It all started with two Turks conversing in Turklish a hybrid of Turkish and English, about their personal narratives on living on other terrains. Were they good Turks or bad Turks? What unconscious or conscious biases they were put under from political, religious and gender perspectives regardless of who they were individually on these new territories?
In their land, it was jokingly said in vernacular that “the place you are born is your destiny” carrying nuances of Arabesque which connected the artist curator duo even further. After a while, these talks funneled into Demirkoparan’s early years in the US when she adopted her new country at the age of 10. Has life for her been like the movie “Not Without My Daughter”? Has she watched “Lawrence of Arabia” and was she aware of the of the prison condition in Turkey? Puzzled by such questions from grownups, Demirkoparan found ease with her own age group where the most essential question was if pizza or hamburger was her favorite food.
Demirkoparan was compelling in following her own path into becoming the artist and the thinker she is today and channeled the lingering western gaze and the imposed interpretations of her identity into her artistic work. Eventually, she would expand herself beyond the retrieved western gaze and its’ narrated conclusions by cofounding MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture; an art and research space for critical discourse and exploration of the global contemporary from an eastward out vantage.
The exhibition Necessary Retrieve is a prelude connecting Ilknur Demirkoparan`s early works into her most recent works. As well as it involves new works that she created specifically for this exhibition. In her 2008 work titled “Sometimes Mr. Metzel, A Candy Is Just A Candy, Demirkoparan responds to German artist Olaf Metzel`s large sculpture of a nude woman titled Turkish Delight after it was exhibited in Kunsthalle Wien in 2007. The irregular cubic body of Demirkoparan`s version of a Turkish Delight purposefully rejects the attempt to provide an alternative representation of Turkish women. Are We There Yet? is a performance created by Demirkoparan in 2016 and exhibited as video and photo series. In her performance, after meticulous technical research, Demirkoparan transformed herself into a holographic AI entity named The Grand Turk, modeling Wolfgang Von Kempelen's Mechanical Turk, symbolizing colonial Europe's technological triumph. The series titled Hair Is A Woman`s Glory, 2018 takes a striking look into the contemporary attitudes and religious taboos communicated through the censorship of women’s hair, while paving the way to artists new minimalistic series titled I want to live forever. Combined with the newly commissioned works that will be exhibited for the first time, the exhibition Necessary Retrieve is a statement by Demirkoparan showcasing her artistic revolution in exposing the retrieved western gaze beyond patriarchy and colonialism.
Ilknur Demirkoparan is a Turkish-born American artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and digital media and she is the cofounder of the MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture.
Opening: 14 May 2024, 6 pm
Artist Talk: 14 May 2024, 6.30 pm
Guided Tour with Artist: 17 May 2024, 7.30 pm
Open House: 17 May, 6 - 9 pm / 18 May , 2 - 6 pm / 24 May, 6 - 9 pm / 25 May, 2 - 6 pm
All other dates by appointment only, please email elif.carrier@zhdk.ch
Curated by Elif Carrier
Elif Carrier is a researcher, curator, and consultant. She is a regular contributor to the Oncurating Journal and leads projects at Oncurating Project Space.
https://ilknur.studio/
https://postcollapse.art/
https://oncurating-space.org/ilknur-demirkoparan-necessary-retrieve/