The new work of international artist Kutluğ Ataman is open to visit for art lovers on the internet. "Wall," which Kutluğ Ataman has imagined for the U.S.- Mexico border, was exhibited at Canada's Illingworth Kerr Gallery within the #undoingwalls project last month, and it can be seen on undoingwalls.net, the project's online platform.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection have called contractors for designing a prototype wall for the border between the U.S. and Mexico in the previous months. After this call, the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, affiliated with the Alberta College of Art+Design (ACAD), started the project of #undoingwalls. Among the artists who have been invited to produce alternative scenarios for the project that aims to change the meaning of border checkpoints, Kutluğ Ataman has taken his place.
#undoingwalls has asked the following questions to the artists: "Can a wall which offers an alternative solution to discrimination and which is welcoming be designed when the topic is migration and refuge?" "Can this construction of a prototype wall be an area in which opposite narrations and resistance take place?" "Can we dislocate the system in itself with its own rules?" "Can a wall be a channel against separation with a new design?" "Can a wall that is permeable on purpose or that demolishes itself in an opposite way to its purpose be imagined?"
Participating in the project with his work "Wall," Kutluğ Ataman designed the border between the U.S. and Mexico from salt stones. In the work, which is seen on three different screens, the wall melts in time, and a scar appears. The more it melts, the more this scar on the border becomes clearer. Ataman has worked with Murat Çetin from the Artı Eksi Sıfır Architecture Company in the preparation period of the work, and the editing of the film is made by Metin Çavuş, who is also the director of the Kutluğ Ataman documentary that can be viewed for free on Witch TV.
Curated by Lorenzo Fusi, the exhibition #ideasforawall, houses the works of Adrian Paci, Monica Bonvicini, Nedko Solakov, Richard Wilson, Tania Bruguera and Raqs Media together with Kutluğ Ataman, and it is now open to visit for all art lovers on the internet. Those who want to exhibit their works can upload them on the online platform of the #undoingwalls project, which is now open to outside works.
