.artSümer is happy to host Cansu Çakar’s first solo exhibition titled “Hat ve Hata”, presenting a new body of work, accompaniment of her recent reflections, between January 21 - March 4, 2023. Eliminating the existing boundaries of the land's surface, "Hat ve Hata" tries to draw new ones in its own manner inspired by the meaning relationship between the words "hat ve hata , writing/line and pity/sin", which share the same roots in Turkish and Arabic languages. It aims to create a space for these connections to sprout and grow.
In “Hat ve Hata”, Cansu Çakar shares her storytelling through a meticulously crafted line. The architectural structures that are the subject to her works, the remains of historical and cultural heritage that have toppled into the present day, and the spaces that we are no longer used to seeing invite viewers to make erroneous interpretations. Historical images and phrases relate to the present, accompanied by Çakar’s satirical way of expression.
In his ninth fragment, Heraclitus says: "Donkeys prefer straw to gold." Does the humanness in mankind then lie in the preference of the gold extracted to the mountain itself? Or is the blame on those who cannot relate to the true value of the mountain - those who cannot see how the contours of the mountain under the sky radiate its glow to people, and that the mountain and its surroundings can only come into view in this glow. "Mount Ida" continues to dwell in its radiant abode veiled by this blindness.
"Cast of Lines" is a drawing experience on thermal paper rolls that are used as payment receipts. This type of paper is used every day in every capitalist exchange as a document of the transaction, and like water, it flows around us. Just considering the amount of paper spent on every shopping, purchase, and money exchange, occurring every day, every hour, and every second, these rolls become an ironic metaphor for the hyper-capitalist economy. Along with the choice of paper, the installation is also based on a slow observation of memories of happy marriages; such as the happy couple posing along riverbanks and bridges, followed by the child who crowns the institution, and all the expenditures that come with it on the red strip. The blue strips consist of improvised brush lines depicting one of the biggest issues of the crypto age, the rapidly drying up water resources.
“Pasha” is the portrayal of Tevfik Pasha Mansion, which is one of the important buildings in the area known as Oteller Street in Izmir Basmane and which used to belong to the Tevfik Pasha Family about a century ago. Over time, it was converted to a hotel, named the Sadık Akseki Hotel, and finally the Pasha Mansion Hotel which was evacuated in September 2022. In its final state, it became a place occupied by immigrants who sought hope in Europe via the Aegean Sea, so its rooms were arranged as wards and the public areas were commonly shared by a bed fee. Although the conversion of old Izmir houses into cheap accommodation in order to make easy money is frequently criticized for harming Basmane's history and identity, the fact that the hotel, now emptied by the gentrification project, was once a place where hundreds of people curled up in a corner and burried their hopes into pillows, will be restored into an insincere cold place. "The curtain that takes off as the wind blows shows the inside of the mansion, the rooms are empty. A quilt can not be a cloud, but the clouds are the quilts over us."
"It may not be easy to visualize a crumbling ruin as one of the seven wonders of antique times. Every time I try to visualize Halicarnassus in my mind, childhood memories dance with laser shows and foam parties. In this noisy aquarium and the sea raging with techno music, with upside down fish images on souvenirs, could the architects of this peeled off, stolen, beaten and destroyed Mausoleum be Satyros ve Pytheos in blue exile?"
A gap, a space in between, is the basic element that allows two sides of water to be considered in the same context. It makes room for "The Bridge" is the gap, the space between. Only an entity that does not know how to inhabit a place and is unaware of keeping its peacefulness, can build a line that is forcibly drawn from one side to the other. The truth that the bridge reveals is a fragmented line, a fragment of a line. It's the bridge's disconnection with space itself.
In the section of the exhibition called the "Interlude", the sketches and drawings of the paintings on transfer paper reveal the background of her practice; thus the mistakes. As the viewer moves along this flow, they encounter Axel O. Karamercan's "Ghazel" written in 2013. Revitalized with Çakar's ornamentation, the work becomes a self-portrait as a symbol of intimacy.
In “Hat ve Hata”, Çakar spotlights places from history and brings them back into view. Through traditional art forms such as ornamentation and illumination, these places embark on a search for tranquility beyond stereotypical expressions and techniques.
Exhibition design and implementation: Rana İncesoy
Texts: Axel O. Karamercan, Cansu Çakar, Elif Aktaş
Special thanks to İnci Duygu, Ali Kemal Ertem, Axel O. Karamercan, Berk Kır, Christina Lehnert, Çağla İlk, Değer Özkan Çötelioğlu, Deniz Aktaş, Dr. Necmi Sönmez, Furkan Öztekin, Gül Özen, İlyas Hayta, Merey Şenocak, Michael Akstaller, Mine Kaplangı, Misal Adnan Yıldız, Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Onur Özen, Sandeep Sodhi, Şebnem Günaydın Güler, Özen Reklam ve Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden for their contributions.
