Becoming
Olagelen
17 March - 21 April 2018
Artists: Ece Ak, Rita Puig Serra Costa, Orhan Cem Çetin, Sinem Dişli, Eda Emi̇rdağ, Cemil Batur Gökçeer, Ata Kam, Cansu Korkmaz, Toros Mutlu, Lara Ögel, Anı Ekin Özdemir, Bartu Kaan Özdişçi, Dani Pujalte, Sofie Puttfarken, Charlotte Schmitz, Yusuf Sevinçli, Anders Rye Skjoldjensen, Maria Sturm, Büşra Şengül, Serkan, Taycan, Gözde Mimiko Türkkan, Yağız Yeşilkaya, Cansu Yıldıran, Atahan Yılmaz
Curator: Cemre Yeşil Gönenli
“Becoming” is many things, but first of all it is about “being” and it is about “coming”. It is both about an arrival and a departure. It is strongly tied to past, present, and future. It is also about waiting, with or without knowing it. Becoming carries the weight of change which makes life both beautiful and painful. In return, we all carry the marks of change in our bodies and souls. It is a process of transformation which brings out many questions. Becoming is biological, chemical, evolutionary, psychological, physical, philosophical, social, political, personal, and interdisciplinary. The strange thing is that becoming is already out there in our lives even before they begin. We come to “be” before we become ourselves. There is another thing to consider in the relationship between consciousness and becoming. There must be a reason to why we do not remember about the time passed in our mother’s belly, or even the first 3-4 years of our lives. The great unknowns of becomings hide the real essence of life, and perhaps it is the constant becomings that keep us from becoming insane.
Becoming is magical and it is full of wonder. How does one come to be and what does it take to emerge; as a baby, a plant, an artist, a child, an adolescent, a gay, a couple, a fighter, or a mother? This exhibition does not attempt to answer all these questions, however the photographs that fill the rooms of Daire Sanat are definitely filled with the pleasure of “becoming.” The exhibition travels through various stages of change depending on the issues of age, gender roles, responsibility, love, sexuality, politics, culture, and nature.
All the works in this exhibition are strongly tied to the concept of growing; both the pleasure and the pain of it. The individual works stand alone while at the same time laying entwined in each other’s power in order to make each other grow into bigger meanings and to create more possibilities. This exhibition also tries to ease the pain of “becoming a photographer” by hosting both the very young photographers and some contemporary photographers who have produced remarkable works. Each room in the exhibition space embraces the challenges of visibility, and invisibility. This is a story of picturing “becoming”and of becoming “pictures.”
For the artist-curator Cemre Yeşil Gönenli this exhibition is a letter written for future. She seeks to create a space and a time to photographically meditate on the joy and the wonder of her own becomings. She tries to learn how to “take care” by curating this exhibition that invites us all to mediate with our own becomings.
