Life, Death, Love, and Justice

Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts hosts “Life, Death, Love, and Justice”, a group exhibition which proposes a look at the injustices experienced in different geographies through love, hope, and resistance.

The injustices caused by social, political, gender inequality, or ecological reasons — which are experienced in different forms all over the world — have become more evident with the global epidemic in the last few years.. Contemporary artists living in Turkey and international artists address these problems, sometimes with a hopeful approach that celebrates love and life, and sometimes on a ground that encourages thought-provoking alternatives. “Life, Death, Love, and Justice” includes new works made for the exhibition, as well as recent photographs, installations, videos, and wall paintings borrowing its title from the sound installation by Hale Tenger, the exhibition hopes for a platform where no one is discriminated against because of their life choices — with respect and solidarity for the pursuit of rights and justice.

Cansu Yıldıran’s photograph celebrates nature, the body, and independence — aims to create an unusual kind of Honor Monument by emphasizing the existence of queer bodies. The photography series “The Relatives” (2019), produced by the Berlin-based artist Jasper Kettner together with the activist İbrahim Arslan, proposes a perspective that highlights the individual story of each person, rather than reducing people to numbers, anonymizing them and making them victims. Istanbul-born artist Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun's installation relating to the Galatasaray Square, “Repetition” (2015 - ongoing), creates a modest memorial space in itself. Aslı Uludağ works meticulously by witnessing the manifestations of the slow violence caused by the geothermal energy in the Büyük Menderes, Denizli, and Gediz Grabens in the Aegean Region and the resistance that arises from the people of the region.

Viron Erol Vert's autobiographical and performative video adds both the hope of finding the lost and a home and the inner world dimension to the exhibition. Babi Badalov, an Azerbaijani-born artist based in Paris, explores the boundaries of language with different alphabets in his fabric works, as well as his site-specific visual poems on the wall. Hungarian photographer István Zsiros's photographic work is showing people fleeing the war in Syria and camping at the Budapest train station captures a moment of pure love and hope.

“Hope Archive: Letters” (2015, 2022), originally produced as a sound work by artist Larissa Araz, finds a new form as a wall-piece through abstraction and re-visualization. The exhibition continues with an installation by Vienna-based artist Rojda Tuğrul discussing the disrupted ecosystems of endangered Euphrates turtles and the use of nature as a weapon. Savaş Boyraz’s photographs are asking the question "How do people document destruction?". Printed on fabric these three photographs from series‘the State we are in’ (2018) are capturing three broken objects standing in front of the calm and fascinating nature landscape. “Triple Chaser” video work by Forensic Architecture, a multidisciplinary research and artist group investigating human rights violations around the world will be presented for the first time in Istanbul. On the upper floor, the surreal film-poem by Dana Kavelina that examines the conflict in Ukraine and depicts an alternative perspective is exhibited. Istanbul-based artist Şafak Şule Kemancı's new site-specific work refers to the unstoppable nature of love and passion, inspired by the fluidity of water.

Featuring the work by Forensic Architecture, Larissa Araz, Atlas of Justice, Sevgi Aka, Babi Badalov, Savaş Boyraz, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Ayşe Draz, Marianne Fahmy, Dana Kavelina, Jasper Kettner & İbrahim Arslan, Şafak Şule Kemancı, Rojda Tuğrul, Hale Tenger, Aslı Uludağ, Viron Erol Vert, Cansu Yıldıran, and István Zsíros, the exhibition is curated by Didem Yazıcı and Peter Sit. Burcu Çimen is the assistant curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition is supported by the French Cultural Center, Goethe-Institut Istanbul and Tarabya Cultural Academy, can be visited at Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts between September 15, 2022 and January 2, 2023.

A publication with the same name to accompany the exhibition will be published by Yapı Kredi Publishing in October. The book, which will be published in Turkish and English, will include the texts of Banu Karaca and Didem Yazıcı, and detailed information about the works of the artists in the exhibition.

PUBLIC PROGRAMME
Save the date for a curator and artist talk at 18:30 on September 15, 2022 at 18:30. In the conversation, the curator Didem Yazıcı and the participating artists will talk about the conceptual framework and processes of preparing the exhibition.

The concepts of life, death, love, and justice will be discussed in the artist workshops will be held October. There will also be a talk on the book prepared for the exhibition during this period.

The performance by Ayşe Draz based on the exhibition will meet the audience in the exhibition venue in December.