Mardin Biennial 2015 - Mythologies

There were many obstacles that had to be overcome, but it seems as if our work finally made it to the Mardin Biennial that is opening in Turkey on the 15th of May 2015. This is not in the least because of curator Claudia Segura's ceaseless efforts behind the scenes to have it shown, despite objections by local politicians, Dutch embassy travel bans, and other problems.

Our contribution consists of a collection of Turkish newspapers, bought on the 18th of December 2004. Headline news that day was that the European Union had finally agreed to start accession negotiations with Turkey. On video, two members of the communist party flip through the newspapers, providing a personal, if not Marxist, commentary on the state of the press in Turkey.

More than ten years later this work of art will be now exhibited for the first time, in the beautiful medieval town of Mardin.

We hope that the crumbling walls of the exhibition venue and the biennial's overarching Mythologies theme provide an ideal setting for the work's dormant function to come into operation: to historicise, and to derive its significance from everything that has, or rather hasn't, happened since.

The biennale has been realized with the contribution of local people in Mardin as well as other volunteered individuals including:

Döne Otyam, Ferhat Özgür, Fırat Arapoğlu, Mehmet Baran, Claudia Segura Campins, Sait Tunç, Mesut Alp,  Fikret Atay, Hakan Irmak,  Özge Ersoy, Ferhat Satıcı, Hülya Özdemir, Canan Budak,  Can Bulgu.

Participating artists:
Ahmet Elhan, Aikaterini Gegisian, Alban Muja, Ani Setyan, Antonio Cosentino, Aysel Alver, Babak Kazemi, Canan Budak, Claire Hooper, David Blandy, Deniz Aktaş, Dilan Bozyel, Dilara Akay, Eda Gecikmez, Elena Bajo, Erick Beltrán, Ethem Erkan, Evrim Kavcar, Fani Zguro, Fırat Engin, Gabi Yerli, Hakan Kırdar, Halil Altındere, Haris Epaminonda, Iratxe Jaio & Klaas Van Gorkum, Işıl Eğrikavuk-Jozef Erçevik Amado, İbrahim Ayhan, Iman Issa, Isabel Rocamora, Juan Del Gado, Khaled Hafez, Krassimir Terziev, Lena Von Lapschina, Mehtap Baydu, Melih Apa, Metin Ezilmez, Miquel Garcia, Mike Berg, Murat Akagündüz, Murat Germen, Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz, Nadi Güler, Necla Rüzgar, Nezir Akkul, Nooshin Farhid, Oriol Vilanova, Özlem Günyol-Mustafa Kunt, Pedro Torres, Romain Kronenberg, Sait Tunç, Stuart Brisley, Şefik Özcan, Thierry Payet, Ursula Mayer, Yavuz Tanyeli, Yaygara

For more information: www.mardinbienali.org