https://melihaydemir.com Melih Aydemir Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:28:20 +0000 https://melihaydemir.com en https://melihaydemir.com/Home-Page Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:28:13 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/Home-Page https://melihaydemir.com/About Wed, 08 Feb 2023 21:40:36 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/About Melih Aydemir is an artist, curator, and art worker based in Istanbul, Turkey. His research mainly focuses on identity fluidity, decolonization, labour and internet- based communication between queer and SWANA communities. Aydemir's practice follows the framework of artist as curator practice and creates artistic interventions in the exhibition he curates. His medium is mainly text based and time-based. Aydemir worked with Protocinema between 2017 and 2020. Aydemir is a part&nbsp;of the Çanakkale based artist initiative sub and he has been working full time&nbsp;at Istanbul-based gallery SANATORIUM as the Head of Exhibitions since 2018. Aydemir’s recent curation include “Shape of Your Error’’ at 5533, “Artificial Bloom; Fluid Archives’’ at SANATORIUM and “from where to where” at Yeldeğirmeni Sanat Merkezi together with sub.Their writings have been published on art magazines such as Argonotlar, Art Unlimited and border_less. https://melihaydemir.com/A-Crack-We-Sprout-Through-Curatorial Thu, 07 Nov 2024 16:28:20 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/A-Crack-We-Sprout-Through-Curatorial <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31335ab874309abd483e9045c455a998fbe41c946f70d80c35aee4f0e316e59b/_DSC5005-2.jpg" data-mid="226339476" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31335ab874309abd483e9045c455a998fbe41c946f70d80c35aee4f0e316e59b/_DSC5005-2.jpg" />"A Crack We Sprout Through", a group show consisting of works by Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu, Ndaye Kouagou, and Elif Saydam, curated by Melih Aydemir. The exhibition will run between June 7 - July 27, 2024. it focuses on co-opting and appropriation mechanisms within oppressive structures, aiming to reclaim the true intentions behind hollowed-out terms that have come to define practices of struggle. The title "A Crack We Sprout Through" directly references "They tried to bury us, they didn't know we were seeds"; a widely used phrase in various protests and demonstrations across the globe, originating from a poem by Dinos Christianopoulos. This exhibition gathers attempts to cut through Western-defined values that are aggressively disseminated, disregarding and sidelining othered solidarity practices. it challenges concepts of visibility and coming out, which have become solid descriptions of the path to liberation. "A Crack We Sprout Through" features several disruptive sub­headings that encompass artists' works focusing on concepts like identity politics, safe spaces, reappropriation, and camp. With a public programming took place in June 2024 (Pride month in Turkey), these concepts was challenged with localized perspectives. <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0dc150eb0019f6219abaa3c521e0ad25b3da7a4e8d34ab0ec24aa078b885565/_DSC5182.jpg" data-mid="226339573" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a0dc150eb0019f6219abaa3c521e0ad25b3da7a4e8d34ab0ec24aa078b885565/_DSC5182.jpg" /> <img width="1365" height="2048" width_o="1365" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6decc906e2f1419f7039a83ea3723f370ec2b2645a8fe23fbf9374267bd7c675/_DSC5119-1_1.jpg" data-mid="226339571" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6decc906e2f1419f7039a83ea3723f370ec2b2645a8fe23fbf9374267bd7c675/_DSC5119-1_1.jpg" />An attempt to start a conversation: Do you feel safe? Comfort comes with its structured shape; it represents a world of norms, a world aligned with normative values. A comfort zone remains a relentless aspiration for many of us, dwelling in a world sculptured by values that seamlessly accommodate certain groups. Sara Ahmed argues that normativity is comfortable for those who can inhabit it and mentions how comfort is experienced not merely as emotional, but as the social-spatial fit between body and object.[1] Thinking about the spatial aspect of this notion, entering this gallery is not a comforting experience for a lot of visitors - it is square, white, and feels cold. I’ve seen comments from visitors describing it as similar to a hospital; probably, the connotations of the word “sanatorium” also contribute to this sentiment. Yet, when I contemplate a sanitized environment, it revokes notions of comfort tailored for the masses. Comfort arrives effortlessly, enabling us to immerse ourselves in a space devoid of external thoughts and distractions. A gallery space stretches beyond its physical limits, with its conceptual dimension often regarded as challenging and somewhat inaccessible.&nbsp; What does it mean to bring a corner of comfort into a gallery space? Through his installation, Ndayé Kouagou challenges the concept of comfort and directs us to question the notion of safe spaces and their possibility. The corner wall installation, printed on aluminum with a slight reflection, asks: ‘‘Where can I feel comfortable in this changing world?’’. This changing world raises the issue of an increasingly hostile environment that many of us are forced to navigate, some of us more drastically impacted than others. An accompanying video titled ‘‘Will you feel comfortable in my corner?’’, provokes a conversation that lingers with unease and ambiguity about the source of our discomfort. Comfort and corners – concepts seemingly at odds –&nbsp; highlight spaces of otherness and are useless in the spatial sense. Kouagou stands at the crossroads of discomfort and comfort, challenging the universality of these notions. The phrase "Sorry for putting you in this situation," atop the aluminum installation, underscores the difficulty of achieving comfort in every encounter. The accompanying video adopts a generous tone about sharing one’s comfort with others, thus highlighting the inherent discomfort. This discomfort is recognized by those who sense the absence of safety and understand when certain spaces do not guarantee their protection. The question of safety in a given space raises issues about who provides it and how it is ensured. In light of the overuse of the term ‘‘safe space’’, we must question its definition in our current socio-political climate. Does it simply refer to a list of rules protecting ‘vulnerable’ groups? How do we liberate ourselves when manufactured safety reduces individual resilience to vulnerability, or when celebrated resilience becomes a confining label that traps individuals in their circumstances? Initially presented as an exhibition featuring performances and workshops, this installation is rooted in provoking questions about comfort. Kouagou aimed to tackle the concept of otherness through the conversations that emerged within these encounters. The video standing in for the artist’s physical presence, features an indefinable voice that speaks directly to the visitor. The discomfort evoked by this dialogue urges viewers to confront their own experiences of comfort and discomfort. This confrontation compels us to question the very essence of these states, reflecting on our personal notions of comfort and the societal norms that shape them. 1- Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2004 <img width="2048" height="1365" width_o="2048" height_o="1365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca5b7361f9c4a46637687cd14d908ed3ccc0359bfbf3a791083ed2d35bb3cb84/_DSC5185_1.jpg" data-mid="226339581" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ca5b7361f9c4a46637687cd14d908ed3ccc0359bfbf3a791083ed2d35bb3cb84/_DSC5185_1.jpg" /> <img width="1365" height="2048" width_o="1365" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ad6f2024362f7d33589fae7b7660bdc81ef3650612366cc37b71577934e03a80/_DSC5009-1_1.jpg" data-mid="226339603" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ad6f2024362f7d33589fae7b7660bdc81ef3650612366cc37b71577934e03a80/_DSC5009-1_1.jpg" />Diasporas and Reappropriating the Camp of the ‘Orient’ A question of self orientalism of the queer Hospitality exists within a framework that also welcomes hostility. What we are hospitable to is drawn with existential and visible boundaries. Within the diasporic context, the notions of heritage and hospitality pose a complex conundrum, intertwined with the specter of nationalism. While heritage seems distant from cultural identity, diaspora operates as an enigmatic satellite orbiting an 'authentic' cultural nucleus, ensconced within rigid norms and codes. The discussion of authenticity comes with its dangerous potential: Is using oriental values an idealization of the terms they came to represent? The outsider or insider perspective of the diasporic experience is questioned in terms of how it can claim values or struggles without having the same experience. Diasporic positions face hostility from both sides: ‘host’ versus ‘home’ countries. A queer person with a diasporic experience develops a self-surveillance method influenced by both the host country's gaze and the internalized phobias derived from culturally inherited codes. Questioning assigned gender and cultural identities can be seen as an attempt to block this gaze toward the self and challenge the authenticity of these notions. Elif Saydam’s self-orientalism comes into play here; appropriation allows them to resurface queer possibilities within disregarded values. They focus on ornaments by working both with and against traditions. The curtain dividing the gallery space showcases Saydam’s witty understanding of these motives not only visually, but also through the use of literature that would now be considered camp. The curtain welcomes visitors with words from Rumi, ‘‘Come, come, whoever you are’’ mixed with a playful recreation of the same quote: ‘‘Leave, leave, whoever you are’’ depicting the questionable authenticity of hospitality within both the cultural milieu and physical space. It also addresses the coexistence of hostility and hospitality concerning the discomfort faced by queer individuals. These words are placed on a photograph showcasing a messy table, with tulips and a few items almost documenting the current stream of struggles we face on a daily basis. Appropriation as a tool to reemerge buried approaches within the self appears in different ways in Saydam’s works. The use of security mirrors in their current works emphasizes the growing surveillance practices. Inspired by the similar convex mirrors in Spätis across Berlin, the work in the exhibition points out the internalized surveillance practices we inherit either through our cultural codes or due to the prevalence of oppressive states’ use of it. Run mostly by immigrants from Turkey, these nighttime shops offer a shortcut away from the West’s organized hostility and manufactured safety. The convex mirror in these shops stands almost as a decoration in the corner, sometimes surrounded by several stickers. Saydam uses a similar mirror and adorns it with delicate latticework, reminiscent of a pattern that might be traced back to Moorish architecture, considering the cross-cultural share of motives and how they remain although the context of how they are used is changed. The functionality of the mirror is corrupted through this action; the reflection of the self is meshed with an oriental pattern. Saydam uses decorative aesthetics as a destructive tool, focusing on its transgression potential to disrupt the ideologies ingrained in our perception of value. The Global North's assessment of aesthetics often serves as a reminder of its inherent hostility towards immigrant communities, reflecting deep-seated issues of racism and assimilation policies, which manifest in the erasure or misrepresentation of certain aesthetics. These motives are also called feminine, which is used as a degrading term to point out the queerness they encapsulate. Not only within diasporas but also through our internalized disapproval of these aesthetics, Saydam is motivated to reappropriate them by rejecting any notion of authenticity. Surveillance has long been hostile to POCs, queer, and trans identities, seeking to control deviation with its racialized binary optics. Residing in Berlin, Saydam’s use of security mirrors also reminds us of the current German politics and the state’s use of surveillance tools, especially when it comes to the Palestinian struggle. In Germany, art workers find themselves under a scrutinizing gaze of control, as institutions spy on the signatures in solidarity campaigns with Palestine to hinder signees’ access to European funds. The racialized and ethnicized lens of this scrutiny becomes increasingly apparent with the state’s censorship attempts. The West demands a conditional understanding of solidarity, effectively trying to erase the interconnection of radicalized groups. Saydam presents a reflection at the intersection of all these events; their reappropriation method scratches the surface of norms to uncover cracks for collective germination. <img width="2250" height="1500" width_o="2250" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/84e8590837dec927b99bda3902939c8a3fbeefede68ed5d4ec3c2da3b4f595ce/_DSC5055_small.jpg" data-mid="226339991" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/84e8590837dec927b99bda3902939c8a3fbeefede68ed5d4ec3c2da3b4f595ce/_DSC5055_small.jpg" /> <img width="1428" height="2048" width_o="1428" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1624bf7cdf16c3c7985efd3bd24e299a1cac5c2221a994023b4e1403ba617ab0/_DSC5157_1.jpg" data-mid="226339997" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1624bf7cdf16c3c7985efd3bd24e299a1cac5c2221a994023b4e1403ba617ab0/_DSC5157_1.jpg" />Restructuring the Identity Politics and Mourning The cemetery for the Kimsesiz [Those Who Have No One] within the Cemetery of Kilyos, Istanbul, stands as a testament to the forgotten aspects of mourning and the exposure of marginalization in life that becomes crystallized after death. This cemetery cradles the unclaimed and nameless dead: the homeless, the victims of honor crimes and femicides, the disowned, premature babies, unaccompanied refugees, queer and especially trans people, and Kurdish political detainees who vanished due to state violence. Here, they bury people whose bodies are left unclaimed, not returned to their kin by the state, or unable to be repatriated due to war or intersecting difficulties. Each grave, marked only by a number, starkly symbolizes the politics of abandonment by the state and society. The state's role here acts like a necropolitical force, depending on the relationship between the deceased and their family, community, or political status or class. [1] The cemetery workers call this place Havuz [the Pool], a place where all the differences, singularities, and lives are erased, and bodies are laid to ‘‘sleep”, sometimes even two bodies are buried on top of each other in a single grave with a concrete partition between them. Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu's film Havuz [the Pool] conveys structures that erase lives and all distinctions, and the homages made with stones and flowers by possible loved ones or volunteers as the concrete borders between the graves blur. In the case of trans deaths, even when the community wants to claim their friend's body, permission is denied by the biological family, resulting in the body being buried in this cemetery. Accompanying two-channel video installation an impossible ritual focuses on the agonizing impossibility of completing a mourning ritual in this cemetery, where those at rest are reduced to numbers. The graves only mark that the person has passed through this world, their differences stripped away - identities forgotten. This is a forsaken area at the top of the Kilyos cemetery, nestled among greenery, trees, and birds, surrounded by family plots. Leman, along with their comrades Kübra Uzun and Onur Tayranoğlu, and the entire production team, visits this forsaken place, bearing witness to the existence of the departed and the dehumanizing practices inflicted upon them with the intention to carry an impossible ritual to grieve. This work becomes a vessel, unveiling the pervasive erasure practices that haunt the lives and deaths of marginalized groups. Leman’s installation confronts the crude impossibility of honoring those buried under the shadow of political erasure, highlighting how death itself becomes a tool wielded by those in power. Following their ongoing research on necropolitics and the enforced attachment of marginalized communities to this grim reality, Leman presents a reimagined inclusive rainbow flag. “No more colors” critically examines the positioning of current queer politics defined by Western standards, and exposes how ‘queer safety’ has been co-opted into a tool for state manipulation. Leman questions the rainbow flag, a global symbol appropriated by hegemonic power, revealing how it functions as a polarizing object. This boundary object plays a central role in defining the construction of Europeanness coded as progressive and differentiates it from the others. [2] While the flag’s colors, rooted in the universal acceptance of love in all forms, are intended to symbolize unity, they have been weaponized to justify destruction and polarize society. Leman replaces the flag’s vibrant hues with soil, urging us to remember its historical necropolitics and to reconsider its contemporary interpretation. The connection between death and queerness, particularly for trans lives, is a direct consequence of a necropolitical order that views these lives as disposable as a strategy of social subjugation and institutional maintenance. [3] This disposability aims to reinforce social binaries and heteronormativity by punishing deviations through exclusion and violence. When death is wielded as a tool of power to erase, mourning becomes an impossible duty. The perpetual flow of images of pain and death are stripped of their realities, transforming into ignorable cruelties for some and causing numbing distress for others. The destruction and genocides from Gaza to Sudan, spanning across the globe, compel us to question our passive observation and to recognize that witnessing must become an act of participation in opposing the perpetrators. No more colors emerged as a reaction after months of confronting geopolitical “casualties” and harsh news from marginalized communities in Turkey - suicides, and deaths due to healthcare inaccessibility, a direct result of abandonment politics. Leman’s film Havuz [the Pool] stands as a reminder of systemic violence that continues to marginalize even in death and seeks to create possibilities of resistance through the act of memorialization. 1- Aslı Zengin, The Cemetery for the Kimsesiz Unclaimed and Anonymous Death in Turkey, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 42(1): 163-181, 2022 2 - Pia Laskar, Anna Johansson, Diana Mulinari, Decolonising the Rainbow Flag, 2017 3 - Queer Necropolitics, edited by Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, Silvia Posocco, 2019 https://melihaydemir.com/Shape-of-Your-Error Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:15:30 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/Shape-of-Your-Error <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6febbf9414fb0f559727137a190a5c2ad30ed88abaa1ee757ba4d0a64d03ea97/DSC_2980_small.jpg" data-mid="167765166" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6febbf9414fb0f559727137a190a5c2ad30ed88abaa1ee757ba4d0a64d03ea97/DSC_2980_small.jpg" /> All photos courtesy of Zeynep Fırat Shape of Your Error is an exhibition curated by Melih Aydemir took place in 5533, Istanbul featuring works from Hiba Ali, freakygreenfish, Ryan Josey, SaraNoa Mark and Aleksiy Taruts. Taking its title from Audre Lorde’s poem, ‘‘Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap’’, the exhibition establishes a connection between the invisible labor of workers in the field of art, and the physically visible but unpaid labor of artists. The impact of immaterial labor’s working conditions on the workers is depicted by the following lines in the poem: and the fault in a mirror slaps back becoming what you think is the shape of your error. <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b17d11a15e81ce852a2b656a6821e45f3844a513911c53cf0d9778e0431e3cc3/DSC_3161_small.jpg" data-mid="167765858" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b17d11a15e81ce852a2b656a6821e45f3844a513911c53cf0d9778e0431e3cc3/DSC_3161_small.jpg" /> The curatorial statement of the exhibition printed on a semi-transparent curtain that surrounds the space, refers to the mental mobility of immaterial labor and its invisibility. This installation created by Melih Aydemir showcases the blurring boundaries between work and leisure, and how the immaterial workers find themselves in a constant state of flexibility and fluidity due to the extreme necessity of communication during and outside working hours. Behind the curtain, the works of the artists -who are one of the factors that ensure the existence of the art worker in the cultural industry- reflecting on different types of labor and artists’ relationship with labor itself are presented. <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b804d1e0a56de81eccd7d510b8607d39b3e8dcd1601a2ab57f51a9a16befb63/DSC_2828_small.jpg" data-mid="167766039" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b804d1e0a56de81eccd7d510b8607d39b3e8dcd1601a2ab57f51a9a16befb63/DSC_2828_small.jpg" /> Melih Aydemir, Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap, 2023, Digital print on tulle, metal 250 x 460 cm freakygreenfish (he/him), creates a scenery where his own body turns into a painting through his performances using wooden frames and canvas fabric which are traditionally considered as the main materials of visual arts. freakygreenfish discusses the state of being an artist with a humorous performative approach in his TikTok and Instagram videos, and says that he gives up his life for art by transforming himself into a painting.<img width="1500" height="2247" width_o="1500" height_o="2247" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5df48533d10b649cc26978cd8b6b0bf75a4d11a34772a3dddc09e6c74153c2cc/DSC_3056_1_small.jpg" data-mid="167766074" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5df48533d10b649cc26978cd8b6b0bf75a4d11a34772a3dddc09e6c74153c2cc/DSC_3056_1_small.jpg" />freakygreenfish,&nbsp;Reels from freakygreenfish’s Insta,&nbsp;2023,&nbsp;Color Video,&nbsp;04:05 SaraNoa Mark (they/them) and Ryan Josey (he/him), who have been displaced between different forms of labor in order to sustain their creative production, examine the diversity of work they have done to access economic capital and how it’s being reflected in their artistic practices. <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/08194337a60491e03ca9d8701888228c94a112c5d1fcf7a3223fa68a08ce349c/DSC_2999_small.jpg" data-mid="167767523" border="0" data-scale="97" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/08194337a60491e03ca9d8701888228c94a112c5d1fcf7a3223fa68a08ce349c/DSC_2999_small.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="1000" width_o="1500" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a41b8f8a892ec89deaf2e76ffda987417a6fc54642f35dd060d46813fb5b869c/DSC_3108_1_small.jpg" data-mid="167766491" border="0" data-scale="97" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a41b8f8a892ec89deaf2e76ffda987417a6fc54642f35dd060d46813fb5b869c/DSC_3108_1_small.jpg" /> SaraNoa Mark,&nbsp;Guarding Invisibility,&nbsp;2019-ongoing,&nbsp;Museum armatures,&nbsp;Variable sizes In their work for the exhibition, SaraNoa Mark revisits the days they used to work as a minimum wage security guard at the Oriental Institute between 2016 and 2019. The artist became a security guard at an institute that collects artifacts from miles away from its origin location in order to get access to economic capital. During their employment there, Mark established a closeness to those artifacts that will contribute to their artistic practice,&nbsp; and also gathered some leftover fabrics and hangers from the museum to compensate for their underpayment. ''Guarding Invisibility'' is an installation created with the discarded museum displays materials: linen used to line the exhibition cases and museum armatures designed to hold ancient artifacts. The museum display materials are constructed to camouflage, disguising their presence. Mark combines surveillance footage collected during their time as a security guard with the museum's waste fabrics. Mark makes visible the invisible to reveal the unseen labor propelling museum institutions. <img width="1335" height="2000" width_o="1335" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/45ea3cea413cf3b3e71c0624189ce0f2d7b631b0feb20f0afa20d9f599fd2af4/saranoamark_small.jpg" data-mid="167783831" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/45ea3cea413cf3b3e71c0624189ce0f2d7b631b0feb20f0afa20d9f599fd2af4/saranoamark_small.jpg" /> SaraNoa Mark, Guarding Invisibility, 2019-ongoing,&nbsp;Museum armatures,&nbsp;Variable sizes&nbsp; <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ed48f2bd6901af8fddda9d21e966d24a68b58f641501fa4be112cf2f9b335cb/DSC_3124_1_1_small.jpg" data-mid="167767887" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ed48f2bd6901af8fddda9d21e966d24a68b58f641501fa4be112cf2f9b335cb/DSC_3124_1_1_small.jpg" /> SaraNoa Mark, Sleeping with artifacts,&nbsp;2023,&nbsp;Museum display linen repurposed from the oriental institute, security footage, metal,&nbsp;Variable sizes Ryan Josey reconstructs an installation from his bedroom where a wooden crate he uses to store his unexhibited works doubles as a stand, holding the laptop he uses to perform online sex work. A box designed to protect the artworks while storing and transporting, hides the artistic labor and becomes a pedestal for another form of labor. His collages will be published on the OnlyFans/JustForFans page created for this project. <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5db4a5405bfc1bc7e12d391409fd197d11dce8155d005de3af9044c0c2f51c6e/DSC_3016_small.jpg" data-mid="167768238" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5db4a5405bfc1bc7e12d391409fd197d11dce8155d005de3af9044c0c2f51c6e/DSC_3016_small.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="2247" width_o="1500" height_o="2247" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e07567df82ccdab04836a6fa94897489433d126f823742ab00825b5f69b4086d/DSC_3031_small.jpg" data-mid="167768274" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e07567df82ccdab04836a6fa94897489433d126f823742ab00825b5f69b4086d/DSC_3031_small.jpg" /> Ryan Josey, The heart/mind as a small, well-managed fire,&nbsp;2022-ongoing,&nbsp;Crate, Macbook, 50 x 30 cm digital print Aleksiy Taruts (he/him) focuses on the intersection of material and immaterial/creative production, and the point where the repetitive cycle of production becomes an artwork. A hat designed by Balenciaga, a brand that appropriates creative production of street culture and reintroduces it to socio-economically privileged groups, returns to the street with its imitation produced by unknown labor and finally becomes an art object through Taruts' intervention. <img width="1498" height="1000" width_o="1498" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f0c4d9b08679260b0d98c1f48da85b6cae2129f1cc9d19320811526efe899a8/DSC_2900_small.jpg" data-mid="167769445" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3f0c4d9b08679260b0d98c1f48da85b6cae2129f1cc9d19320811526efe899a8/DSC_2900_small.jpg" /><img width="1500" height="2250" width_o="1500" height_o="2250" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/92d484995172bcf4f65599d8c8257e288f6e490fc51b59cbc09e6b1bd0cb2a7d/DSC_3048_1_small.jpg" data-mid="167769505" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/92d484995172bcf4f65599d8c8257e288f6e490fc51b59cbc09e6b1bd0cb2a7d/DSC_3048_1_small.jpg" /> Aleksiy Taruts,&nbsp;6AMBAS 6ERGAIM 6AIRAKTAR,&nbsp;2022,&nbsp;“Fake balenciaga multi-language logo hat customized for pineal gland opening, dm to buy (@aleksiy_taruts), 295 € + shipping, money will be donated” Hiba Ali (they/them) continues their research on surveillance practices at Amazon and the labor of women of color working there in a 360-degree virtual environment where they focus on predatory labor practices in Amazon's storage facilities. The artist virtually performs as an amazon worker and repeats slogans about the precarity of the workers. They use the creative possibilities of art in this hybrid space to imagine a world without Amazon, and a reality where all workers are liberated. To reach Hiba Ali’s reading list on Amazon’s worker rights violations and surveillance practices:&nbsp; https://hibaali.info/projects/amazonification-reading-list <img width="1498" height="1000" width_o="1498" height_o="1000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c76c4ee29048f26a7d37af46a9d49bfce30562537ff087f4f679b7d18e153eef/DSC_2857_small.jpg" data-mid="167770059" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c76c4ee29048f26a7d37af46a9d49bfce30562537ff087f4f679b7d18e153eef/DSC_2857_small.jpg" /><img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/15939d6b6e4ab38b27a1679f9ba05cabc8def964cddc4feaa5ab27741cbb86d3/DSC_3024_small.jpg" data-mid="167770223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/15939d6b6e4ab38b27a1679f9ba05cabc8def964cddc4feaa5ab27741cbb86d3/DSC_3024_small.jpg" /> Hiba Ali,&nbsp;Workers liberation as environmental justice,&nbsp;2020,&nbsp;360 video,&nbsp;02:59 https://melihaydemir.com/Good-Mirror-Are-Not-Cheap Wed, 08 Feb 2023 22:08:15 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/Good-Mirror-Are-Not-Cheap <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd6e20dc943d782fd9335fd339388a51ce182e1a1d8ee39c4f2bcaeb32a27b93/DSC_2833_small.jpg" data-mid="167779555" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd6e20dc943d782fd9335fd339388a51ce182e1a1d8ee39c4f2bcaeb32a27b93/DSC_2833_small.jpg" /> Melih Aydemir,&nbsp;Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap,&nbsp;2023,&nbsp;Digital print on tulle, metal,&nbsp;250 x 460 cm (All photos courtesy of Zeynep Fırat)&nbsp; <img width="786" height="1070" width_o="786" height_o="1070" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5b3a612355aae931342344a6ce61b106aebc14ad2cfb01438d4630d3854f4307/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.24.58.png" data-mid="167780890" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/786/i/5b3a612355aae931342344a6ce61b106aebc14ad2cfb01438d4630d3854f4307/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.24.58.png" /> <img width="752" height="1140" width_o="752" height_o="1140" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77e957c8408b227789ebd9748351dda3f44f18764b4869b84d48abe4fcaa1bc4/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.19.37.png" data-mid="167780923" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/752/i/77e957c8408b227789ebd9748351dda3f44f18764b4869b84d48abe4fcaa1bc4/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.19.37.png" /> <img width="768" height="1196" width_o="768" height_o="1196" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9560adac94e099d011d9f5c18b97f4d69dd4a2ba21879807b4f7d3414501cafc/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.19.27.png" data-mid="167780924" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/768/i/9560adac94e099d011d9f5c18b97f4d69dd4a2ba21879807b4f7d3414501cafc/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.19.27.png" /> <img width="782" height="1140" width_o="782" height_o="1140" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b394cf1fb69b2ecf18b6b04642ca079f51bd78c87fe99aa19e977546036c0eb/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.25.08.png" data-mid="167780925" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/782/i/6b394cf1fb69b2ecf18b6b04642ca079f51bd78c87fe99aa19e977546036c0eb/Screen-Shot-2023-01-15-at-19.25.08.png" /> Melih Aydemir's Good Mirrors Are Not Cheap printed o&nbsp;a semi-transparent curtain surrounds the exhibition space, referring to the mental mobility of immaterial labor and its invisibility. This installation showcases the blurring boundaries between work and leisure, and how the immaterial workers find themselves in a constant state of flexibility and fluidity due to the extreme necessity of communication during and outside working hours. <img width="1500" height="2247" width_o="1500" height_o="2247" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33b6dd9ca0a15cc560d3eac784b6c1a46017da49864273cfc149a510e67c5eac/DSC_3122_small.jpg" data-mid="167779522" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33b6dd9ca0a15cc560d3eac784b6c1a46017da49864273cfc149a510e67c5eac/DSC_3122_small.jpg" /> <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5508074c366b065035e0ec23a5a197d50301b48eaa4883824ae97ed8d85ba1ae/DSC_2828_small.jpg" data-mid="167779559" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5508074c366b065035e0ec23a5a197d50301b48eaa4883824ae97ed8d85ba1ae/DSC_2828_small.jpg" /> <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f33d9b0dfe869fb615a02d87f2370bdcb70cbb94bd9333cedaf1951c4fb90a71/DSC_2964_small.jpg" data-mid="167779532" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f33d9b0dfe869fb615a02d87f2370bdcb70cbb94bd9333cedaf1951c4fb90a71/DSC_2964_small.jpg" /> <img width="1500" height="2285" width_o="1500" height_o="2285" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca522cd6a6858e1d1a57094123b7097ea4ebf1b1223031a2f7ae2be343f99e0e/DSC_3073_small.jpg" data-mid="167779517" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ca522cd6a6858e1d1a57094123b7097ea4ebf1b1223031a2f7ae2be343f99e0e/DSC_3073_small.jpg" /> https://melihaydemir.com/a-question-of-online-pleasure Wed, 08 Feb 2023 22:24:24 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/a-question-of-online-pleasure a question of online pleasure <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b480807d9d4c366003d9f294f39b66b566ea271e54658b12406543018d05b9b1/DSC_3292_small.jpg" data-mid="167781465" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b480807d9d4c366003d9f294f39b66b566ea271e54658b12406543018d05b9b1/DSC_3292_small.jpg" /> Melih Aydemir,&nbsp;a question of online pleasure,&nbsp;2020 - ongoing experimental research project consists of text, graphs, videos, photos and found images (All photos courtesy of Zeynep Fırat and Dergi.) published on Dergi, click here to see the full issue. <img width="1500" height="2247" width_o="1500" height_o="2247" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2f9dbb020322bc96b1d730df9cbb079b42dce67454c77274c96a9372bce0913/DSC_3369_small.jpg" data-mid="167781533" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2f9dbb020322bc96b1d730df9cbb079b42dce67454c77274c96a9372bce0913/DSC_3369_small.jpg" /> <img width="2247" height="1500" width_o="2247" height_o="1500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d46a7cecf12dd531041e8869e35dd6aa2e417ef851159b5c30fb2f64b200a02/DSC_3376_small.jpg" data-mid="167781554" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d46a7cecf12dd531041e8869e35dd6aa2e417ef851159b5c30fb2f64b200a02/DSC_3376_small.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a5f6412ed3edcb7e66888ec2e29dadb7a6969acae69ed444236032802ef23ed/presentation1.png" data-mid="168132942" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3a5f6412ed3edcb7e66888ec2e29dadb7a6969acae69ed444236032802ef23ed/presentation1.png" /> From the online presentation ‘‘Queering the internet experince: Possible use of digital platforms to create a safe space - brief history of online dating’’ (2020)[Background image: Christiane Peschek] <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/48757966654080aca174673dea814df2136f92f17e34678af395c0c1464c0279/3.jpg" data-mid="168132930" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/48757966654080aca174673dea814df2136f92f17e34678af395c0c1464c0279/3.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/43ae053f4b5b83c48d30582778ed8b0882adcbdea3106843637acd4e32c2cf77/3a.jpg" data-mid="168132932" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/43ae053f4b5b83c48d30582778ed8b0882adcbdea3106843637acd4e32c2cf77/3a.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d55758f09c3f194aefa4bff375661da3ca7afaf500d91d07fdb40a1d4b941857/3b.jpg" data-mid="168132934" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d55758f09c3f194aefa4bff375661da3ca7afaf500d91d07fdb40a1d4b941857/3b.jpg" /><img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77931f008d9c48f8fa9123562a6f475a5dcf412451574b16367209cfcca1353c/4.png" data-mid="168132936" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77931f008d9c48f8fa9123562a6f475a5dcf412451574b16367209cfcca1353c/4.png" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee8deb7d200a30aa22f3106e4b75ecfba54265f783783b3c465afb0b91dfd35b/5.png" data-mid="168132937" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee8deb7d200a30aa22f3106e4b75ecfba54265f783783b3c465afb0b91dfd35b/5.png" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/775b0a69943198358a9b1cbdfd54ee4c96d6b7b5e79f0b561bd9cb15eaf88500/6b.png" data-mid="168132938" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/775b0a69943198358a9b1cbdfd54ee4c96d6b7b5e79f0b561bd9cb15eaf88500/6b.png" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a5bfb684d48629716b8dd71d27aae241371aed5621d135d09bedf45e90e10c2f/7a.jpg" data-mid="168132940" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a5bfb684d48629716b8dd71d27aae241371aed5621d135d09bedf45e90e10c2f/7a.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88fc90973a25dde5ada962775c8551f62717c4cc6fe2675731c1dd546e73b9cd/dag.png" data-mid="168132941" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/88fc90973a25dde5ada962775c8551f62717c4cc6fe2675731c1dd546e73b9cd/dag.png" /> https://melihaydemir.com/from-where-to-where-curatorial Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:47:19 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/from-where-to-where-curatorial <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d62a2af1c56202be8ce06b359daea1d53d3a8461c40e2dfa476286b70558c6ec/fromwhere_small_7.jpg" data-mid="167984813" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d62a2af1c56202be8ce06b359daea1d53d3a8461c40e2dfa476286b70558c6ec/fromwhere_small_7.jpg" /> ‘‘From where to where’’ by sub, took part in Mahalla Festival,&nbsp;Murmuration, 2021 [All photos courtesy of Zeynep Fırat] ‘‘From where to where’’ by sub co-curated by Melih Aydemir and İlayda Tuncay, with support from Berçem Gözde Ölmez&nbsp;and Derin Uludağ ‘‘Coming from a nation state where ethnicities were unified with erasure, thinking through maps and boundaries (what they have taken away from us / what we were given by them) imagining and deconstructing the way we see the planet we live on which were defined and visualized by the colonizer not only de-centers the Eurocentric episteme of social sciences, it offers a moment for us to cut through the umbrella terms. The upside-down map has been essential to decolonial imagination. Taking the center of the map out of Europe and the global north to shift the narrative, DELETE the political lines, see the world as it is where the water draws the lines (and see the world as we want it to be: reversed, glitched, queered and false) let us to find possibilities of transnational solidarity.’’ (Melih Aydemir) <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ee7678d8e8d087b885fa78d66744365e751fd70024ca2e308d002280c43f84c/fromwhere_small.jpg" data-mid="167984819" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ee7678d8e8d087b885fa78d66744365e751fd70024ca2e308d002280c43f84c/fromwhere_small.jpg" /> ‘‘The world's largest upside-down water map’’ produced&nbsp;Banu Germenli, Berçem Gözde Ölmez, Derin Uludağ, İlayda Tunca and Orhan Mert (Concept: İlayda Tunca and Melih Aydemir) Painted with indigo pigment on an eight-square-meter fabric, "The world's largest upside-down water map", turned today's western-centered perception of the world upside down and reproduced the image of it through a single signifier (water). The map was displayed open to intervention with needles and threads together with a survey during the festival. <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ddac9a92f1f67af3c192a81c9cf980e53a7fc9257ea545897b37c2128b5661a/fromwhere_small_1.jpg" data-mid="167984818" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ddac9a92f1f67af3c192a81c9cf980e53a7fc9257ea545897b37c2128b5661a/fromwhere_small_1.jpg" /> ‘‘Can institutionalized national narratives and internationally controversial values, which are the elements of these narratives, seized and monopolized in geographies such as Turkey, where multi-contact and ethnic diversity is intense, be seen as intersection points of intercultural interaction? Can the cultural codes adopted through our personal histories reveal insights into inter-geographical interactions on a larger scale? A reversed world map offers a new imagination of the world. ‘From where to where?’ is not concerned with the relationship between a beginning and an end point, but with where we are now and where we came from.’’ (İlayda Tunca) <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b4dec82f4844962350f57d13cad065ba3c8a6d28e1db265c0df450a1741fa38/fromwhere_small_13.jpg" data-mid="167984805" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3b4dec82f4844962350f57d13cad065ba3c8a6d28e1db265c0df450a1741fa38/fromwhere_small_13.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a04adc0d8714477847707bd64e8822e7382bab02279f8a9c818c274f37dafb33/fromwhere_small_9.jpg" data-mid="167984810" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a04adc0d8714477847707bd64e8822e7382bab02279f8a9c818c274f37dafb33/fromwhere_small_9.jpg" /> In the video installation accompanying the map, the artists examine cultural transformation through different living environments together with their personal migration histories. It focuses on the questions of absence of a meal, a breakfast table, a manuscript or family archives can bring to the present day. <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef1e378061437dcdb1bc0fb00c208e0c0f686c5be054f933e748b6977d9ffcb5/fromwhere_small_2.jpg" data-mid="167984817" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef1e378061437dcdb1bc0fb00c208e0c0f686c5be054f933e748b6977d9ffcb5/fromwhere_small_2.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75e1fb3663ca9801ef46522166a7eecee4ca6d61e28dbbaa73f324c535695308/fromwhere_small_8.jpg" data-mid="167984811" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75e1fb3663ca9801ef46522166a7eecee4ca6d61e28dbbaa73f324c535695308/fromwhere_small_8.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="2996" width_o="2000" height_o="2996" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8604c6db02cc0220c5ec526e82c87ede147da48a4517a37318c40c76f2da2f69/fromwhere_small_12.jpg" data-mid="167984803" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8604c6db02cc0220c5ec526e82c87ede147da48a4517a37318c40c76f2da2f69/fromwhere_small_12.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93bb37e87e462ebe63e2fd814648514c7552fa9c15a473648f83a448851e497a/fromwhere_small_10.jpg" data-mid="167984806" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/93bb37e87e462ebe63e2fd814648514c7552fa9c15a473648f83a448851e497a/fromwhere_small_10.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8876d1ef3d929aaf3fb3e7b960f67cb4c3f4af20e373d674cb302fd8e3eaeef8/fromwhere_small_5.jpg" data-mid="167984814" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8876d1ef3d929aaf3fb3e7b960f67cb4c3f4af20e373d674cb302fd8e3eaeef8/fromwhere_small_5.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6bdb850b0aad03795d6e57941a2ef279f56b223e88ac3f848765d584a4b7bb8c/fromwhere_small_4.jpg" data-mid="167984815" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6bdb850b0aad03795d6e57941a2ef279f56b223e88ac3f848765d584a4b7bb8c/fromwhere_small_4.jpg" /><img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/199f689d7a5e6715717f571f385deee244565e154ab2bde9839d8d6bb1ec3850/fromwhere_small_3.jpg" data-mid="167984816" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/199f689d7a5e6715717f571f385deee244565e154ab2bde9839d8d6bb1ec3850/fromwhere_small_3.jpg" /> https://melihaydemir.com/The-Politics-of-Cake Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:14:27 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/The-Politics-of-Cake <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/acc4ee7c329db0d81fcd3b80c805a2609204afe0b56e048006f727ab58884af4/DSCF9762_11.jpg" data-mid="167982195" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/acc4ee7c329db0d81fcd3b80c805a2609204afe0b56e048006f727ab58884af4/DSCF9762_11.jpg" /> Melih Aydemir,&nbsp;Easy Vegan Vanilla Cake (The Politics of Cake), 2021,&nbsp;Color Video, sound, 14:03 Research board.&nbsp; Click here to watch snippet of the video [04:07] Melih Aydemir’s Easy Vegan Vanilla Cake (The Politics of Cake) video borrows its style from homemade cake recipe videos on YouTube. While giving a manipulated version of a vegan cake recipe, the video separates each ingredient and dives into the history and politics behind making a cake. The information collected from the internet on topics like sugar plantations, the history of vanilla in Europe, metaphors of the cake, and fair division is given throughout the video in between steps of the recipe together with the artist’s personal notes. This crossover suggests a similar experience to browsing the web, sliding through the overflowing information. As an important factor changing the course of colonialism, the food nobody needs but everyone craves, sugar, becomes the most important ingredient for the cake, and it turns into a metaphor for the layers of systematic racism, economical division problem and love.&nbsp; This video is produced after the invitation of Tehran/London based The II Platform and Fatemeh Kazemi under project ‘‘From Bread to Cake’’ curated by&nbsp;Fatemeh Kazemi.&nbsp; <img width="3324" height="2351" width_o="3324" height_o="2351" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c36694cd0f38753c8403aa122612d0a46b1b0c47d2ac701137fd80223672844c/politicsofcakedsg_Page_1.jpg" data-mid="167983890" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c36694cd0f38753c8403aa122612d0a46b1b0c47d2ac701137fd80223672844c/politicsofcakedsg_Page_1.jpg" /> A page from the Easy Vegan Vanilla Cak recipe.&nbsp; <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/408e6ac07efbf224db0393f7e0210f7e8ea420187ab38552f8118fb850dc6a16/DSCF9762_1.jpg" data-mid="167982053" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/408e6ac07efbf224db0393f7e0210f7e8ea420187ab38552f8118fb850dc6a16/DSCF9762_1.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1afc9ee97155cb0f572b7d45dd9a13e373c3e14fb22faa23a7124b5d8e650ce4/DSCF9762_4.jpg" data-mid="167982054" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1afc9ee97155cb0f572b7d45dd9a13e373c3e14fb22faa23a7124b5d8e650ce4/DSCF9762_4.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/26d5935cb4762d9faf9642c8f3efd078287ea39bbfbd16a82cc099d94634cabd/DSCF9762_7.jpg" data-mid="167982055" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/26d5935cb4762d9faf9642c8f3efd078287ea39bbfbd16a82cc099d94634cabd/DSCF9762_7.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0adf4ba62dd2d9fcad61e92120ce33230461e5167f96d3790e7a9093e6e228ea/DSCF9762_9.jpg" data-mid="167982200" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0adf4ba62dd2d9fcad61e92120ce33230461e5167f96d3790e7a9093e6e228ea/DSCF9762_9.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5140fbd06a345143e6e1b14fa2758d55dcdd250547b1cc142b4f648f467e5ae/DSCF9762_14.jpg" data-mid="167982058" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5140fbd06a345143e6e1b14fa2758d55dcdd250547b1cc142b4f648f467e5ae/DSCF9762_14.jpg" /><img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a1f49f78cd68f54281b45a5293202c57817aa887b9506b7a4f4bab47c221bf8/DSCF9762_15.jpg" data-mid="167982059" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a1f49f78cd68f54281b45a5293202c57817aa887b9506b7a4f4bab47c221bf8/DSCF9762_15.jpg" /> https://melihaydemir.com/Ancestral-Diet Sat, 11 Feb 2023 16:32:00 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/Ancestral-Diet <img width="6016" height="4016" width_o="6016" height_o="4016" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/35204b6a50fc2638fdd907fc8d91176fb8440365ff0cad91e463c751809f09d5/DSC_3852.jpg" data-mid="168043695" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/35204b6a50fc2638fdd907fc8d91176fb8440365ff0cad91e463c751809f09d5/DSC_3852.jpg" /> Melih Aydemir’s video essay ‘‘ancestral diet (albanian börek to Quinoa salad)’’, 2021 stands as a collage uniting personal migration histories with eating habits according to one’s ancestral background. It questions the trends around diet, from paleo to superfoods and evolves into an understanding of personal history through food consumption. While discussing the effects of globalization, a tunnel of thoughts on erasure, umbrella terms, and web based information opens up. <img width="1014" height="1622" width_o="1014" height_o="1622" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ce80946c8ca037bfdb052c666a438328a0f122ed0032e2672d540a55ebedfebb/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.43.55.png" data-mid="168043196" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ce80946c8ca037bfdb052c666a438328a0f122ed0032e2672d540a55ebedfebb/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.43.55.png" /> Melih Aydemir, Ancestral Diet (albanian börek to quinoa salad),&nbsp;2021,&nbsp;Video essay,&nbsp;04:29 <img width="1116" height="1786" width_o="1116" height_o="1786" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/00f289b31b6de2f84e024fd80005782f299f21953a918b5335802a5f21880199/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.43.22.png" data-mid="168043376" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/00f289b31b6de2f84e024fd80005782f299f21953a918b5335802a5f21880199/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.43.22.png" /> <img width="1125" height="1800" width_o="1125" height_o="1800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed0b30941947f01ac459dfeda2951dd0e6834409410eb34048ce8cb6c3f143eb/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.44.24.png" data-mid="168043410" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ed0b30941947f01ac459dfeda2951dd0e6834409410eb34048ce8cb6c3f143eb/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.44.24.png" /> <img width="1122" height="1796" width_o="1122" height_o="1796" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb478790eed14168fc7c7d040059812e8da3a6299c2ef3fc4d201eccd69dde78/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.44.48.png" data-mid="168043396" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb478790eed14168fc7c7d040059812e8da3a6299c2ef3fc4d201eccd69dde78/Screen-Shot-2023-02-11-at-19.44.48.png" /> https://melihaydemir.com/Artficial-Bloom-Fluid-Archives Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:24:57 +0000 Melih Aydemir https://melihaydemir.com/Artficial-Bloom-Fluid-Archives <img width="2497" height="1766" width_o="2497" height_o="1766" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a521a6da54b8724dc52416b9e19bf4ebc3334fb017e0350518523de6ba26cd4/Artificial_Bloom_WebCatalogue_P_Page_01.jpg" data-mid="168045510" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a521a6da54b8724dc52416b9e19bf4ebc3334fb017e0350518523de6ba26cd4/Artificial_Bloom_WebCatalogue_P_Page_01.jpg" /> SANATORIUM presented &nbsp;“Artificial Bloom; Fluid Archives" between December 6, 2019 and January 19, 2020. The exhibition brings together the works of Zeynep Beler, Luz Blanco, and Christiane Peschek in the context of non-linear, fluid and hybrid realities with the curation of Melih Aydemir. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f99b1e055d98cddd09e65871ac8485e7b25f92312a5a4f2c4fce9d1edff2a064/artificialbloom_small_5.jpg" data-mid="168046220" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f99b1e055d98cddd09e65871ac8485e7b25f92312a5a4f2c4fce9d1edff2a064/artificialbloom_small_5.jpg" /> ''As the people here grow colder, I turn to my computer and spend my evenings with it like afriend.'' Kate Bush’s Deeper Understanding (from her album Sensual World, 1989) starts with these lines, and builds into a conversation between the computer and the artist. The computer says ''Hello, I know that you're unhappy, I bring you love and deeperunderstanding" and she accepts this offer - a sensual communication between the human and the machine. The offer that Bush accepted resonates with Donna Haraway's pioneerin&nbsp;essay ''A Cyborg Manifesto'' (1985) on merging these two dimensions and embracing techno-communication tools in order to re-craft our bodies. As the song progresses compute&nbsp;sounds mix with an ancient choir singing, Bush neglects her bodily need and sinks into apleasure she had never felt before. As the line between our IRL (in-real-life) and virtual existence blurs, we find new ways to reconstruct ourselves and to expand our material limits. The field of digital covering ou rexperiences, memories, and identity allows the emergence of self-documentation and archiving methods that transcend linear narratives. Our presence is continuously transformed on the ever-expanding Internet by means of collecting and storing our memories. The utopian dream that we are real-time memory collector cyborgs creates transparent archive spaces where these memories can get collected. The exhibition seeks possibilities in this field, beyond the linear narratives constructed by a certain gaze. It also considers the expansion of virtual networks as spaces where feminine and queer memory can find itself a nest, while reflecting on the cyberfeminist context of the documentation tools that have become extensions of ourselves. <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24b56e381fd30e452efd2025bcf12b8f1b70b5bd63022e487a0347535eabddf4/artificialbloom_small_12.jpg" data-mid="168046213" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24b56e381fd30e452efd2025bcf12b8f1b70b5bd63022e487a0347535eabddf4/artificialbloom_small_12.jpg" /> Artificial Bloom, which gives the exhibition its name, is taken from the 2018 song Faceshopping by SOPHIE, announcing an acceptance of the reconstruction of one's body. In the album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides, where SOPHIE embraces her trans identity and celebrates it with fluid visuals, the track takes the virtual and physical interventions that one employs to ground their own reality as a way of encouraging the construction of queerbodies. The blossoming and transition here is not only physical but also refers to the identities that change between the virtual and the real. The capacity for simulation by media systems that we embraced, reminds us that we humans, too, are performative entities.1 Bloom is also the name of a computer graphics effect that softens details by adding intense light to images. Fluid Archives fragments those memories judged worth less to document, perhaps "unreal", yet transmitted and disseminated through body memory. <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0c8c56b3fede6e536de37f7c0aa1b86bfb099bcd4f1a60cdb8e61f4c03173a9/artificialbloom_small_3.jpg" data-mid="168046223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0c8c56b3fede6e536de37f7c0aa1b86bfb099bcd4f1a60cdb8e61f4c03173a9/artificialbloom_small_3.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/41bc8048204c38d52e1de2761eaaa62afb911e1c34a8e96d89f976935d943480/artificialbloom_small_7.jpg" data-mid="168046217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/41bc8048204c38d52e1de2761eaaa62afb911e1c34a8e96d89f976935d943480/artificialbloom_small_7.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/10c028ba084807042907b0d36eda8db27d11c1ae49fd05be7ae6469d86ffa3b4/artificialbloom_small_4.jpg" data-mid="168046221" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/10c028ba084807042907b0d36eda8db27d11c1ae49fd05be7ae6469d86ffa3b4/artificialbloom_small_4.jpg" /> The photographs that Christiane Peschek manipulated in the ‘POSE’ series show bodiesscattered like a flower blossom. These artificial bodies, distorting the linear visuality created&nbsp;by the classical female pose and the masculine gaze, are the continuation of the post-cyberfeminist narrative2 that defines only what it is not. These visuals, where identities and body parts fly freely and fluidly, are the digital photographs of a physical deconstruction. They stand for the transformation of both culturally constructed and contextually&nbsp;determined identities into spaces of formation by constantly changing over space andtime.3&nbsp;Peschek imagines a future archeologist digging our digital ruins, and creates a virtual cave of digital paintings, where ever-changing flow accumulates. Peschek's technique producing silver gelatin prints of digital images, inverts the usual process by converting digitally manipulated photographs into negative film. Choosing this technique - accepted as archival through the reproduction of frozen light on the surface, from pixels to grains- the artist emphasizes that body transformation doesn’t make us less genuine. The images that depict the transfer in reverse, from family albums to data clouds and the self-archiving nature of Instagram pages, are turned into documents of non-bodies. As Peschek's installation expands, the light-reflecting material on the walls and sculptures invites the viewers to use the flash on their smartphone, questioning our current means of observation behaviors. <img width="2000" height="1333" width_o="2000" height_o="1333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b6c446c7c05d95a7e7fd66f0ad192453af74186e73aa0de7aafbc45c0d2f933/artificialbloom_small_2.jpg" data-mid="168046222" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3b6c446c7c05d95a7e7fd66f0ad192453af74186e73aa0de7aafbc45c0d2f933/artificialbloom_small_2.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2997" width_o="2000" height_o="2997" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c3f99f6bd204ec432d426b265a87dd8c09fcf0da8c57aae056d41fe0e87aab5e/artificialbloom_small_14.jpg" data-mid="168046210" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c3f99f6bd204ec432d426b265a87dd8c09fcf0da8c57aae056d41fe0e87aab5e/artificialbloom_small_14.jpg" /> The moments that were first photographed and then painted by Zeynep Beler, document the female experience in the post-internet era. The moments accumulated on her phone, th esurrounding bodies and other non-reactive surfaces turn into textures. The artist's painting technique resembles the contact of hands with the screen, the marks left by the sliding fingers on the screen are reflected in the paintings. Smartphone-holding hand and body parts melt and dissolve into each other, and the desexualized body becomes a surface carrying other bodies. Beler's self-documents, the images she shares on Instagram are the material of her production and become increasingly liquid. Bodies are a field of subjectivity and a platform in which political imagination becomes materialized, while one becomes their own subject of experiment.4&nbsp;Physical manipulation is accompanied by installations that visualize hybrid realities. In the installation, using hardware store materials, the phone parts and false nails placed on a ghost net that is removed from the sea show the physical remnant of our extensions, while also offering a present nostalgia of the sea-punk movement5&nbsp;that emerged in networks like Tumblr in the early 2010s. The memory cards placed in the seashells, while appearing as found objects, heralds a Cyborg Venus rising through the shell. As layers get connected with cable zip ties, it becomes a body for a techno-system. <img width="2000" height="3000" width_o="2000" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4369e04baf0eb1dcfcf26d284603c246ac231d835a9aecbdee811aee5ee77e8e/artificialbloom_small_13.jpg" data-mid="168046212" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4369e04baf0eb1dcfcf26d284603c246ac231d835a9aecbdee811aee5ee77e8e/artificialbloom_small_13.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1335" width_o="2000" height_o="1335" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef6a9c4947d00ee5b6f851656eed60a57aa5dcae2c6a7d9656fc4a30d125c187/artificialbloom_small.jpg" data-mid="168046225" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef6a9c4947d00ee5b6f851656eed60a57aa5dcae2c6a7d9656fc4a30d125c187/artificialbloom_small.jpg" /> <img width="3000" height="2000" width_o="3000" height_o="2000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8929285b6d8c35da815117713e03a0830eed303f8d62af6c7745c2a7565e9579/artificialbloom_small_11.jpg" data-mid="168118705" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8929285b6d8c35da815117713e03a0830eed303f8d62af6c7745c2a7565e9579/artificialbloom_small_11.jpg" /> Luz Blanco's works, based on the dialogue between erasure, memory and forgetting, reflects on the electronic transfer processes and possible missing elements. Separating the pixels in the photo one by one and processing them by drawing on paper, Blanco depicts the fragments where bodies and memories are separated. The transition between layers presents an archeology of the body memory. The transformation of collective memories in the electronic field traces the narratives formed by the fragmentation of memories through various images. [i] Lee Mackinno, 2016, Love Machines and the Tinder Bot Bildungsroman, e-flux Journal #74 - June 2016 [ii] Old Boys Network—an international coalition of Cyberfeminists established in 1997 in Berlin—agreed to intentionally keep the term undefined in order to keep things as “open as possible as consensual.” They published ‘100 Anti-Theses of Cyberfeminism.’ on web, in order to make a list of definitions that don’t define cyberfeminism. [iii] Julie Tilsen, David Nylund, 2010, Heteronormativity and queer youth resistance: Reversing the discourse [iv]&nbsp; Paul B. Preciado, 2013, Testo-Junkie: Sex, Drugs and Biopolitic, e-flux Journal #44 - April 2013 [v] A mostly Internet-based phenomenon birthed out of the Tumblr and Twitter universes as a means to describe a lifestyle aesthetic that is all things oceanic and of the sea. <img width="2000" height="2997" width_o="2000" height_o="2997" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3391ad0e3ae0be748bfc14b1160a3ded7c2fc68c6eda3bb7bc0a3b484a8cd692/artificialbloom_small_10.jpg" data-mid="168046214" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3391ad0e3ae0be748bfc14b1160a3ded7c2fc68c6eda3bb7bc0a3b484a8cd692/artificialbloom_small_10.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2997" width_o="2000" height_o="2997" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fecec867deb1b932e14f4e105cfe1060d3fca961c38a8475dbfe5e736c65601f/artificialbloom_small_9.jpg" data-mid="168046215" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fecec867deb1b932e14f4e105cfe1060d3fca961c38a8475dbfe5e736c65601f/artificialbloom_small_9.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2997" width_o="2000" height_o="2997" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e704a14f5091049078c704cefa8994ec9f1e5efffb393aa42bb09c76bc25d58c/artificialbloom_small_8.jpg" data-mid="168046216" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e704a14f5091049078c704cefa8994ec9f1e5efffb393aa42bb09c76bc25d58c/artificialbloom_small_8.jpg" />