What do we remember from the “thing” that is lost?
For his solo show hosted by .artSümer, Civan Özkanoğlu reevaluates his archive of photographs which form the foundation of his practice through the use of videos and installations.
The exhibition borrows its title from the artist’s 2016 performance “As We All Know” and brings together videos, photographs, and installations in a space within a space specifically designed for this show. By presenting an observant perspective regarding the absurdities of everyday life, Özkanoğlu opens up themes of hearing and being heard and highlights societal issues which persist in conditions of denial. How can we problematize the (super)natural flow of life, the societal topics whose perceptions shift or get transmuted based on changing conditions, and pre-existing politics of space?
In this context, the exhibition invites the viewer to think about both individual and collective possibilities and promises of memorialization, as well as question the societal realities that continuously reform with state violence, representation, and denial.
By looking at issues which appear to lack societal relationality, or issues which we are taught do not relate to the social world, “As We All Know” aims to discover what persists and repeats. The exhibition invites us to rethink the layers which form our collective, cultural, and political memory through the intersection of the things we know and do not know by way of today.
