Creative Portfolio.
Tek ve Çok / One and the Many
Research and Curatorial Work, 2016, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turkey.
September 6 – November 13, 2016
Researcher, Art Direction.
Keywords: Material culture, production history, and the notion of genuine copies.
One and the Many traces a timeline through the period’s material culture, setting it in relation to how it was made accessible to the public gaze. By bringing together artifacts and stories from a wide variety of industries — including automotive, white goods, furniture, toy, stationery, pret-a-porter, textile, food and beverage, tableware, cutlery, and hygiene — the exhibition informs consumers of less known narratives and allows them to add information that will expand the research. It also bridges the period’s ripple effects on cultural economy by additionally introducing less common scenes from the practices of contemporary art and fashion: moments that expose the nurturing of a particular fascination with the concept of unique products. Bedri Baykam’s work titled This has been done before (1987), on the other hand, constituted a criticism of the perception that creativity could only have origins in the West, a prolific topic in modern art debates of the period.
The research and narrative of One and the Many are structured around the notion of genuine copies. Questioning our standard expectation of ingenuity versus the opportunity of building atop each other’s ideas, the exhibition suggests a fresh perspective on the history of production in Turkey. From the early-day assembly industry, to today’s abundant copyright infringing replicas, copies have been scrutinized from both economic and intellectual viewpoints. One and the Many invites users to value things per se, recognize the ingenuity prompted by circumstances and appreciate copying as a method of learning, one which the installation at SALT Galata has also embraced.
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