“WISE IMAGES” EXHIBITION AT MERKUR 

Curator: Beral Madra

KNOWLEDGE IMAGES ARE HALF CENTURY Since the accumulation of Postmodern and Relational aesthetic productions in Turkey includes comprehensive and sharp political, economic, social, cultural contents, analyzes, comments and criticisms, positive or negative, but in every way local and international political, economic, social and cultural should be evaluated in the context of developments. To date, in Turkey, apart from the museums established by the private sector, a network of public contemporary art centers and museums that will keep the memory alive and constantly inform the society has not been established. The possibility of seeing and evaluating this half-century of production together and side by side is weak. Generally, the retrospective exhibitions in the galleries and their publications are the most valuable evidence of this accumulation. 40 years of artists' production is waiting to emerge in the warehouses; or only the documents of these works remain. However, in the words of Theodor Adorno, “Memories are our only possessions that no one can take from us”. Designed and held for MERKUR in its new venue, this exhibition focuses on the important memory of the presence in Istanbul of this legendary city's contemporary visual art, which has developed since the 1980s. The new venue of the gallery is located in Piyalepaşa. Piyalepaşa is one of the historical trade and culture districts of Istanbul, but it lost this feature during the modernization process and later, during the post-modernization's aspirations to establish new living spaces. In the 16th century, Piyale Mehmed Pasha built a complex consisting of a mosque, madrasa, dervish lodge, school, tomb, bath and fountain, and the neighborhood was named after him. The new investment recreates a large neighborhood with residences, houses, hotels, streets, parks and cultural venues that complement the architectural texture of the past, and tries to give this neighborhood back its historical value. The exhibition, which was held with the participation of a group of valuable artists who formed the infrastructure of today's Relational Aesthetics productions in the 1980s and 1990s, takes its inspiration from the unity of the past-present, memory-current dichotomy, and aims to show the power of contemporary works of art with a sustainable character throughout historical and present time transformations. aims. The exhibition, which presents the retrospective and contemporary works of a group of artists who made effective developments in the contemporary art production of the 1980s and 1990s, also means the meeting of the artists who worked together in many exhibitions in the past. AHMET ÖKTEM, EMRE ZEYTINOĞLU, FATİH AYDOĞDU, GONCA SEZER, GÜVEN INCIRLIOĞLU, HAKAN GÜRSOYTRAK, HANDAN BÖRÜTECENE, MEHMET GÜLERYÜZ, MURAT MOROVA, MUSTAFA PANCAR, OSMAN DİNAZ, SERHATT KIRÜZMA