Sarkis' heart to beat in Istanbul

Sarkis' heart to beat in Istanbul

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A master of installation art will bring examples from his 50-year professional career to Istanbul from the world's museums. Sarkis' exhibition 'Site,' which will open Sept. 11 at the Istanbul Modern Museum in the historical neighborhood of Karaköy, will be the most comprehensive exhibition of his work ever displayed







Sarkis' exhibition can be seen at Istanbul Modern from Sept. 11.

Wherever Sarkis may be, the rhythms of his heart will echo in Istanbul everyday for four months as the city hosts the most comprehensive exhibition of the conceptual artist’s work to date.



The Sarkis exhibit will open Sept. 11 at the Istanbul Modern Museum in the historic neighborhood of Karaköy and cover an area of 1,500 square meters.



A master of installation art, Sarkis, who lives in Paris, is showcasing the fruits of his 50-year professional career in the world’s leading contemporary art museums. Even though he has previously organized a few exhibitions in Istanbul in recent years, his new exhibit, “Site,” will be the first of its kind in many ways.



“Memory has turned into image for the first time in this exhibition. Images wanted to come together and called for each other. I have never made a combination using images thus far,” said the Turkish-born Armenian artist, who has come to Istanbul to prepare his exhibition.



The images that Sarkis mentions are the photographs – some 20,000 of them – that he has taken in his exhibitions for half a century. From his massive archive, the artist has chosen just 50 images for this exhibit.



Exhibition in 1/20-scale models



The photographs will be used like posters, to cover the walls of the exhibition space. “Walls seem miserable to me; they are temporary, and cannot be included in the space,” said Sarkis. “Characterless walls will become living creatures during this exhibit.”



For the first time in his career, Sarkis has created a mock-up of the Istanbul Modern exhibit, replicating the museum’s 1,500-square-meter exhibition area in 1/20-scale models to ensure that every detail is perfect for the show.



A piano’s sad story



An old piano, brought from the Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital in Istanbul’s Yedikule district, will be one of the most important parts of the exhibition. What makes the piano important is its interesting story.



In 1997, Sarkis’ mother died at the Surp Pırgiç hospital. When he heard the news, the artist came to the hospital. While en route to the room where his mother had died, he noticed an old piano tucked away under the stairs. After the funeral ceremony, he came to the hospital again and saw a person skillfully playing the piano. “The piano stuck in my mind like a geometric coffin and I have never forgotten it,” he said.



Sarkis will put the piano next to a statue in the exhibition area. If he can find the person who played the piano in the hospital that day, he will ask him to give a concert at the museum.



Rules of the Sarkis School



An art school that will open at the Istanbul Modern as part of the exhibition will give eight young artists the opportunity to meet with Sarkis. Each of them will spend five hours with the artist on different days.



“We will talk about their work in a room for five hours. I will take notes and try to find out their personalities. We will try to fit everything into this period of time, as if we have no time left. We will challenge time with this work,” said Sarkis, adding that he would not meet with the young people again after the first meeting. “We will see each other again in the exhibition area. These young artists will see how the world changes when passing from private to public.”



What he means by “private” is the five hours that he will spend alone with the artists. And by “public,” he means the exhibition area, where they will come into contact with the public.



The number 19.970 in neon



Viewers will have many surprises at “Site,” including the sounds of thunder and other metallic noises echoing through the exhibition area from time to time. The most attractive sound will be the rhythm of the artist’s heart. “Wherever I may be in the world, I will record the beats of my heart everyday and send them to the exhibition,” said Sarkis. “The beats of my heart will echo in the exhibition space.”



At the entrance to the exhibition space, the number 19.970, a reference to the date his mother died, will be illuminated in neon. “With the zero that will be added behind the number 1997, when my mother died, life and death will be reset,” Sarkis said. “I am an artist who pays attention to memory. Each coincidence will bring a new one.”



“Site” will be on view at the Istanbul Modern through Jan. 10, 2010, and will also have an online component at www.sarkis.fr. Concerts and screenings of world cinema masterpieces during the exhibition will further Sarkis’ goal of “merging Istanbul with the world in this exhibition.”



BOX



The art of installation



Installation art is a genre of often site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the viewer’s perception of a space. The term is generally applied to works in interior spaces. Installation artworks have been constructed in standard exhibition spaces such as museums and galleries, as well as other public and private spaces. Practitioners of the genre incorporate a broad range of everyday and natural materials, often chosen for their evocative qualities, as well as new media such as video, sound, performance, immersive virtual reality and the Internet. Many installations are site-specific, in that they are designed only to exist in the space for which they were created.