Curiosity to Survive

Texts, projects, appearances and research material by curator and writer Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu

[theladyfromshanghai]

Gone Offshore - Conversation between John Barlow & Övül Durmusoglu

Writer John Barlow talks about his travel journal from the Bahamas (http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/jo...) in search of the offshore company Headless Ltd....

Once upon a time, the opening of ‘Data Recovery’ at Gamec Bergamo for The Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi For Young Curators in 2008. Our first collaboration with Goldin+Senneby for ‘Headless’ with the support of Iaspis.

[theladyfromshanghai]

Fresh fresh fresh. WdW Review finally in print with two texts of me. Edited by Adam Kleinman and Defne Ayas. Contributed by Theodor Ringborg, Sarnath Banerjee, Vivian Ziherl, Ilya Budraitskis, Orit Gat, Ben Eastham, Natalia Antonova, Natasha Ginwala, Mohammad Salemy, Tirdad Zolghadr, Naeem Mohaiemen, Maria Barnas, Saar Demeuse, Ekaterina Degot, Maria-Louiza Ouranou, Sholem Krishtalka,  Perjovschi Dan, Quinn Latimer among many.

[theladyfromshanghai]

The Finger That Show The Moon Never Moons at Dan Gunn continues until 25th June with the generous participation by Marie-Louise Ekman, Azin Feizabadi, Rodrigo Hernandez, Renato Leotta, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Susanne M. Winterling, Viron Erol Vert 

“Many truths are there to be found beyond the post-truth universe, just as there are limitless possibilities to discover within the expanded matter. Not only algorithms and artificial intelligence but also universal frequencies respond to what is spelled out. A poetical ethics at work. Only a couple of years ago the moon was clear and visible; change was in the air. The world was moved by a new collective energy, demanding better democracy in the streets, parks and squares. The indecisive moment that followed was immediately filled by the intermediating agencies, the wave generated by people redirected.

Like a full moon that cannot be captured by a smart device, our enchantment with the moon in sight shifted to the frustrated distance in-between and to the intermediary fingers that block its view. The current moment is in need of a sentimental education. The finger can point to the moon’s location in the night sky. However, it is not the moon. The finger never moons, never reveals, never dreams. Bruce Lee once wisely reminded us that concentrating on the finger makes us miss all the heavenly glory that may exist. When structures collapse and beliefs lose ground, it may be the time to see through the fractured reality and connect with our moons, towards an aesthetics of togetherness. Another political horizon.”

www.dangunn.de

[theladyfromshanghai]

Türkei: Gegen Vater Staat

Die Türkei ist seit Atatürk patriarchalisch geprägt. Frauen aller politischer Couleur sind daher heute die stärkste Opposition – und die Hoffnung des Landes.

The article I penned late March this year for Zeit Online’s 10nach8 on women movement as a major resistance on the streets in Turkey.

[theladyfromshanghai]

Seminário Histórias da sexualidade [Histories of Sexuality] - 

Auditório MASP Unilever 

17.9.2016 

Cornelia Butler - Feminismo Facebook: arte, feminismo e prática curatorial atual [Facebook Feminism: art, feminism and curatorial practice now]

Fernanda Carvajal - Ofensa, animalidade e vergonha: políticas sexo-dissidentes em contextos de violência no Cone Sul [Offense, animality and shame: sex-dissident policies in contexts of violence in the Southern Cone]

Övül O. Durmuşoğlu - Um futuro queer [A future queer]

[theladyfromshanghai]

Madonna in a Fur Coat

A new English translation of the classic Turkish novel

Third of my contribution to Frieze Blog late summer 2016

[theladyfromshanghai]

Pi Artworks London is pleased to announce What’s The Riddle curated by Berlin based curator Övül Ö. Durmusoglu. What’s The Riddle is the first of five exhibitions that make up Pi Artworks London’s Curatorial Season that runs from October 2016 – July 2017.  For the season Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Alexandra Schwartz, Sacha Craddock, Oliver Sumner, and Morgan Quaintance have been invited to devise and develop their own curatorial project working with artists predominantly or entirely from outside the gallery’s roster.  

Our personal and political environments are shaped and sometimes traumatised by the choices we are asked to make; like or dislike, yes or no, in or out. They offer no solutions to widespread discontent. Perhaps if the answers cannot suffice, then it’s time to reformulate the questions. A parallel reality where things are organically more complex and diverse requires the artistic ability to critique, to imagine beyond the perceived knowledge, and to shift the collective memory. What’s The Riddle brings together artworks that return to fundamental formal questions of artistic work and its system in their alternative conception of time. Kasper Bosmans, Geta Brătescu, Osman Dinç, Rodrigo Hernández, Ad Minoliti, Anca Munteanu Rimnic, and Pilvi Takala search for the riddle, challenge the drive to seek correct answers, and reconfigure their mythologies.

[theladyfromshanghai]

Fire at Sea

Gianfranco Rosi’s brilliant, difficult documentary addressing the migrant crisis

My second blog post is on a must-see film of the year, Fuocoammare. Brillant, human and difficult. ‘The sea is not a road’

[theladyfromshanghai]

State of Confusion

The patriarchal house of cards underlying the Turkish coup and Brexit

My first contribution to Frieze’s ‘Culture Digest’ speaks of confusion politics, the masculine drive behind the rising fascism in different contexts and witty criticism of Gülsün Karamustafa in her new work 'Monument of 21st Century'.

[theladyfromshanghai]

Gülsün Karamustafa’s ‘Chronographia’ will be in Hamburger Bahnhof till the end of October. A comprehensive publication is on its way.

[theladyfromshanghai]

In Search of Radical Incomplete #3: Black Hole Hunters at Kunstverein Langenhagen until 15th May 2016. A short review by D. A. Schacht in Hannoverische Allgemeine.

[theladyfromshanghai]

In Search of Radical Incomplete #3 Black Hole Hunters with Alexandra Navratil and Susanne M. Winterling in Kunstverein Langenhagen:

 http://www.kunstverein-langenhagen.de/de/ausstellungen/aktuell/index.html

[theladyfromshanghai]

[theladyfromshanghai]

The List stands at the place where the collective memory fails. The incidents and numbers squeezed in the daily flow of information breathe out and enlarge themselves each time the YAMA screen lights up and fades out. The repetition of words that form the information of each incident requires us to rethink their meaning. What is revealed in this rethinking process is the fact that the abstract, vulnerable, and political numbers branded as general information for the public refer, on the contrary, to the private, subjective, and singular.

YAMA starts its new program with The List. Realized through an intense collaboration among Banu Cennetoğlu, Nihan Somay and Barış Öktem, the 'new' List takes over YAMA as the mediator of the data video that will be completed - without repetition- in 360 hours. The list of dead immigrants on their way to the EU between January 1993 to 14th June 2015 collected from the records of UNITED and The Migrants' Files is constructed in a video format which completes itself in a daily flow making up a 31 day cycle.

[theladyfromshanghai]

Salon | Discussion | Beyond Austerity: New Models of Support for Art in Crisis

Aleya Hamza, Founder of Gypsum Gallery, Cairo; Katalin Timar, Lecturer, Theory and Art History University of Pecs, Pécsi, Hungary; Övül Durmuşoğlu, Curator a...

Salon | Discussion | Beyond Austerity: New Models of Support for Art in Crisis in video for the ones who like to follow this very good comparative discussion on support models across Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Hungary

[theladyfromshanghai]

‘The end of Mother Theresa Boulevard, a pedestrian street in downtown Pristina, is marked by the slightly run-down Grand Hotel Prishtina and its weird twin, a post-war attachment to the main building. It is a sunny Saturday afternoon, summer has definitely arrived, and excited teenagers dressed up for their school prom are gathered in front of the hotel that was once the pride of Pristina, marking the beat of its social life. During the struggle for liberation, the Grand Hotel was first a press office for the international media and then the headquarters for Serbian paramilitary troops. Buildings around the public square stand for the many faces and phases of a recent, heavy history. Crossing the street, down by the busy Metro Cafe, a backyard hosts the freshly opened project space Lambdalambdalambda, an initiative of Viennese curatorial duo Isabella Ritter and Katharina Schendl. Currently on view is “Daily Business,” a collaboration between Tobias Spichtig and Paolo Thorsen-Nagel. In its close vicinity are the state television studio, the iconic National Library built in 1982 by the Croatian architect Andrija Mutnjakovic with an imposing Brutalist design, and the Kosova National Art Gallery. Everything around the scene is part of its meaning: a multiverse that exists somewhere between everyday events and our perception of them.’

[theladyfromshanghai]

The Good Work

‘In the beginning of 2000s, the history of contemporary art in Turkey was interpreted as one of mothers and their bastard boys. The force brought by strong women artists such as Fusun Onur, Gulsun Karamustafa, Ayse Erkmen, Hale Tenger and Aydan Murtezaoglu to the scene was locked somehow to the fundamental metaphor of reproductive labour. On the other hand, Turkey's collective unconscious is conditioned by the omnipresent father figures, may it be the republic's founder Ataturk, the current president Erdogan, or the leader of the Kurdish political movement Ocalan. This is where the critical question for women in Turkey becomes not to speak as mothers only, but to be first liberated from the position of father's daughters or to speak from the position of fatherless daughters. Many women as artists, writers and curators have been currently working to keep contemporary art scene functioning, though almost none hold directorial positions in the institutions. There are influential women patrons who care about the future of the scene. However, such a picture is rarely discussed in detail. On the other hand, a left party in Turkey entered the elections with woman and man co-chairs. In the parliament 31 of their MPs out of 80 are women. With 98 women MPs in total, it is the highest percentage of women in parliament in Turkish political history. When contemporary art is a mirror image of post-democratic governments who mimic the erratic male genius artist behaviour, is the active political life the only way to fight for different visibilities?  How can we produce unexpected positions of reproductivity for women beyond being the sacrificial icons? Tomorrow is the question.’