BITTER MEDICINE #02: :mentalKLINIK @ Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul, Turkey)
The exhibition reveals an urgent perspective on the precautions taken for the sake of protecting public health and is an infinite and unrepeated movement of a performative installation that streams onto the digital realm 24/7 from Borusan Contemporary.
BITTER MEDICINE #02
CURATOR: NECMİ SÖNMEZ
BORUSAN CONTEMPORARY
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020- JANUARY 31, 2021
LIVE STREAM, 7/24 @ BORUSANCONTEMPORARY.COM
A Bitter Medicine for the Pandemic Conditions at Borusan Contemporary
Borusan Contemporary will greet the new season with BITTER MEDICINE #02, presented by the artist duo :mentalKLINIK as a prescription for the art world pushed to make drastic changes under the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition reveals an urgent perspective on the precautions taken for the sake of protecting public health and is an infinite and unrepeated movement of a performative installation that streams onto the digital realm 24/7 from Borusan Contemporary.
Borusan Contemporary present BITTER MEDICINE #02 by the artist duo :mentalKLINIK (Yasemin Baydar, Birol Demir)—established in Istanbul in 1998 and who continue their work both in İstanbul and in Brussels, Belgium—, a prescription for the art world pushed to make drastic changes under the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The work will be launched on September 17, 2020.
The exhibition includes the site-specific installation Puff Out, installed in the main gallery space of the Haunted Mansion, and streamed live 24/7 through Borusan Contemporary’s website and social media channels. As the Haunted Mansion will be closed for visits for a while due to the public health precautions, this performative installation, which is transformed into a virtual, choreographic video narrative using moving camera systems, will be on view for art viewers around the world.
Live Streaming on Istiklal Avenue from the Borusan Music House.
The exhibition, highlighting the transformative impact of the pandemic on art as well as the emphasis Borusan Contemporary places on new forms of contemporary art, presents a new visual experience for the viewers. A new perspective on the relationship between space-artwork-viewer, which has changed under the current circumstances, is offered. Curated by Dr. Necmi Sönmez, BITTER MEDICINE #02 will also be broadcasted on the screen installed in the window of Borusan Music House on Istiklal Avenue, 24/7.
Infinite and Unrepeated motion
The installation Puff Out, which is made up of 8 robot vacuums and glitter, constitutes the exhibition, which will stream onto the digital platforms live from the Haunted Mansion, creating an infinite and unrepeated motion. The momentary and striking patterns created by the mission-oriented and autonomous motion of the robots on the colorful, shiny surface created by glitter, is going to be relayed online simultaneously through systems of live broadcasting, and the viewers will be able to follow the installation digitally.
This “micro-climate” that :mentalKLINIK created at the intersection of various art forms including drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, performance, and video art, is striking in its presentation of a novel look at that “sate of ambiguity” that we are confronted with today. The exhibition refers to the shifting rhythm of contemporary life, cracking open the door on a different “world” shaped by lights that emerge suddenly and quickly. This visual journey succeeds in drawing in the viewers to the midst of “hyperrealism”, abstracted from spatial elements and thus brings up the strongest tool of digital aesthetics, the sensibility of “new beauty”.
The exhibition will last until January 31
BITTER MEDICINE #02 is a productive, questioning, provocative gesture against the ambiguity created by today’s surveillance technologies, data-driven precarious lives, technology, and service-oriented subjectivities.
Designed as a series, the first version of the Bitter Medicine project was installed at the gallery space of Belgrade Contemporary Art Museum, which was closed due to public health concerns, and streamed live 24/7 on the museum’s website between May 5-June 30, 2020.
The exhibition will be streamed live 24/7 on the website and social media accounts of Borusan Contemporary between September 17, 2020, and January 31, 2021.
