personality is faced with a new deconstruction.
The modern individual is a permanent idler, a universal stranger. It does not follow the recipes of common behavior. Therefore, no system embraces it and cannot completely represent it. Individuals who differ from other social strata with their unpredictable characteristics do not promise obedience to the system in which they are positioned in. In this context, the individual is uncanny by definition. Today's populist oppressive regimes that have no choice but to promise sanctioned tribes, are the forerunners of an unprece- dented soft oppression against individualization.
In oppressive regimes, artists go on an "indefinite vacation" period. They become ambiguous. Artists in Turkey never had the comfort of performing their practice and then retreating. They carried many invisible missions, in- cluding what art leads to, how to apply it, the subtleties of presentation and the responsibility of representation. In this context, there was the geogra- phy-specific fatigue of the artists, such as facing the problems caused / to be caused by production rather than production itself. Whereas, art could have approached its real meaning if all these procedures were overcome in- stitutionally... We still do not know exactly what our practice will mean to- morrow. What we know is that as a method of resistance, we must maintain all our positions regarding the existence of art and persist in the search for truth.
Covid-19 was not caused by LGBT+ individuals. It emerged in an exotic market in Wuhan, China, as a result of man's excessive interference with natural life. It is thought provoking that in the 21st century Turkey, such a universal acceptance is not detectable. This is so engrossing that the universal adoption is not detected. Undetectable is dedicated to Turkey’s LGBT+ community, which has been subjected to systematic hate campaigns over the past months.
The exhibition can be viewed at PILEVNELI Dolapdere.