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CONSTELLATION
Since ancient times, constellations separated by imaginary borders, have helped define the positions of the stars in the sky. Mythologies have formed around characters resembled by these constellations. Constellations have been used by mankind in their efforts to interpret life and the universe as they observed space from the earth and connected dots from near and far. In other respects, a constellation is a notion referenced by the sociology of culture and is defined as “a point where thinking suddenly halts with overflowing tensions.” (A.K. Thompson via W. Benjamin). This is not an arbitrary point and image is “what-has-been, comes together in a flash with the now, to form a constellation.” (Susan Buck-Morss) Constellation is a phenomenon that occurs on the moment when different elements, facts, locations interrelate and intersects, and it is detectable and perceivable only when we start thinking about the potentials those moments possess: it refers to the pattern and not the fact. With this aspect, it reminds the clustering of artworks with one another as well as within the realm of art history.
In colloquial language Constellation is a concept that refers to a group of peoples or things that are interrelated or similar. In that sense, it refers to the setup that CABININ has developed for the 7th edition of the Çanakkale Biennial. It also represents the constitutive strategy of CABININ that consists of contemporary art-oriented relations, collaborations, as well as interdisciplinary interactions with disciplines such as architecture, archaeology, history, and ecology.
What Does it Look Like? / CABININ
“What Does It Look like?” exhibition, built by CABININ in the context of “Constellation”, focuses on works that address the forms and methods of communication in a time where the act of conveying information through face to face dialogue is getting “weaker” by the day. Bringing together the works of artists from different generations and disciplines on image, moving image, symbol, body and writing, the exhibition focuses on the intersection of communication and art. “What Does It Look Like?” aims at providing a context that focuses on our common heritage of symbols used as a tool of culture as it constructs reality. It triggers thinking and production of the potential of art’s symbolic language to predicate using its vast power to associate and appeals to us from outside and beyond the daily experience, evoke the possibility of change, transformation, metamorphosis of the reality, hint at conflict and plurality and eventually talk to us about the possibility of communicating with symbols by inventing new meanings through them.
“Culture: Damaged or Destroyed” / Azra Tüzünoğlu
Azra Tüzünoğlu’s four-part exhibition titled “Culture: Damaged or Destroyed” hosts works by women artists only. The first part focuses on the transience of human life and the permanence of cultural assets -when in fact it is quite the opposite- and draws attention to “The Endangered Culture”. Threats rendered invisible become apparent: Looting of artefacts deemed normal by colonialism, women labour going unnoticed under the patriarchy and the peripheral art, as obscured by art historians. The second part of the exhibition is titled “The World As We Know It” and it points to the end of the world as we know it. The “observant” role we have assumed where we merely watch the time and the remnants of it without being able to interfere comes alive in the artists’ dark and witty works. The third part named “The Language of Advertising” concentrates on the artists that stole/transformed the language of advertisements: “The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back.” (as per Karl Kraus).
The fourth and final part of the exhibition consists of a series of movements that takes place in Çanakkale's public space. Soundsslike project, which is a continuation of the Soundscape of Istanbul project, which aims to look at the daily life of the city through "sound" and to archive the urban sounds that can be seen as intangible cultural heritage with the contribution of the participants, is taking place in Çanakkale. The second leg of this section, which aims to produce a series of alternative "tours" in Çanakkale, is the "Urban Ecology" tour conducted by architect and researcher İsmail Erten, focusing on the flora of the city and especially on centuries-old trees, is designed as a web-based audio tour on the ecological texture of the city.
“Unwillingly But With Pleasure” / Agah Uğur Collection
The exhibition titled “Unwillingly But With Pleasure” is being produced upon the invitation by CABININ and is curated by Azra Tüzünoğlu. It consists of selected works from Agah Uğur’s journey as a collector which he defines as “that what matters more than the destination"*. The works from Agah Uğur’s collection are put together under the theme of “game” and they come into play in their own rhythm and harmony amidst all the chaos and imperfections of the world and thus offer a temporary and limited perfection. If we were to scrutinise our actions, we could conclude that all human actions could in fact be a child’s play (Homo Ludens, Huizinga). In this respect, the “game” is the desire to carry the weight of one’s own life, even though living is absurd, and the world is unfair. And above all, game is a voluntary action. The selected works from Uğur’s collection consists of works from Turkish contemporary art and post-2000 international video art.
*“[Collecting] is the pursue of the destiny of objects without necessarily putting forward their functional use or utility. The most meaningful spell that a collector casts over it is to restrain that singular object in a gravitational field. The object freezes in this field, as the final excitement, the excitement of acquiring it passes over it.”
The 7th Çanakkale Biennial will prioritize to create the conditions to present these works to art-lovers at different times and in different venues and contexts within the course of six months, and depending on the developments related to the global covid-19 pandemic, if deemed necessary, the biennial content will also be shared through digital and online media.
- Curator: CABININ, Azra Tüzünoğlu
- Director: Seyhan Boztepe
- Executive Curator: Deniz Erbaş
- Production Director: Kubilay Özmen
- Exhibition Management: Erdal Sezer
- Coordinator: Burak Topçakıl
- Design: Nesrin Mete, Turgut Erentürk
- Editors: Deniz Erbaş, Azra Tüzünoğlu
- Translation: Alev Uysal
- PR: Ebru Kalu
- Web: Onur Özer
- Social Media: Duygu Burunsuz
- Photo / Documentation: Saygın Mavinil, Melis Göbekçioğlu, Cem Katı
- Coordination Team: Fatih İlhan, Helin Sude Boztepe, İsmail Erten, Mehmet Erim, Mert Can Fırat, Murat Çetin, Ogün Yücel, Ovez Bagşıyev, Tolga Özbek, Uğur Mete, Ülkü Sönmez, Yeliz Saydan, Yıldız Çapkan
November 2020 - January 2012, Izmir - Çanakkale
Co-Thinking on Reminiscences of Contemporary Art
With a month-long programming comprising of exhibitions bringing out selections from the artworks inspired by these cities and produced within the scope of the Portİzmir and Çanakkale Biennials, as well as interviews and panels that bring together different institutions and experts of the field, the aim is to create an inspiring context about the sustainability of the reminiscences of the contemporary art practices. In the context of the current pandemic conditions, as well as under the effect of the earthquake that occurred in Izmir recently all exhibitions and panels will be organised online. With the support of Spaces of Culture
25 December 2020 - 25 January 2021, Online Exhibition
Winged Words / Layers
Winged Words / Layers, Troy Excavations Art Team, Online Exhibition 7th Çanakkale Biennial, Special Project: Winged Words / Layers Troy Excavations Art Team, Online Exhibition Artists: Burak Topçakıl, Erdal Sezer, Mehmet Erim, Ülkü Sönmez, Yağmur Elif Metin, Yeliz Saydan Curators: Deniz Erbaş, Seyhan Boztepe Consultant: Prof. Dr. Rüstem Aslan With the support of SAHA Association
21 02 2021 / 31 03 2021
12kernel > a digital archive/exhibition eperience
Global climate change, depletion of natural resources, plastic pollution, energy crises, economic stalemates, racism, inter-class division, social alienation and at the top of all of these a global epidemic; it can undoubtedly be argued that the technological civilization we established ourselves as a species is at a critical turning point. The "Human Age", which sweeps the planet we live on like a storm and extends back at least for half a century, has all the qualities and quantities defined as dystopia in countless fiction works. The 12kernel project attempts to keep an up-to-date record of the moment in order to challenge and reflect on the possibility of humankind for surviving and coping with the sequence of crises, using the intelligence and creativity against all threats against its own species at this critical threshold where we are present. / NomadMind, 2021
10 April 2021
Online Poster Exhibition
In the framework of the special program of the 7th Çanakkale Biennial, designers were invited to reflect on the title and conceptual framework of "constellation". This poster exhibition brings together the works of 45 designers from all over the world.

Agah Uğur, Ahmet Çelik, Akın Yalman, Ali Akol, Anzhelika Baryshnikova, Armağan Aydeğer, Aydın Sun, Ayşegül Özbek, Burak Güç, Bürosarıgedik, Carbon 12, Ceyhun Demir Enstrüman Yapım Atölyesi, Ciné Tamaris, Dada Neşeli Fikirler Atölyesi, Eray Ergeç, Faselis, Fatma Gezer, Fecri Polat, Galeri Akıncı, Galeri Nev, Ghislain Vidal-Giraud, Halil Altındere, Hou Hanru, Hüseyin Harput, İSEM Mimarlık ve İsmail Erten, Kathrin Becker, Kibriye Boztepe , LambdaLambdaLambda, Maria Lind, Mehmet Erim, MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art, Murat Çetin , Mustafa Kansu, Mustafa Mete, Nicoleta Andrei, Niyazi Önen, Nursac Sargon, Özgür Demirci, Petra Diehl, Rıdvan Demirhan, Rıdvan Gölcük, Sabire Susuz, Selami Harput, Syrago Tsiara, T. Fatih Şahin, Tolga Özbek, Yıldız Çapkan