Throughout the summer, The Bodrum EDITION offers a holistic cultural experience that seamlessly blends art, music, architecture and gastronomy within its refined atmosphere. Reflecting this vision, the hotel recently hosted an exclusive Art Dinner at BRAVA by Stefano Ciotti, in collaboration with Muse Contemporary Gallery. The evening, curated by Pınar Akalın, founder of Muse, featured the exhibition "4 Billion AD" by artist Emin Mete Erdoğan.
Erdoğan, known for his distinctive style that merges technical drawing with classical painting disciplines, uses this latest body of work to transport viewers back to the very origins of life – an inquiry rooted in both scientific and philosophical exploration. In "4 Billion AD," the artist traces a personal and collective timeline to the moment of abiogenesis: when life first emerged from lifelessness. Through this lens, he reconstructs his understanding of the present, re-evaluating concepts of self, humanity and nature. The title, though suggestive of the future, ultimately serves as a framework for examining the present. “People define the present based on their perception of the past,” Erdoğan explains. “Once I redefined my starting point, my ideologies and beliefs began to lose their meaning. What remained was a fundamental reconsideration of life itself.”
Central to the exhibition is Erdoğan’s interest in the human relationship with nature – one often defined by distance and superiority. His work questions whether nature is truly something external, or rather, the very environment within which we exist. Drawing on research from natural history museums, he focused in particular on Carboniferous-era plant fossils, choosing flora that long predate the animals in his compositions. The resulting images combine species from vastly different geological epochs, placing a giraffe alongside a penguin, or a dinosaur next to a contemporary animal. These juxtapositions create a sense of spatial and temporal ambiguity, deliberately blurring lines between periods, ecosystems and conceptual boundaries.
“My goal was to create a timeless, placeless visual language,” Erdoğan noted. “I want to present the overwhelming diversity and texture of nature – not as something linear or logical, but as something far more complex and fluid.” He hopes that viewers will reconsider their assumptions about what it means to be human, to be part of nature, or to perceive life at all. He describes his artworks as mirrors: reflective surfaces that allow each viewer to interpret the pieces through their own intellectual and emotional framework.
In the context of today’s art world – where themes of artificial intelligence, ecological collapse and post-truth culture dominate – Erdoğan’s work doesn’t aim to offer definitive answers. Instead, he positions art as a rare space where ambiguity is not only permitted but embraced. “Art can exist even without claiming truth,” he said. “That’s a tremendous power. A religious figure cannot claim their holy book is fiction, as it would undermine the belief system. But a writer – or an artist – can say exactly that and still create something significant.”
Citing figures like J.R.R. Tolkien, Erdoğan draws a line between narrative creation and philosophical assertion. If Tolkien had claimed "The Lord of the Rings" to be true, it might have become a religion. However, by acknowledging its fictionality, the work retained its status as art. “This distinction,” Erdoğan explains, “between a work of art and a claim to truth, leads to vastly different outcomes.” He suggests that postmodernism blurred this boundary to such an extent that art lost some of its ability to stand independently of its underlying beliefs. Today, he argues, art sometimes functions more like a New Age ideology than a critical inquiry.
With "4 Billion AD," Erdoğan invites viewers into a realm where time dissolves and nature is rendered in all its contradictory beauty. The exhibition remains open to visitors at The Bodrum EDITION until Aug. 30.
