Pdf ~ 3 MB - RAMPA Istanbul

Şair Nedim Caddesi No: 21a
Akaretler 34357 Beşiktaş
İstanbul / Turkey
T +90 212 327 08 00
F +90 212 327 08 01
[email protected]
www.rampaistanbul.com
G Ü L S Ü N
K A R A M U S T A F A
Double Reality 1987 / 2013 Fabric, iron, polyester, 192 x 170 x 171 cm (installation sizes)
Installation views from New Trends exhibition, Mimar Sinan Academy of Fine Arts, İstanbul, 1987 (above)
and A Promised Exhibition, SALT Beyoğlu, İstanbul, 2013 (bottom and right page)
Cover:
Mystic Transport 1992 20 metal baskets and satin quilts
Mystic Transport 1992 20 metal baskets and satin quilts
Installation views from the 3rd International İstanbul Biennial, İstanbul, 1992 (above)
and When Latitudes Become Forms, Walker Art Center, Minnesota, 2003 (bottom)
Neworientation 1995 Rope, ribbon, hangers, 400 cm (h.)
Installation view from the 4th International İstanbul Biennial, İstanbul, 1995
Courier 1991 Quilted clothes, personal possessions
Installation views from Courier exhibition, Galerie La Centrale, Montreal, 1994 (above, bottom right)
and A Promised Exhibition, SALT Beyoğlu, İstanbul, 2013 (bottom left)
Heimat Ist Wo Mann Isst 1994 3 Spoons, textile, 40 X 40 cm
Installation view from Iskele exhibition, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Stuttgart, 1994
G Ü L S Ü N
K A R A M U S T A F A
Gülsün Karamustafa, has made significant contributions to the development
of a new artistic language in Turkey since the 1980’s. She alluded to the
important role she would play in Turkish art with her small, naive and
modest paintings completed in the 1970’s. One of those earlier pieces, The
"Lacemaker" (1976), was a window into Karamustafa’s world. In the center
of the painting is a figure who has migrated to the big city; this figure, with
her objects and her home, lovingly decorated with lacework, represented
the ‘other’ within civilization, among and inside each of us. Karamustafa
has always been intrigued by the ‘other’. Her subjects have included
women, transsexuals; immigrants, and those who were forced to migrate; as
a way of perceiving those on the inside as well as those on the outside, the
observer and the observed. She also used her own image as an instrument
of pleasure and power. Material objects and the culture surrounding them
became central to her works, beginning with "The Lacemaker" to "Prayer
Rug with Elvis" (1986), and references to the fetish objects of a hybrid
culture in "Tigerella" (1983) and "The City and the Secret Panther Fashion"
(2007), in these Karamustafa documents objects of the new social fabric
of a cosmopolitan Istanbul, the melange spirit of the ancient city forced to
deal with migration, and the rapidly changing culture of Turkey.
The Lacemaker 1976 Mixed media on paper, 61.5 x 52 cm (left)
Flat of the Concierge 1976 Mixed media on paper, 70 x 62 cm (right)
At the root of her work one may recognize the influence of her teacher,
Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu of Istanbul Fine Arts Academy, the most established
art school in Turkey, who supported her in looking beyond the canvas, to the
material world around her. In any case Karamustafa was a ‘non-academic’
academic: an outsider who could not relate to traditional painting, abstract
art and the ideology of expressionism. Her interests lay in illustration,
narrative, popular culture, the city with its past and its present and as she
fed off of these sources, the pieces she created would not fit into what a
traditional description of painter was. At this point The Lacemaker comes
to mind: there is a photograph taken of Karamustafa as she sits among
the fabrics she was using to create the wall rugs that would bring a fresh
approach into the art world in the 1980’s. In this photograph she is just like
the woman sitting lost among her lacework. That image of Karamustafa is
an example of how artistic traditions and the definition of what an artist
is in Turkey was turned upside down. One cannot deny what a big role the
works of Gülsün Karamustafa have played in paving the way for other artists
to use new artistic materials and techniques, to questioning the borders
between art and craft, to carry gender specific handicrafts (knitting, sewing,
weaving...) into a cultural context, in making visible the new ‘taste’ formed
by urban hybridization and the acceptance of kitsch as a cultural indicator.
Gülsün Karamustafa, since the 1970’s, has been a leading visionary in mining
her own individuality and giving meaning and form to personal freedom in
art which has had a great impact on younger generations of Turkish artists.
Karamustafa seems to approach life and art with ceaseless curiosity which
may be why she has become one of the most interesting figures in Turkish
Contemporary Art.
Karamustafa feels at home with many modes of expression; painting,
assemblage, installation and video inviting viewers to experience a sense of
belonging instead of estrangement in the worlds she creates. Karamustafa’s
pieces are about identity, tradition, memory, cultural transitions and their
effects, but as we can see in "Courier" (1991), "Heimat ist Wo Mann isst" (Your
Homeland is not Where You are Born But Where You Have a Full Stomach)
(1994), and "The Settler" (2003), these concepts are not presented in order
to re-evaluate them, but rather to remember them and to understand the
experiences of ordinary people. Karamustafa attempts to stand on the
outside as she looks at the effects of cultural transformation; just as in
"Memory of a Square" (2005), she tries to express memory itself; for it to be
voiced and understood on the myriad of levels influenced by generations or
by gender. The societal view of gender is one of Karamustafa’s number one
topics; it is a subject that she studies on multiple levels. "Double Reality"
(1987), in which she looks at female and male identity and the social
process of gender identity, is one of the earliest queer works in Turkish
art; "Men Crying" (2001) is one of the few pieces in Turkey that looks at
masculinity and "Kültür / A Gender Project from Istanbul" (1996) takes its
place among a handful of works that deal with the difficult life conditions of
transvestites and transsexuals. The works that Karamustafa has produced
around the subject of female identity, from the very beginning, is very
diverse; from the deconstruction of the West’s orientalist fantasies to the
construction of the female identity in Ottoman times, during the forming
of the Republic and in modern day Turkey.
Ahu Antmen
Gülsün Karamustafa (Ankara, 1946) graduated from the Istanbul State Fine
Arts Academy in 1969.
Her solo exhibitions include "An Ordinary Love", Rampa, Istanbul (2014);
"A Promised Exhibition", SALT Ulus, Ankara (2014), SALT Beyoğlu, SALT
Galata, Istanbul (2013); "Mobile Stages"; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg
(2008); "Bosphorus 1954", Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (2008); "Memory of
a Square / 2000-2005 Video Works by Gülsün Karamustafa", Kunsthalle
Fridericianum, Kassel (2006); "Black and White Visions", Prometeo Gallery,
Milan (2006); "PUBLIC/ PRIVATE", Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg (2006);
"Memory of a Square", Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2006); "Men Crying
presented by Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris", Galerie Immanence,
Paris (2005); "Galata:Genoa (Scavere Finestrini)", Alberto Peola Gallery,
Torino (2004); "Mystic transport, Trellis of My Mind", Musée d’Art et
Histoire Geneva, (1999), among others.
She took part in many group exhibitions including the 31st Sao Paulo Biennial
(2014); the 3rd and 10th Gwangju Biennials (2000, 2014); "Art Histories",
Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2014); "Artevida Politica", Museu de Arte
Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (2014); the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale (2013);
the 1st Kiev Biennale (2012); Singapore Biennial (2011), the 3rd Guangzou
Triennial (2008); the 11th Cairo Biennial (2008); "The 1980s: A Topology",
Museu Serralves, Porto (2006); "Soleil Noir, Depression und Gesellschaft",
Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2006); "The Grand Promenade", National
Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST, Athens (2006); "Why Pictures Now",
MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stifung Ludwig, Vienna (2006); "Projekt
Migration", Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2005); "Centre of Gravity",
Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (2005); "Contour the 2nd Video Art Biennale",
Mechelen (2005); "Ethnic Marketing", Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva
(2004); the 1st Seville Biennial (2004); "In den Schluchten des Balkans,
Kunsthalle Fridericianum", Kassel (2003); "Blood & Honey", Sammlung
Essl, Vienna (2003); "When Latitudes Become Forms", Walker Art Center,
Minnesota (2003); the 8th Havana Biennial (2003); the 3rd Cetinje Biennial
(2003); and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th International Istanbul Biennials (1987,
1992, 1995).
Gülsün Karamustafa lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.
Design Concept: 12punto · Series editor: Başak Şenova
Booklet Design: fika · Editör: Üs tüngel İnanç
Memory Of A Square 2005 Two channel synchronized video, single channel audio, 00:17:07
An Ordinary Love 1984 Textile collage, 190 x 245 cm
The City And The Secret Panther Fashion 2007 Single channel video, audio, 00:13:07
Set photograph, Istanbul, 2007 (above),
Installation view from the project at Mobile Stages exhibition, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, 2008 (bottom)
Men Crying 2001 Three channel video, audio, 00:03:00 (channel I), 00:01:47 (channel II), 00:02:16 (channel III)
Guest director: Atıf Yılmaz
Installation view from A Promised Exhibition, SALT Galata, İstanbul, 2013
The Settler 2003 Two channel synchronized video, single channel audio, 00:05:11
Installation view from A Promised Exhibition, SALT Beyoğlu, İstanbul, 2013
Les Belles 1984 Mixed media on paper, 30 x 30 cm (each)
Promised Paintings 1998-2004 Oil on canvas, 48 x 48 cm (each, above), 53.5 x 73.5 cm (each, bottom)