Titled “İçimizdeki Zaman” (Time within Us), an exhibition has been prepared by museums in each country. The photographs to be displayed were selected by İstanbul Modern’s curator Engin Özendes, Moscow House of Photography head Olga Sviblova and Saloniki Museum of Photography director Vangelis Ioakimidis. The photographs, which are already on display in Turkey, will be showcased in the three countries mentioned simultaneously in April and May. Along with Istanbul Modern, the photographs will be shown at the Moscow International Photography Biennale in Russia and the Saloniki International Photography Biennale in Greece.
The exhibition features Turkish artists Berk Bilgin, Tolga Özgal, Burcu Göknar, Deniz Açıkalın and Yusuf Sevinçli, Russian artists Petr Lovigin, Georgy Pervov, Tim Parshikov, Natasha Pavlovskaya and Ivan Mikhailov and Greek artists Paris Petridis, Panos Kokkinias, Yiorgos Kordakis, Stratos Kalafatis and Christina Dimitriadis.
A press release issued by İstanbul Modern stated that the exhibition does not seek to present an overall view of photography in Turkey, Russia and Greece but that it aims to bring the artists closer to viewers.
The photographs are interpreted differently by each curator. Turkish curator Özendes put the works into seven categories: observing, remembering, dreaming, using light, returning, enjoying and celebrating.
Özendes states that the exhibition brings photographers from these three countries together in an effort to understand each other through displaying their work in the same place at the same time. “Dramatic night portraits illuminated only by traffic lights, occasional reflections on childhood memories, the melancholy tale of lives sought in the big city and a suburban wedding party are among the statements of modern life captured by young photographers selected from Turkey,” he says.
Highlighting that the 21st century resulted in a brand new generation of Russian photography, Moscow House of Photography Director Sviblova says: “These young photographers managed to build their own artistic worlds with a well-educated eye and a clear mind. The works of these artists are mirrors reflecting the changes that took place in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991,” adding that the Russian works can easily and naturally be seen as a part of international art.
Saloniki Museum of Photography Director Ioakimidis, on the other hand, notes that the 15 artists are from different countries and have different cultural backgrounds and that each of them has been molded by their own impulses, history, politics, music and literature. The exhibition at İstanbul Modern will be on view until May 16.
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