SAHA Studio, which fosters hospitality, interaction and production program for artists and curators, presents an interdisciplinary selection that brings together the new works of period artists and the projects of international artists invited by partner art institutions under the World Weather Network (WWN).
Working to support the creative environments of Turkish artists and increase their interaction with international art institutions and actors, SAHA, together with 28 art institutions from around the world, has created the World Weather Network to interpret global warming and climate crisis phenomena through the eyes of artists.
Within the framework of this project, the new works of multidisciplinary artists such as Elmas Deniz, Can Küçük and Burcu Yağcıoğlu, who have been working at SAHA Studio for a while, meets the art goers for the first time. The artists included in the project tackle the issue of ecological crises through different mediums, such as sculpture, video, installation, design and performance.
Notable works
The video titled "An Illusion of Encounter" produced by Elmas Deniz at SAHA Studio focuses on the species that are brought to the brink of extinction or transformed as an inevitable result of human-induced environmental crises and global warming. In the performance titled "Council of Lost Plants," where Elmas uses scaled plant sculptures, she raises the question of how a negotiation area can be created between humans and other creatures.
The works that Can Küçük produced at SAHA Studio under the main title "Burning" are shaped around the concepts of "heat" and "source." Heat, one of the fundamental determinants of the relationship between the human body and the environment and the elements in the environment, manifests itself as crisis situations in sudden temperature changes. The works that focus on the source examine the backward production process, the person and the conditions that produce the objects.
"Dear Lethargy" by Burcu Yağcıoğlu, produced at SAHA Studio, is a multilayered project shaped around the concepts of laziness, inertia and lethargy. The project, which draws inspiration from fields such as psychoanalysis, physics, biology, science fiction and mythology, is based on thoughts and speculations that stopping and inertia can be a radical way of existence in a reality where the endless movements of humans lead the planet toward destruction.
The special report prepared by Yusuf Sevinçli for SAHA and WWN documents a photography series that captures the peripheral areas of Istanbul, which are rapidly losing their natural texture due to heavy industry and construction projects. The artist's photographs are accompanied by a text in which he recounts his experiences and encounters during a three-day exploration journey.
Productions selected in collaboration with various international institutions, such as Artangel (U.K.), Artingenium (Spain), Bundanon (Australia), Dhaka Art Summit (Bangladesh), MALI - Lima Art Museum & Proyectoamil (Peru), NEON (Greece), Odawara Art Foundation (Japan) and Te Tuhi (New Zealand), will also be included in the WWN presentation at SAHA Studio.