Zilberman Istanbul is delighted to announce the group exhibition titled Settling into the Abyss curated by Naz Kocadere. Bringing together works by Isaac Chong Wai, Sandra del Pilar, Memed Erdener, Erkan Özgen, YaÎam ÎaÎmazer, Neriman Polat, Cengiz Tekin, and Ðsmail Yılmaz, the show is open to visit at the main exhibition space of Zilberman Istanbul at the Mısır Apartment between May 13 - July 1, 2022.
Contrary to common opinion, is the devil not in the details, but in sight, and does it rest closer to us than we think? Having written “Sympathy for the Devil” with Keith Richards, Mick Jagger sings in first person as satan, documenting historic events that could be seen as the devil’s works. The song was intended to present an analysis of the dark side of humanity, one which allows itself to be too easily swallowed up by the banality of evil. If we understand the devilish mechanisms within ourselves we can deal with it. The exhibi- tion Settling into the Abyss, which examines people’s tendency to violence and darkness through the relationship with the individual, society and nature, takes its name from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (1886), referred to by the artist Memed Erdener. In Nietzsche’s words, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process they do not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” In this context, “gazing into the abyss” refers to the fact that contemplating something foreign to one’s self may bear dark consequences for the self.
The exhibition deepens around the notions of representation, identity, grief, justice, solidarity, rebellion and psychological dilemma. Following the readings on the psyche, Carl Jung is among the scholars who enrich the framework of the exhibition. The “shadow” is a concept first coined by Jung, describing the unknown aspects of the personality that one chooses to reject and repress. The shadow archetype corresponds to the unearthing of shady parts within one’s unconscious mind and the process of acceptance of traumas in pursuit of an inner peace. YaÎam ÎaÎmazer’s sculpture dwells on such investigation within the human psyche through a matriarchal approach. She portrays a figure that dares to confront the darkness within her soul and what’s more, finds peace after all.
From another perspective, Sandra del Pilar presents a staggering and realistic portrayal of an ensemble of intertwined individuals. She depicts a critique of the societal norms of stigmatization through usage of transparent layers of color and fabric. Jacqueline Rose expounds the personal and the political juncture in her feminist research practice. Rose argues that when determining where violence derives from, a faulty division between the inner (personal) and the outer (societal) margins is made which are quite the con- trary, actually inextricable. Through her studies on violence, gender and psychoanalysis, Rose stands against a dual unbundling that positions two separate sides such as the victim and the attacker. An example of such inseparability could be seen in Erkan Özgen’s video art accompanied with a photo installation. Özgen points out to the malfunctioning of imposed communal history-making and its rootless reciprocity in the individual. He displays how the actuality reveals the irony of nationalism and its dangerous enforcements to praising violence.
In other respects, in her book titled The Force of Nonviolence Judith Butler explains how power structures falsify the vocabulary concerning violence and the resistance towards it. Butler’s words that claim “nonviolence as an ongoing struggle, not an absolute principle” echo in Memed Erdener’s nonuple painting. Memed proves that the fact that political opposition and criticism-oriented efforts are frequently labeled as “violence” by the state authorities, which are seen as a threat, shall not cause one to abandon hope from language. In a similar vein, Neriman Polat monumentalizes a requiem built to commemorate the lost lives due to the violence against women. In his fictive-photographs, Cengiz Tekin stages the subtle yet violent representation of the identity that is tightly sur- rounded by the geography, the history and it’s politics. Tekin’s questioning of one’s stance to another’s pain is in dialogue with Isaac Chong Wai’s installation. Chong Wai puts forward the frozen traces of violence and unveils the prominence of one’s choice to remain indifferent or not towards past sufferings. Lastly, Ðsmail Yılmaz documents an individual’s inner exploration through nature, bold and prepared to confront whatever beast he might come across in the way. After all, perhaps one shall not solely gaze into an abyss but rather go right into it to confront and make peace with it.
Curated by Naz Kocadere
