SWADDLING THE BABY

OPENING: September 6, 2016, 7 pm

Duration: September 7 – October 8, 2016

Opening words: René Block, Berlin

Gülsün Karamustafa will be present at the opening.

In her first show at Galerie Krinzinger the Turkish artist Gülsün Karamustafa is combining her series of non-religious icons – the Promised Paintings, the installation Swaddling the baby, a selection of  under-glass paintings as well as the films “Insomniambule” and “The City and the secret Panther Fashion”.

Istanbul’s complex history, its complexity and the byzantine pictural language always fascinated Gülsün Karamustafa. The Promised Paintings show a reinvention of the idea of the icon painter, who used to operate as the hand of good, also in his own self-conception. Karamustafa is employing the aesthetics of the byzantine icons but breaking with the strict schemata.

“An icon maker is only the hand of ‘god’ and as such never has the initiative to paint as him/herself. Promised Paintings gave me a very special kind of freedom and became an inventive game for me as I never wished to obey the rules of ‘peinture’ that were thoroughly imposed by the art milieu in the 1980s.”

Filippo Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence with the reliefs by Andrea della Robbia showing swaddled babies are fascinating Gülsün Karamustafa since her first visit as a student in 1969. “Children are the feeblest of all humankind especially during times of war, great disasters, flows of migration and diasporas. My project is related to the destiny of the ‘innocents’ who had the chance to survive those unsparing moments of life. When I went through the images related to the orphanages as a whole I was more interested in the ‘faces and the looks in the eyes of children’. It was a pathway that gave me a deeper insight look of how it would feel like an orphan in an utmost crucial times in history.”

Her fascination for those innocent children born into unbearable situations, but taken care of in this orphanage, is captured in the installation Swaddling the baby, first shown at the Villa Romana in Florence in 2015.

Another series of works that will be shown are under-glass paintings referring to the ones popular especially in Turkish coffeehouses, confectioners, butcheries and barbershops of the 19th and early 20th century. In form of seriographic prints mixed with paper collages containing book and magazine covers from the second decade of the 20th century.

The films Insomniambule and The City and the Secret Panther Fashion are shown in the Galerie im Parterre. In Insomniambule, Somnambule the sleepwalker and Insomniac as a symbol of constant consciousness are letting us follow them through their night. Although their initial situations are diverse they share the desire to fight the sleep as such.

Following each other in their restless wonder through the night they are subconsciously playing several games that lead them through their personal past and present. “The City and the secret Panther Fashion” is one of Gülsün Karamustafa’s projects that deal with the apprehended role of women. Furthermore Karamustafa also refers it to her early works from the 1980s, during a period in which she was dealing with flows of immigration from the countryside to the big cities. “ I made use of leopard skin patterns because this type of fabric seemed to express the growing desire for ‘kitsch’ at this time due to social and economical conditions.”

Gülsün Karamustafa  was born in 1946 in Ankara, Turkey. She lives and works in Istanbul.

Selection of important solo exhibitions:  Swaddling the baby, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienn, AT (2016), Villa Romana, Florence, ITA (2015), SALT Ulus, Ankara, TUR (2014), Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AT (2012) The Monument and the Child, x-hibit, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, AT (Residency), (2008), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE (2008), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, DE (2006), Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg, SWE (2006), Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, DE (2006), Musée d’Art et Histoire Geneva, CHE (1999)

Works by Gülsün Karamustafa have also bean shown in group shows at the following museums: 31st Sao Paulo Biennial, BRA (2014), the 3rd and 10th Gwangju Biennials, KOR (2000, 2014), “Art Histories”, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, AUT (2014), “Artevida Politica”, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, BRA (2014), the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale, GRC (2013), the 1st Kiev Biennale, UKR (2012), Singapore Biennial, Singapore, SGP (2011), Tazimat, Belvedere, Augarten Contemporary, Vienna, Austria (Residency), the 3rd Guangzou Triennial, KOR (2008), the 11th Cairo Biennial, EGY (2008), “The 1980s: A Topology”, Museu Serralves, Porto, PRT (2006), “Soleil Noir, Depression und Gesellschaft”, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AUT (2006), “The Grand Promenade”, National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST, Athens, GRC (2006), “Why Pictures Now”, MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stifung Ludwig, Vienna, AUT (2006), “Projekt Migration”, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, DEL (2005), “Centre of Gravity”, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, TUR (2005), “Contour the 2nd Video Art Biennale”, Mechelen, BE (2005), “Ethnic Marketing”, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, CHE (2004), the 1st Seville Biennial, SP (2004), “In den Schluchten des Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum”, Kassel, DE (2003), “Blood & Honey”, Sammlung Essl, Vienna, AUT (2003), “When Latitudes Become Forms”, Walker Art Center, Minnesota, USA (2003), the 8th Havana Biennial, CUB, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4thInternational Istanbul Biennials, TUR (1987, 1992, 1995)

Currently the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin is showing: Gülsün Karamustafa. Chronographia – till October 23, 2016

German Version

ERÖFFNUNG: 6. September, 2016, 19 Uhr

Dauer: 7. September – 8. Oktober, 2016

Zur Eröffnung spricht: René Block, Berlin

Gülsün Karamustafa ist bei der Eröffnung anwesend.

In ihrer ersten Ausstellung in der Galerie Krinzinger verbindet die türkische Künstlerin Gülsün Karamustafa die Serie Promised Paintings – non – religiöse Ikonen, die Installation Swaddling the Baby, eine Auswahl an Hinterglasbildern sowie die zwei Filme Insomniambule und The City and the Secret Panther Fashion.

Istanbuls komplexe Vergangenheit, seine Vielschichtigkeit sowie die byzantinische Bildsprache faszinierten Gülsün Karamustafa schon lange. Daher begann sie kompositionelle Elemente der Ikonenmalerei für ihre eigene Malerei zu verwenden.

Promised Paintings zeigen eine Neuinterpretation der Idee der Ikonenmaler, die sich als Werkzeuge des göttlichen Willens verstehen. Karamustafa bedient sich der byzantinischen Ästhetik, bricht aber mit dem strikten Schema.

“An icon maker is only the hand of ‘god’ and as such never has the initiative to paint as him/herself. Promised Paintings gave me a very special kind of freedom and became an inventive game for me as I never wished to obey the rules of ‘peinture’ that were thoroughly imposed by the art milieu in the 1980s.”

Filippo Brunelleschis Ospedale degli Innocenti mit den Andrea della Robbia Reliefs beeindruckten Gülsün Karamustafa seit ihrem Besuch in Florenz zu Studienzeiten. Besonders della Robbias Darstellungen von Wickelkindern hinterließen einen prägenden Eindruck. “Children are the feeblest of all humankind especially during times of war, great disasters, flows of migration and diasporas. My project is related to the destiny of the ‘innocents’ who had the chance to survive those unsparing moments of life. When I went through the images related to the orphanages as a whole I was more interested in the ‘faces and the looks in the eyes of children’. It was a pathway that gave me a deeper insight look of how it would feel like an orphan in an utmost crucial times in history.”

Ihre Faszination für diese unschuldigen Kinder, geboren in untragbaren Verhältnissen, jedoch aufgenommen und umsorgt in diesem Findelhaus, spiegelt sich in der Installation Swaddling the Baby wieder. Diese wurden zum erstmals in ihrer Ausstellung in der Villa Romana in Florenz 2015 gezeigt.

Karamustafas Hinterglasbilder in Form von seriografischen Drucken und Papiercollagen aus türkischen Büchern und Magazinen aus den 1920er Jahren beziehen sich auf die dekorativen Hinterglasmalereien des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Diese schmückten vor allem Kaffeehäuser, Konditoreien, Metzgereien und Frisiersalons.

In der Galerie im Parterre sind die zwei Filme Insomniambule und The City and the Secret Panther Fashion zu sehen.  In Insomniambule folgen wir der Schlafwandlerin Somnambule  und der niemals ruhenden Insomniac durch die Nacht. Während Ihrer rastlosen Wanderung durchleben beide unbewusst sowohl Ihre eigene Vergangenheit als auch Gegenwart. The City and the Secret Panther Fashion ist eines jener Projekte in denen sich Karamustafa mit dem Frauenbild auseinandersetzt. Zudem bezieht sich diese Videoarbeit auf ihre Arbeiten aus den frühen 1980er Jahren, auf eine Zeit, in der es in der Türkei eine massive Landflucht gab. “ I made use of leopard skin patterns because this type of fabric seemed to express the growing desire for ‘kitsch’ at this time due to social and economical conditions.”

Gülsün Karamustafa wurde 1946 in Ankara geboren. Sie lebt und arbeitet in Istanbul.

Einzelausstellungen (Auswahl): Swaddling the Baby, Wien, AT, (2016), Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, DEL (2016), Villa Romana, Florenz, ITA (2015), SALT Ulus, Ankara , TUR (2014), (2012), The Monument and the Child, x-hibit, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, AT (Residency), Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AT (2008),  Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DEL (2008), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, DEL (2006), Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg, SWE (2006), Museum Villa Stuck, München, DEL (2006), Musée d’Art et Histoire Genf, CHE (1999)

Weitere Arbeiten von Gülsün Karamustafa waren unter anderem in folgenden institutionellen Gruppenausstellungen zu sehen: 31st Sao Paulo Biennial, BRA (2014), the 3rd and 10th Gwangju Biennials, KOR (2000, 2014), “Art Histories”, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, AUT (2014), “Artevida Politica”, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, BRA (2014), the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale, GRC (2013), the 1st Kiev Biennale, UKR (2012), Singapore Biennial, Singapur, SGP (2011), the 3rd Guangzou Triennial, KOR (2008), the 11th Cairo Biennial, EGY (2008), “The 1980s: A Topology”, Museu Serralves, Porto, PRT (2006), “Soleil Noir, Depression und Gesellschaft”, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AUT (2006), “The Grand Promenade”, National Museum of Contemporary Art – EMST, Athen, GRC (2006), “Why Pictures Now”, MUMOK Museum Moderner Kunst Stifung Ludwig, Wien, AUT (2006), “Projekt Migration”, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, DE (2005), “Centre of Gravity”, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, TUR (2005), “Contour the 2nd Video Art Biennale”, Mechelen, BE (2005), “Ethnic Marketing”, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Genf, CH (2004), the 1st Seville Biennial, SP (2004), “In den Schluchten des Balkans, Kunsthalle Fridericianum”, Kassel, DEL (2003), “Blood & Honey”, Sammlung Essl, Wien, AUT (2003), “When Latitudes Become Forms”, Walker Art Center, Minnesota, USA (2003), the 8th Havana Biennial, CUB, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4thInternational Istanbul Biennials, TUR (1987, 1992, 1995)

Aktuell zeigt der Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin: Gülsün Karamustafa.Chronographia – noch zu sehen bis 23.10.2016