Ahmet Ögüt: Strategies for Radical Democracy
Ahmet Ögüt
Strategies for Radical Democracy
January 15 March 2 2014
Curated by Rhonda Corvese
OPENING RECEPTION
Wednesday January 15 5 - 8pm
A FREE shuttle bus will depart from Mercer Union 1286 Bloor Street W at 6pm and return for 8:30pm. Artist and curator will be in attendance.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Strategies for Radical Democracy is the first solo exhibition of Turkish artist Ahmet Ögüt in Canada. The exhibition features seven key works dating from 2009 to 2013 showcasing the range of ts artistic practice including installation intervention video and performance. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a raised platform structure illustrating the artists theory titled Strategic Diagram for Non-hierarchical Participatory Radical Democracy. The diagrammatic structure functions as a way to analyze socio-political shifts and demarcate mediation. ts theories of Non-hierarchical Participatory Radical Democracy are delineated in his artistic practice as 1 Time Speed Distance; 2 Reconstructing Recent History; 3 Fiction/Illusion; and 4 Autonomy Self-Organization. Viewers are invited to participate with their own theories by writing on the diagram with the chalk provided. The platform diagram provides a quasi-directional module for the exhibition by dividing the gallery into four corresponding zones each wall indicating a zone with works by t which reference its respective zone.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Ahmet Ögüt is a highly acclaimed Turkish visual artist who lives and works in Istanbul Amsterdam and Berlin. Working across a variety of media including installation performance sculpture video drawings and texts t has gained international acclaim for his subtle references to complex topics such as religion social and rural customs and the spectre of war often offset by an edge of humour. He defines three main objectives within his work as the politics of distance the notion of time and the conception of speed. t recently completed a year-long residency at Tate and the Delfina Foundation in London resulting in the major ongoing project The Silent University 2012 as well as a month-long residency in Finland with Checkpoint Helsinki producing the installation/performance Fahrenheit 451: Reprinting. Ögüt recently had solo exhibitions at Kunsterhaus Stuffgart; SALT Beyoglu Istanbul Fondazione Giuliani Rome Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney and Kunsthalle Basel. Selected group exhibitions include the 7th Liverpool Biennial the 12th Istanbul Biennial the 4th Moscow Biennial Performa 09 in New York the 5th Berlin Biennial and the upcoming 19th Sydney Biennale 2014. He is winner of the 2010 Europas Zukuft prize form the Museum of Contemporary Art GfZK Leipzig the 2011 Volkskrant Art Prize The Special Prize of the Future Generation Art Prize 2012 and in 2013 was awarded The Visible Award for his project The Silent University. In 2009 Ögüt co-represented Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts the Ontario Arts Council and University of Toronto Mississauga Student Housing & Residence Life. In partnership with the Masters of Visual Studies MVS Proseminar series.
Design by Matthew Hoffman.
CONTACT
Blackwood Gallery
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Rd.
Mississauga ON L5L 1C6
905.828.3789
Gallery Hours
Monday to Friday: 12 5pm
Wednesday until 9pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12 3pm
