Spring heralds exhibitions from nature's heart

The Borusan Contemporary, one of the art centers at the heart of Istanbul, is greeting the upcoming spring with three international exhibitions drawing attention to nature and sources of life between April 4 and August 23



Borusan Contemporary, which has prepared an intense program for spring and summer, will greet visitors with three new exhibitions starting April 4. Carsten Nicolai's "Strange Attractors," the group exhibition "Essential Matters" and "Common Ground: Air," which features selections from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, will be open until Aug. 23.Essential Matters: Moving Image Concept in ChinaCurator: Necmi SönmezFor the first time in Turkey, the group exhibition "Essential Matters" presents prominent elements of modern Chinese art moving image and video work. Composed of the work of over 30 media artists, the exhibition focuses on different generations in China through certain metaphors. As the invited Chinese artists examined Chinese society from different perspectives, "Essential Matters" is able to center on various metaphors. What make videos in the exhibition astonishing and brilliant are the artists' efforts to capture realities. At the exhibition different generations are represented, from Zang Peili who was born in 1957 to Tao Hui who was born in 1987, with real-time mediums and different video techniques. While the works of artists who belong to different generations enable the viewer to have a historical perspective on the exhibition, they also invite viewers to comprehend various approaches in Chinese contemporary art. The common ground for the display is that it enables people to experience different dream-like worlds. Necmi Sözmez, the curator of the exhibition, lives in Dusseldorf, Germany working as an independent curator and art historian.Carsten Nicolai: Strange AttractorsCurator: Kathleen FordeResiding in Berlin, artist Carsten Nicolai makes use of scientific models as tools to draw attention to natural phenomena in his third exhibition titled "Strange Attractors." The display offers its visitors various experiences from the visualization of heat waves to the sonic expression of radiation signals and encourages them to define the unrecognizable. The experience, which is not common under normal circumstances, creates a chance for perception of the viewer. Nicolai, whose understanding of esthetics is characteristically minimal, uses nature as the theme that inspires his work as it is associated with limitless sources. This organic tension in his work functions like a dynamic system where certain actions and reactions are presented and encourage the viewer to continue philosophically figuring out those relationships. The exhibition "Strange Attractors" converts Borusan Contemporary's exhibition venue into a place with various elements from snowflakes and clouds to radiation and frequencies, which are difficult to describe, but known to all. The exhibition is curated by Borusan Contemporary art director Kathleen Forde.Common Ground: AirCurator: Nazlı GürlekCurated by Nazlı Gürlek, "Common Ground: Air" is the third exhibition in the series "Common Ground: Earth, Water, Air - Selections from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection" that is on view throughout 2015. The series, which intends to offer a thematic look at the collection of Borusan Contemporary and is composed of three exhibitions thematically related to each other, brings artwork together according to their relationships with the collective concepts of earth, water and air. Responding to the unique and site-specific paradigm of Borusan Contemporary, the works are installed in the public spaces and offices of Borusan Holding at Perili Köşk. "Common Ground: Air" proposes its viewers to make a connection with a series of worldly matters related to air and different representations of air as a way to engage with contemporary art and the world. Earth, water and air, the resources important for everyone as they are needed for life, are elements whose management bears importance for our lives on earth insofar as equality and sustainability are concerned. The exhibition focuses on the meaning of this within the frame of a selection composed of works from the corporate collection in terms of either form or content. The exhibition, which features several forms of art, including photographs, paintings, interactive installations, videos, neon and prints is composed of the representations of air. The curator of the exhibition, Nazlı Gürlek, is an Istanbul-based independent curator and writer.