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Pozitif Alan | Positive Space , “Operation Room” 1.12.2018 - 2. 02. 2019

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1980’lerde ortaya çıktığına inanılan AIDS kısa sürede ölümcül, global bir epidemik haline gelir. Yaygın bulaşma yolları düşünüldüğünde tüm dünyada muhafazakar seslerin yükselişine, hastalığın marjinalleşmesine sebep olur.

Kuzey Amerika’da salgına sessiz kalan Reagan yönetimine karşı seslerini duyurmak ve ölen arkadaşlarının yaslarını tutmak için aktivistler ve sanatçılar omuz omuza verir. Kitleleri ayırması beklenen bulaşıcı hastalık onları birleştirir ve bu sayede günümüzde AIDS sanatı başlı başına bir sanat tarihi dönemini ve sanatın demokratikleşmeyi deneyen pratiklerini ifade etmek için kullanılır hale gelir. AIDS, dönemin teorilere boğulmuş çağdaş sanatını kişiselleştirir, politikleştirir; sanat nesnesi bir bedene, o beden de paylaşılıp dağılan ve galeriden çıkan ideolojik bir virüse dönüşür. 

Türkiye’deki ilk medyatik AIDS vakası olan Mürteza Elgin’den bu yana HIV/AIDS kamuoyunda yalnızca skandallarla anılır; HIV enfeksiyon oranı hızla artarken, virüs bir tabu olarak kalmaya ve damgalanma sebebi olmaya devam eder. Virüse kolektif bir yüz tanımlamak isteyen, ‘temiz’ ötekini korumakla ilgilenmeyen “Pozitif Alan” adını görsel kompozisyonun ana odak noktasını nitelemek için kullanılan terimden alarak izleyicinin içine girmesini ister ve izleyiciye negatif alan sunmaya karşı çıkar. Sanat işlerini birbirleriyle karıştırır, arka planlarını öne çıkarır ve görülen her şeyi özneleştirir. Zira Albert Camus’nün dediği gibi, “Veba hayattır” ve “kimse, hiç kimse ondan muaf değildir.” 

“Pozitif Alan”, kaydeden, ayrıştıran, kabul eden, reddeden, bulaşan ve yayılan öznel bedenlerin karşısında ideolojik ve medikal bedeni, görünürlük ve damgalanma, kurban ve suçlu halleri, haz ve hastalık gibi HIV/AIDS’le doğrudan ilişkilenen konuları tartışmaya açar. Sergi “pozitif olmayı” olumluyor olsa da, AIDS’i bir “metafor” olarak görme hakkını da elinde tutar. Bulaştığı hücreyi yok etmeyen, onu savunmasız hale getiren baskılanmamış HIV, eril tahakkümün, biyoiktidarın pratiklerini de hatırlatır. “Pozitif Alan”, bu pratiklere karşı yeni bulaşma teknolojileri arar. 

Alper Turan’ın küratörlüğünde gerçekleşecek olan sergi, video, yağlı boya, kolaj, heykel, yerleştirme ve fotoğraf gibi farklı medyaları kullanan sanatçıların işlerini birbirleriyle temas ettirecek ve bir “anlamlar epidemiği” olan HIV/AIDS’i deşifre etmeyi amaçlayacak.

Sergi, 01 Aralık 2018 - 02 Şubat 2019 tarihleri arasında Amerikan Hastanesi “Operation Room” Sanat Galerisi’nde izlenebilecek.

Katılımcı Sanatçılar: Ardıl Yalınkılıç, Artık İşler, Can Küçük, Ceren Saner, Furkan Öztekin, Elmgreen&Dragset, Güneş Terkol, İz Öztat, Leyla Gediz, Nihat Karataşlı, Onur Karaoğlu, Özgür Erkök Moroder, Pınar Marul, Sabo, Sadık Arı, Serdar Soydan, Ünal Bostancı 

Grafik Tasarım: Umut Altıntaş
Sergi Tasarımı: Doruk Çiftçi

“Operation Room” Pazar günleri hariç her gün, 10:00 – 19:00 saatleri arasında ziyaret edilebilir. 

[ENG]

AIDS broke out in the 1980’s, and soon became a deadly, global epidemic. It led to an increase in conservative voices and to the marginalization of the disease when the common ways of contamination were considered. 

Since the end of the 80’s, activists and artists have collaborated in order to protest the Reagan administration, which kept quiet about the epidemic in North America, and mourn their friends who died of it. The contagious disease that was supposed to divide the masses brought them together. Today AIDS art has come to be used to express a whole artistic period and its practices that try to be democratic. AIDS individualized and politicized the art scene, which had been fraught with theories. The object of art was transformed into a body that was shared and distributed and got transformed into an ideological virus out of an art gallery. 

Since Mürteza Elgin, the first sensational AIDS case in the Turkish media , HIV/AIDS has always been known for scandals, regardless of high rise of infection rate in the country, HIV remains as a taboo and a stigma in the public opinion. “Positive Space” interests in attributing a collective face to the virus and doesn’t care about protecting the ‘sterile’ other. The title is derived from a term used for the focal point of visual art compositions. It asks the spectator to get involved and is opposed to presenting a negative space to them. It mixes works of art, brings the background to the fore, and subjectifies everything visible. Just as Albert Camus said, “But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all.” And so, “no one, no one on earth is free from it.” 

“Positive Space” also opens discussions about themes, directly related to HIV/AIDS, such as visibility and stigma, victimhood and guilt, pleasure and disease as well as subjective bodies recording, separating, accepting and rejecting, infecting and spreading in opposition to ideological and medical bodies. Even though the exhibition affirms ‘positivity,’ it reserves the right to see AIDS as a metaphor. The unrepressed HIV does not destroy the cell, it attacks and emaciates it, just like masculine domination or bio-power practices do. “Positive Space” looks for new contamination technologies against these practices. 

The exhibition, curated by Alper Turan, brings together the works of artists that use different media like video, oil painting, collage, sculpture, installation, and photography, and aims to decipher HIV/AIDS, which is an ‘epidemic of meanings.’ 

The exhibition may be visited between December 1, 2018 and February 2, 2019 in American Hospital Art Gallery “Operation Room.”

Participating Artists: Ardıl Yalınkılıç, Artık İşler, Can Küçük, Ceren Saner, Furkan Öztekin, Elmgreen&Dragset, Güneş Terkol, İz Öztat, Leyla Gediz, Nihat Karataşlı, Onur Karaoğlu, Özgür Erkök Moroder, Pınar Marul, Sabo, Sadık Arı, Serdar Soydan, and Ünal Bostancı. 

Graphic Design: Umut Altıntaş
Exhibition Design: Doruk Çiftçi

“Operation Room” is open every day (except Sunday) between 10 am and 7 pm.







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