"Memory Chamber"
PILEVNELI Project | Mecidiyeköy
December 6, 2019 - January 26, 2020
PILEVNELI Project is pleased to present a new solo exhibition titled "Memory Chamber" by Ahmet Güneştekin, on view at PILEVNELI Mecidiyeköy between December 6, 2019 – January 26, 2020. Presenting works that investigate the notion of memory politics through Güneştekin’s imaginative and original uses of evocative objects, "Memory Chamber" will be the most comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist in recent years. Sponsored by Daax Corporation, the exhibition brings together works from diverse media offering new insights into his modes of arranging materials and fashioning his views through display practices.
"Memory Chamber" includes installations of objects that tend to evoke memories, ideas, thoughts and theories, as well as video works with intriguing features that allow us to question what is natural about language and thoughts. Also exhibited are the patchworks that manifest the process of collecting and assembling ephemeral but evocative fragments into a form that can be read as a narrative, a new body of polychrome, grotesque and surreal ceramics, mixed media works that integrate metal convex hemispheres into paintings sculpturally, and predominantly large-format oil paintings which disrupt the genre of traditional painting.
"Memory Chamber" focuses on the ways the artist toys with objects and asks the following questions: What are memories for? How do memories construct our past? What makes an object evocative? How do we use objects to think through and identify with concepts, or to embody memories? Who decides how to recall the past? How are memory politics formed?
The use of objects and space, the feelings they bring up and the memories they evoke differ according to personal experience, historical context, age and gender experiences. The same objects and spaces are used uniquely in different meanings, emotions and experiences by each individual. A confrontation of object and space beyond their mere meanings strongly encounters us with the installations. The exhibition fundamentally points out that an object might transform into a thought helping one to better understand the world in different times. When broadly evaluated, objects are stubborn reminders that confront people so that what’s collectively thought and lived through isn’t forgotten.
On the other hand, the artist approaches the relationship between language and ways of thinking. Language, spoken or written, is a central element of creation and design in artist’s works. Güneştekin uses the possibilities of moving images to communicate compressed messages in combination with language.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive book published by PILEVNELI Project.