The recently opened Mardin Biennial is a great opportunity to see some of the world's best artists all in one place. Organized for the first time in 2010, the biennial brings momentum to the southeastern province of Mardin through art, artists, academicians, students and people from different cultures.
The fifth edition of the Mardin Biennial, which is hosted by the Mardin Cinema Association and directed by Döne Otyam and Hakan Irmak, was prepared with the theme "Promises of Grass.” The biennial will take place between May 20 and June 20, and is curated by independent curator, theorist and writer Adwait Singh from New Delhi, India.
The authentic event brings together the works of artists from a wide geography, from Denmark to Kazakhstan, from Bulgaria to South Africa, from Haiti to Switzerland and the U.S. Among the artists of the biennial, participating from 21 countries, are Abdessamad El Montassir, Asuncion Molinos, Bouba Toure, Raphael Grisey, Dina Amro, Jonas Staal, Kamen Stoyanov, Karan Shrestha, Kathyayini Dash, Marwa Arsanios, Nandita Kumar, Neda Saeedi, Rakhi Peswani, Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam, Mikhail Karikis, Sasha Huber, Uriel Orlow, Sibel Horada, Deniz Üster, Burcu Yağcıoğlu, Lara Ögel, Merve Ünsal, Ömer Pekin, Server Demirtaş, Gülsün Karamustafa, Almagul Menlibayeva, Zahra Malkani, Ipek Hamzaoğlu, Fatoş Irwen, Jiten Thukral, Sumir Tagra, Bhagwati Prasad, E.B. Itso and Selma Gürbüz.
Let’s take a look at the most eye-catching works in Mardin.
Turkish artist Server Demirtaş participated in the 5th International Mardin Biennial with his work "The Scream." This work draws attention with its movement with the kinetic system developed by the artist himself.
Demirtaş’s innovative sense of art, which constantly seeks variation, has initiated the period of moving sculptures he has created by combining various machine parts in 1997. The mechanical sculptures of the artist are labor-intensive and are important samples of kinetic sculpture in Turkey.
The fact that Demirtaş has provided the movement through wheels by putting together off-the-shelf materials including car wipers and bicycle brakes in the creation process of his sculptures despite having no formal background in engineering makes us rethink relationships, like the ones between science, art and technology. While certain emotions are gradually more mechanized, the speed of daily life is conveyed to the viewers with an impressive reality in Demirtaş’s sculptures by virtually being taken into slow motion. They also display the ongoing relationship between the artist and creativity.
In his animatronic sculpture exhibited in Mardin, Demirtaş depicts an old, screaming person. While this figure is freed from reproductive and social obligations, armed with unique experiences and wisdom, the instinctive scream evokes the impression of pain.
Demirtaş explained in Mardin that he made his work not for the people over 65 who suffered from COVID-19 pandemic but for his sick father. “My sculpture is a work that I have been thinking about for a long time and was later inspired by Louise Bourgeois’ works. While doing this work, my father's illness and emotions were reflected. These emotions were unintentionally embroidered on the sculpture’s hands and face.”
Demirtaş’s “The Scream” is installed near works by Gürbüz, who is best known for visualizing cultural syntheses. Therefore, it may be said that the tribute to late Gürbüz’s art combines with the dramatism of Demirtaş in the strange ambiance of Mardin’s landmark stone houses.
“Oikos,” created by Pekin for the 5th Mardin Biennial, consists of 30 stools dispersed across the venues in the service of enabling other artworks. Created from repurposed wood and one of the most under-appreciated materials for furniture design, recycled paper, the stools contain flower seeds as a symbolic promise of a blooming future once the time comes for these utilitarian objects to retire.
Pekin generally develops digital imagery to explore digitally enhanced architectural compositions as art. Through the utilization of emergent systems and other computational algorithms, he has developed a unique form of visual practice that evolves between art and architecture. His works mimic analog abstract painting techniques by giving digital sources pseudo materiality. Questioning the relationship between physical qualities and the digital output, he aims to create various realities, each carrying a distinct aesthetic in terms of form and pattern. His work embodies different media such as digital imagery, prints, 3D prints and other objects.
