Coordinated by istanbul Foundation For Culture and arts (İKsV), the PaVilion oF turKey at the VeniCe biennale 2019 will exhibit the artist İnCi eViner’s worK entitled “we, elsewhere”, whiCh brings together diFFerent elements suCh as drawings, objeCts, Videos, sounds and PerFormanCes. a Press ConFerenCe held on February 12, unVeiled the details regarding the ProjeCt. The Venice Biennale 58th International Art Exhibition, one of the world’s leading art events, will be held between May 11-November 24, 2019. Coordinated by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Pavilion of Turkey will feature the artist İnci Eviner’s work entitled “We, Elsewhere”. Curated by Zeynep Öz, the exhibition to be featured at the Pavilion of Turkey will take place at the Arsenale, one of the main venues of the Venice Biennale. İnci Eviner, who will transform the Pavilion of Turkey into a stage for We, Elsewhere, will give place to architectural elements, videos, sound installations and objects which she remodelled by setting out from her own drawings, creating different sensory and visual layers. The details regarding We, Elsewhere, which will be hosted by the Pavilion of Turkey this year, have been announced at a press conference held at Salon İKSV on Tuesday evening, February 12. The meeting was attended by keynote speakers including Bige Örer, the Istanbul Biennial Director and İKSV’S Contemporary Art Projects Director, Arzu Çolakoğlu, the Corporate Communication Director of Tofaş on behalf of Fiat, the Sponsor of the Pavilion of Turkey, along with the artist İnci Eviner and Zeynep Öz, the curator of the exhibition. Following the opening speeches, İnci Eviner and Zeynep Öz mentioned the prevalent art practice of Eviner and the previous works of the artist-curator duo, and accordingly unveiled the details of the work entitled We, Elsewhere, which will be exhibited at the Pavilion of Turkey at the Venice Biennale. We, Elsewhere, stands for a work related to spaces that emerged as a result of collective displacement. The exhibition, whose preparations are still in process, will invite the audience to meditate upon how individuals in these spaces react and interact with one another and with their own memories. This work, for which İnci Eviner used reconfigured objects and imaginary characters that she created with various sound elements, will present the audience with the sense of being lost, erased and elsewhere. Spaces, characters and objects created for the Pavilion of Turkey, will present a narrative akin to the struggles cited in We Refugees, which was written in 1943 by German political scientist Hannah Arendt. “These figures are constantly changing places through the space so as to find their other halves. This endeavor is actually an attempt to recapture their interrupted and invalidated memory and bodies. While these figures create this setting, they find themselves obligated to pick up mythologies and memories, the habits of everyday life, their joy and sorrow and put them into place. I try to keep myself in and out of events to witness all of this. The responsibility of being a witness is in the questioning of being ‘us’,” İnci Eviner said on We, Elsewhere. Regarding the project, curator Zeynep Öz said: “Eviner in this project uses the architectural structure as a basis that brings together the elements of movement such as video and live performance, thus reflecting on matters of migration and confinement in constantly changing subjectivity formation.” We, Elsewhere, also offers an in-depth look at the art practice of İnci Eviner, who scrutinizes in her works how the individual’s body movements shape their spirit and behavior. Just as in the previous works of the artist, the beginning and backbone of We, Elsewhere, is also grounded on her drawings. Based on these drawings, the work features a multi-layered structure created by the juxtaposition of different disciplines. For her work entitled We, Elsewhere, İnci Eviner works with people from different disciplines. The architectural design of the project is carried out by Birge Yıldırım Okta and Gürkan Okta, while sound design is made by Tolga Tüzün. Videos to be projected within the Pavilion of Turkey are undertaken by performing artists and dancers Canan Yücel Pekiçten, Melih Kıraç and Gülden Arsal. The cinematography of the videos is carried out by Aydın Sarıoğlu, while the post-production is done by Cem Gökçimen and Cem Perin. Okay Karadayılar and Ali Taptık (ONAGÖRE) undertake the project’s visual identity and the design of the new publication, which will meet the audience with the launch of the Pavilion of Turkey. The Venice Biennale 58th International Art Exhibition to be held between May 11-November 24, 2019, is curated by Ralph Rugoff. The biennale, whose theme was announced as “May You Live in Interesting Times”, features exhibitions from various countries, also including the Pavilion of Turkey, at Arsenale and Giardini, in addition to the main exhibition curated by Rugoff.
