Ebru Özseçen
12 Jun - 07 Aug 2010
EBRU ÖZSEÇEN
KISMET
Curated by Christine Nippe
Duration 12.6. - 7.8.2010 / Free entrance
With KISMET, TANAS presents a comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist Ebru Özseçen in Berlin. Her works originate from an examination of architecture and the visual arts, whereby Özseçen concentrates on various aspects of the psychological and sociological relationships of bodies, objects and space. Currently, thingness and the question of form are the focus of her creative work. TANAS presents the entire spectrum of media encompassed by Özseçen's praxis: from large-scale installations and photography to sculpture and video works.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is KISMET, the new work that lends the show its title. The Turkish word "kismet" stems from the 17th century and means fate. A chance find in an Amsterdam antiques shop provided the impetus for this new work by Ebru Özseçen. She had found an ivory globe that, according to the shopkeeper's tale, had once contained a small bag of beans inscribed with initials. It was a love toy owned by a French countess, whose practice it was to randomly select her lover for the coming night by drawing a bean from the bag.
In her new work, Ebru Özseçen is interested in creating a present-day sculptural translation of this objet trouvé. By mounting a ball made of ebony on top of a conical torso of bull-testicle leather, she unites the opposites of masculinity and femininity. This ensemble is sheathed in white porcelain, elaborately crafted in Nymphenburg that encapsulates the object like an étui. KISMET embodies Özseçen's fascination with both the diverse materials and charisma of the fetish and the wealth of wisdom stored in venerable artisanal traditions such as wood turning, leather tanning and porcelain manufacture.
In works like Bitter Chocolate Love or Baby Lakritz, the artist is likewise concerned with the attraction exerted by unusual forms of craftsmanship. Her camera records production processes in slow motion. In the video piece Bitter Chocolate Love, she observes a confectioner's ritualized sequence of movements as he filters viscous black chocolate through a silk hose, and how this continually generates new figures. In Baby Lakritz she films the almost meditative and emotional cradling of an emerging form, as if it were a being, during the production of licorice.
In her floating sculptural installation Corset Ebru Özseçen went to a prosthesis clinique in Munich. In contrast to all the early works, where body parts appeared in abstract form in unexpected ways and places, here she shows with immediate force how her own body - the mold for the prostheses - is empowered by this craft.
These works again find Ebru Özseçen setting off to track objects and how things go through different forms and moods over time. In her exhibition, she circles around the thingness of the objects in order to integrate their formal invention into her subjective visual archive.
Ebru Özseçen was born in 1971 in Izmir (Turkey). She graduated from Bilkent University, Ankara, in the department of architecture, interior architecture and environmental design in 1994, and received a master's degree there from Institutes of Fine Arts and Economic and Social Sciences in 1996. Residencies followed at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam from 1997 to 1998; the Medienwerkstatt in Vienna in 1998; the Suomenlinna Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art in Helsinki in 1999; and in 2003 at the Recollets Institute in Paris.
Ebru Özseçen has exhibited in many international exhibitions. Her first solo exhibition took place in 2000 at the Science and Technology Museum, Coimbra. Group exhibitions include: Biennale Turin (1997); Kunsthalle Friedericianum Kassel (2000 and 2003); Limerick Biennial (2000); Kunstzentrum Tirol; Kestner Museum Hanover; the Pusan Biennial; the Metropolitan Museum and Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Center (2000); Rotterdam Dutch Architecture Institute; De Appel Foundation Amsterdam and Tate Modern, London (2001); Barcelona Triennial und Whistable Biennial (2001); São Paulo Biennial (2002); Garantie Platform, Istanbul (2003); Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2005); ZKM / Zentrum für Kunst- und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (2006); Santrallstanbul (2007); Minnesota Midway Contemporary Art (2008); Neues Museum Nuremberg; Museum Weserburg Bremen (2009), Starter, ARTER, Istanbul (2010).
KISMET
Curated by Christine Nippe
Duration 12.6. - 7.8.2010 / Free entrance
With KISMET, TANAS presents a comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist Ebru Özseçen in Berlin. Her works originate from an examination of architecture and the visual arts, whereby Özseçen concentrates on various aspects of the psychological and sociological relationships of bodies, objects and space. Currently, thingness and the question of form are the focus of her creative work. TANAS presents the entire spectrum of media encompassed by Özseçen's praxis: from large-scale installations and photography to sculpture and video works.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is KISMET, the new work that lends the show its title. The Turkish word "kismet" stems from the 17th century and means fate. A chance find in an Amsterdam antiques shop provided the impetus for this new work by Ebru Özseçen. She had found an ivory globe that, according to the shopkeeper's tale, had once contained a small bag of beans inscribed with initials. It was a love toy owned by a French countess, whose practice it was to randomly select her lover for the coming night by drawing a bean from the bag.
In her new work, Ebru Özseçen is interested in creating a present-day sculptural translation of this objet trouvé. By mounting a ball made of ebony on top of a conical torso of bull-testicle leather, she unites the opposites of masculinity and femininity. This ensemble is sheathed in white porcelain, elaborately crafted in Nymphenburg that encapsulates the object like an étui. KISMET embodies Özseçen's fascination with both the diverse materials and charisma of the fetish and the wealth of wisdom stored in venerable artisanal traditions such as wood turning, leather tanning and porcelain manufacture.
In works like Bitter Chocolate Love or Baby Lakritz, the artist is likewise concerned with the attraction exerted by unusual forms of craftsmanship. Her camera records production processes in slow motion. In the video piece Bitter Chocolate Love, she observes a confectioner's ritualized sequence of movements as he filters viscous black chocolate through a silk hose, and how this continually generates new figures. In Baby Lakritz she films the almost meditative and emotional cradling of an emerging form, as if it were a being, during the production of licorice.
In her floating sculptural installation Corset Ebru Özseçen went to a prosthesis clinique in Munich. In contrast to all the early works, where body parts appeared in abstract form in unexpected ways and places, here she shows with immediate force how her own body - the mold for the prostheses - is empowered by this craft.
These works again find Ebru Özseçen setting off to track objects and how things go through different forms and moods over time. In her exhibition, she circles around the thingness of the objects in order to integrate their formal invention into her subjective visual archive.
Ebru Özseçen was born in 1971 in Izmir (Turkey). She graduated from Bilkent University, Ankara, in the department of architecture, interior architecture and environmental design in 1994, and received a master's degree there from Institutes of Fine Arts and Economic and Social Sciences in 1996. Residencies followed at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam from 1997 to 1998; the Medienwerkstatt in Vienna in 1998; the Suomenlinna Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art in Helsinki in 1999; and in 2003 at the Recollets Institute in Paris.
Ebru Özseçen has exhibited in many international exhibitions. Her first solo exhibition took place in 2000 at the Science and Technology Museum, Coimbra. Group exhibitions include: Biennale Turin (1997); Kunsthalle Friedericianum Kassel (2000 and 2003); Limerick Biennial (2000); Kunstzentrum Tirol; Kestner Museum Hanover; the Pusan Biennial; the Metropolitan Museum and Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Center (2000); Rotterdam Dutch Architecture Institute; De Appel Foundation Amsterdam and Tate Modern, London (2001); Barcelona Triennial und Whistable Biennial (2001); São Paulo Biennial (2002); Garantie Platform, Istanbul (2003); Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (2005); ZKM / Zentrum für Kunst- und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (2006); Santrallstanbul (2007); Minnesota Midway Contemporary Art (2008); Neues Museum Nuremberg; Museum Weserburg Bremen (2009), Starter, ARTER, Istanbul (2010).