Fatma Bucak: A World of Ten Thousand Things
Pi Artworks Istanbul is proud to present, the first solo exhibition A World of Ten Thousand Things by Fatma Bucak for Pi Artworks Istanbul curated by Övül Ö. Durmuşoğlu between the dates 26 September - 10 November 2018. The exhibition will feature site-specific installations including videos and a sculptural work.
A World of Ten Thousand Things is constructed around a base narrative of identity, expropriation, migration and the impossibility of categorical answers to the conflicts humankind faces in the struggle for power and authority. There is a Chinese expression 'We live in a world of ten thousand things,' that addresses the myriad visions of the material world that surround us. While it suggests the difficulty the human mind has in fathoming the external world, the expression also touches on the idea of grasping the personal fundament that will immediately connect with the collective. The violence of personal, collective and ideological borders is a recurrent theme in Fatma Bucak's work. In this exhibition, she looks to her research on the border dynamic between Mexico-USA for new installations to abstract the universality of violence and the artistic response in return.
With the resurgence of right wing populisms across the world, globalisation has turned from friend to foe. However, there have always been many unexpected violent and non-violent affinities with communities and cultures resisting one-sided ideological readings. It becomes impossible to ignore the fact that the process of subsuming our political and social subjectivities under micro and macro control models has brought us to our current predicament. Bucak looks at these themes through the lens of mythical stories of abandonment and survival. And the future cannot look elsewhere without acknowledging and accepting what it was that we did in the first place. Because we live in a world of ten thousand things.
Fatma Bucak, b.1984, London, Istanbul. Solo exhibitions include: So as to find the strength to see, Merz Foundation, Torino, Italy (2018); Sticks and Stones, Pi Artworks London, UK (2017); Damascus Rose, Harpe 45, Lausanne, Switzerland (2017); And men turned their faces from there, Brown University David Winton Bell Gallery, USA (2016); Suggested place for you to see it, Pori Art Museum, Finland (2016); Nothing is in its own place, Alberto Peola Gallery, Turin, Italy (2015); Over a line, darkly, Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, USA (2015); I must say a word about fear, Castello di Rivoli, Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy (2014); Yet an Other Story About the Fall, ARTER, Istanbul, Turkey (2013). Major group exhibitions and screenings include: GIBCA - Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (2017); Meeting Points 8: Both sides of the curtain - Mophradat, Beirut Art Center (2017); Lo Specchio Concavo, BACO, Bergamo, Italy (2016); International Festival of Non-Fiction Film and Media, MoMA, New York, USA (2015); Sights and Sounds: Turkey, Jewish Museum, NY, USA (2015); Art in General Screening Programme, NY, USA (2014); Bloomberg New Contemporaries 13, ICA, London and Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2013); Manifesta 9 - Parallel Events, Genk, Belgian (2012); Cairo Award, La Permanente Museum, Milan, Italy (2011) and 54th Venice Biennale - Tese di San Cristoforo, Italy (2011). Selected awards and art residencies include: ISCP New York (2018); La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2017); Artpace San Antonio, Texas (2015); Townhouse International Art Residency, Cairo (2014); Illy Present Future Award, Italy (2013); Damiani Award/Academy Now Award, London, UK (2013); The Worshipful Company of Painter - Stainers Prize award, London (2012).
