To mark her first solo and retrospective exhibition in the UK, Berlin-based Turkish artist Nezaket Ekici joins curator Shaheen Merali and co-founder and co-director of the Live Art Development
Lois Keidan at Pi Atworks London for an artist talk to discuss the exhibition (After) Love at Last Sight along with how the artist’s performance work fits within the wider context of contemporary visual arts.
Curated by Shaheen Merali, (After) Love at Last Sight is inspired by Walter Benjamin’s notion of love as a fleeting encounter within the vast, hustling and bustling metropolis that is city life – within this fast-paced environment our first glimpse of somebody is also often our last. The exhibition presents over 13 years of performance works as videos accompanied by photographic works of varying scale, including Emotion in Motion
(2000), Blind (2007), Madonna (2008), Tube Dolomit (2009), Border Inside (2011), Human Cactus
(2012) and Disappear (2013). The earliest work, Emotion in Motion, first realised in 2000, was performed by the artist in the gallery over three days and its relics now remain in the space. Emotion in Motion
is also currently on permanent loan at Istanbul Modern, where it is on view on a permanent loop. During the performance Ekici covers an installed living space filled with personal objects and accessories with kisses. The trace of her lipstick forms a patina of affection – or is it consumption that she exposes? The work conveys many layers of meaning, but what strikes us is how an act, normally associated with love and greeting, has been twisted into a never-ending moment of torture in Ekici’s valiant attempt to cover the whole space. Emotion in Motion is a powerful process that reminds one of pain as well as delineating the duress of love and its universal worship. The walls, furniture, objects and even the artist’s clothes all turn lipstick-red, a triumphant memento mori of desire and perhaps, just perhaps, also the beginning of the end of love at last sight.
To RSVP please contact awt@piartworks.com or call +44 207 637 8403
Notes to Editors:
Nezaket Ekici
(1970, Kirsehir) studied under Marina Abramovic at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste Braunschweig, from where she received her Degree in Fine Arts (2001-2003) and MFA Degree (2004) respectively. Prior to this, she studied sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Munich (1996-2000) and received an MA in Art Pedagogy and Art History in 2000 from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universitat in Munich. Select solo exhibitions include Islamic Chapel at the Stadtische Galerie, Ostfildern Germany and Personal Map, to be continued… in cooperation with Marta Herford, De Bond, Cultuurcentrum Brugge, Belgium (both in 2013). Ekici is the recipient of numerous awards, including project grants from the Goethe Institut in Ghana (2012), Thessaloniki (2011) and Tbilissi (2009). Her work can be found in both public and private collections, including the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada, Samdani Art
Foundation, Bangladesh, Istanbul Modern, the Koc Foundation Contemporary Art Collection, Elgiz Museum and Marta Herford Museum.
Shaheen Merali
is a curator and writer currently based in London. Between 2003-2008, he was Head of Exhibitions, Film and New Media at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, where he curated several exhibitions accompanied by key publications, including The Black Atlantic; Dreams and Trauma- Moving images and the Promised Lands and Re-Imagining Asia, One Thousand years of Separation. In 2006, he was co-curator of the 6th Gwangju Biennale, Korea. Upon leaving Germany he curated several exhibitions in India and Iran before embarking upon a period of extensive research and consultation on the conservation and production of a major exhibition of the International Collection of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in India (January 2012). Recent exhibitions include Refractions, Moving Images on Palestine, P21 Gallery, London; When Violence becomes Decadent, ACC Galerie, Weimar and Speaking from
the Heart, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam. In 2014 he will co-curate the 4th Mediations Biennale, Posnan, Poland.
Lois Keidan is the co-founder and co-director of the Live Art Development Agency, London which offers an extensive portfolio of Resources, Professional Development Initiatives, Projects and Publications for the support and development of Live Art artists and audiences in the UK and internationally. From 1992 to 1997 she was Director of Live Arts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Prior to that she was responsible for national policy and provision for Performance Art and interdisciplinary practices at the Arts Council of England. She sits on a number of Boards and Advisory Panels, and has been awarded Honorary Fellowships by Dartington College of Arts and Queen Mary, University of London.
Pi Artworks was founded by Yesim Turanli in 1998 in Istanbul and for the past 15 years, has been introducing Turkish and international artists to the primary market. Since its founding, Pi Artworks has been committed to showcasing the best of Contemporary Turkish and international art to Istanbul's growing art scene, alongside providing an international platform for its roster of artists to showcase their work. The gallery is located at the famous historical Misir Apartment in Istanbul and in October 2013 Pi Artworks London opened on 55 Eastcastle Street, in the heart of London's bustling Fitzrovia with a group exhibition Pi: Housewarming, presenting some of its key artists ahead of series of solo shows.
Artist Talk Details:
(After) Love at Last Sight: Nezaket Ekici in Conversation with Lois Keidan and Shaheen Merali
Date: 17 January 2014
Time: 19:00-20:00
Location: Pi Artworks London, 55 Eastcastle Street, W1W 8EG, London/UK
To RSVP your attendance, or for press information and images, please contact: Anna Wallace-Thompson: awt@piartworks.com, (+44 207 637 8403)
