For our 408th art meeting, we visit the Cengiz Çekil retrospective exhibition at Arter. The exhibition, which also includes the work titled Cengiz Çekil School (2015), produced by Çekil's student and artist Vahap Avşar by editing the recordings of a long-term interview that spanned twenty years starting from 1995, draws attention to Çekil's role as an educator and catalyst as well as an artist through this nine-hour video. Cengiz Çekil (1945-2015), one of the pioneers of conceptual art in Turkey, has used materials from everyday life in his works since the 1970s. Working by decontextualizing, repeating and transforming ready-made objects, established idioms and forms, the artist produces multilayered works that go beyond the conventional definitions and categories of art and activate collective memory.
Cengiz Çekil's most comprehensive exhibition to date, Bugün de Yaşıyorum (I'm Living Today too), is named after the artist's work Günce (1976). For this work, Çekil dated a notebook every day for about two months and stamped the sentence “I am alive today too”. On the last page of the notebook is the phrase “I am going to the army”. The retrospective exhibition titled “I'm Living Today too” on the 4th and 3rd floors of Arter aims to shed light on Çekil's production, which is positioned as a daily ritual that celebrates life despite all its difficulties, and to emphasize that the artist's works are still relevant. The exhibition will be visited with the Arter exhibition guide.
Tuesday, June 6
13.00-14.00
*Guided Tour + Entrance ticket: 100 TL
*Friend Members: 60 TL Guide Tour
Address: Irmak Caddesi No: 13 Dolapdere Beyoğlu / Istanbul