Artists' Film International 2015

January 20 - March 12, 2015

Istanbul Modern presented Artists’ Film International, an exhibition and program dedicated to contemporary video art by featuring moving images, animations, and films of visual artists all around the world, in the pop-up exhibition area.

Throughout the year 2014, Istanbul Modern worked with Burak Delier and his video “Crisis and Control” (2013) was screened in the partner institutions. In 2015, the museum invited Vahap Avşar with his video "Road to Arguvan" (2013). Istanbul Modern hosted these two video installations together with others and thematic screenings of works by artists from 15 countries.

Initiated by the Whitechapel Gallery in 2008, the program is organized in partnership with 17 art institutions from different parts of the world, and In the previous years, Istanbul Modern participated in the program with works by Ali Kazma, İnci Eviner, Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Sefer Memişoğlu and Bengü Karaduman.

Within the scope of the program, the artists’ whose videos are shown in the exhibition, with the curatorial selection of Istanbul Modern are:

Yuri Ancarani, Vahap Avşar, Lee Kai Chung, Burak Delier, Dalila Ennadre, Provmyza Group, Mattias Harenstam, Oded Hirsch, Rebecca Ann Hobbs, Tran Luong, Jorge Macchi, Nicole Miller, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Uudam Tran Nguyen, Masooda Noora, Pallavi Paul, Elisabeth Price, Tejal Shah, Anatoly Shuravlev, Angela Su, Milica Tomic, Diego Tonus, Amir Yatziv, Tanya Busse & Emilija Škarnulytė

Program / Content: Çelenk Bafra, Senem Kantarcı

Artists’ Film International 2014-15 Program Partners

Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA

Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade, Serbia

CCAA / Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan

Cinémathèque de Tanger, Morocco

City Gallery Kfar Saba, Israel

City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand

Fundacion PRÓA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

GAMeC / Galleria D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy

Hanoi DOCLAB, Hanoi, Vietnam

KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Norway

n.b.k. / Neuer Berliner Kunstverein Video – Forum, Berlin, Almanya

Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong, Çin

Project 88, Mumbai, Hindistan

Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norveç (TKF)

NCCA / National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia

Whitechapel Gallery, Londra, Birleşik Krallık

Program

YURI ANCARANI

Il capo

2010, 15'

LEE KAI CHUNG

The History of Riot (The Dj)

2013, 9' 14''

DALILA ENNADRE

Walls and People

2013, 81'

PROVMYZA GROUP

Pitter-Patter

2009, 32'

MATTIAS HARENSTAM

Reconstruction

2013, 21'

ODED HIRSCH

The Tractor

2014, 13' 05''

REBECCA ANN HOBBS

246 Meter Bridge

2010, 2' 48''

TRAN LUONG

Lâp Lòe

2012, 10' 23"

JORGE MACCHI

12 Short Songs

2009, 9'

NICOLE MILLER

Untitled (David)

2012, 7' 9"

KAREN MIRZA & BRAD BUTLER

Unreliable Narrator

2014, 16' 50''

UUDAM TRAN NGUYEN

Waltz of the Machine

Equestrians

2012, 3'

MASOODA NOORA

...

2013, 7' 51''

PALLAVI PAUL

Long Hair, Short Ideas

2014, 24' 39''

ELIZABETH PRICE

At the House of MR X

2007, 20'

TEJAL SHAH

Some Kind of Nature

2013, 6' 30''

ANATOLY SHURAVLEV

Panic

2011, 2' 17''

ANGELA SU

Hartford Girl and Other Stories

2012, 11' 34''

MILICA TOMIĆ

"One day instead of one

night a burst of machine-gun

fire will flash, if light can not

come otherwise"

(Oskar Davičo)

2009, 10'

DIEGO TONUS

Speculative Speeches

(Workers of the World -

Relax)

2012, 22'

AMIR YATZIV

Detroit

2008/2009, 13'

TANYA BUSSE & EMILIJA ŠKARNULYTĖ

Hollow Earth

2013, 22' 30''

Guest of 2014

BURAK DELİER

Burak Delier examines the relationship between capitalism and contemporary art in the way that it intervenes into the system through the use of guerilla strategies and tactics he derives from everyday life. Burak Delier’s video focuses on how the modern-day relationship between the individual and their self, labor, and environment is shaped by the life-style imposed by neo-liberalism and flexible work conditions of the business world in which the individual is forced to participate to fulfill their personal needs and desires. Careerism, future anxiety, the focus on success, brutality of the business world and competitiveness are being "performed" and deciphered by real professionals. "Crisis and Control", inholding the privacy of a therapy room, becomes a session.

Guest of 2015

VAHAP AVŞAR

Vahap Avşar aims to reveal issues that have remained veiled in our region by using images that are engraved in memories as well as everyday objects and popular culture aesthetics. In the video, Vahap Avşar focuses on a gigantic crack that was formed in the 1980s on the only road connecting Arguvan, artist’s native town for generations, to the city of Malatya. Depth of the cracks in the asphalt has rendered the road useless, yet the government neither repairs it nor builds a new one. Cut off from the world, gradually deprived of fundamental facilities, and above all the hospital and courthouse, the town was abandoned to its fate. The main image and metaphor of "Road to Arguvan" is this deep crack. Shot with a hand-held camera, this short, shaky and intensive video full of mystery and associations can be read as a testament of the past and recent sociopolitical conflicts in Turkey.