POLES, exhibition poster, organizer's materials.
The concept of POLES is based on the double meaning of the word “poles”. It refers to the nationality of the artists from Poland, as well as to opposite poles; understood as in the geographical sense. The Polish artists to exhibit in Istanbul who have prepared their work in relation to their understanding and impressions of Turkish art, include Konrad Kuzyszyn, Wojciech Leder, Artur Malewski, Anna Orlikowska, Sławomir Sobczak, Zbigniew Taszycki, Anna Tyczyńska, and Tomasz Wendland.
The opening for POLES will take place on 20 June, 2014 at The Empire Project Gallery in Istanbul. As a follow-up to the exhibition in Istanbul, Turkish artists from Istanbul and Berlin will present their work in Poland in the context of the international 4 Mediations Biennale in Poznań between 21 September and 26 October.
By the end of the Cold War, the world was actually divided into three poles; according to the French sociologist Alfred Sauvy. These were the “First World” (Western Europe, North America and Australia); the “Second World” (Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and some countries in Latin America); and the so-called “Third World” (all other countries). With the advent of the mass availability of the Internet in the 90s, the processes of globalization and cultural diffusion accelerated, rendering the “polarization” of world geographies irrelevant.
Similarly, the rate at which the Internet penetrates our everyday life is enormous and getting bigger each day. Nowadays, it is preferable to communicate via the Internet rather than personally. This change also affects the language of contemporary art. In the search for simplified and universal forms of communication, civilization leads to the standardization of culture, as exemplified by the global use of the English language. The aesthetics used by artists of different cultures blur the traces of linguistic identity. POLES regards these changes as “creative disagreements” and argues that, after all, “poles” do not have to lie on two opposite hemispheres.
The event is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Culture.pl and co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. It is a part of the cultural programme for the 600th anniversary of the Polish-Turkish diplomatic relations in 2014.
For more information on the conceptual framework of the exhibition, dates and venue, please visit the event website here.
Visit The Empire Project Gallery, here.
Edited by K.M, and E.M. 02/06/2014
