箭厂空间（北京）、PiST///艺术空间（伊斯坦布尔）和 Collective画廊（爱丁堡）为期一年的合作项目“如何一手翻转世界”在欧洲和亚洲同时展开，来自三个不同国家的艺术空间和艺术家都参与其中，这对项目管理者们提出了不小的挑战。现在该合作项目即将告一段落，如何设计一个完美的终局，这无疑是更大的挑战。在此，作为本次合作项目的终展，我们很荣幸地推出伊斯坦布尔艺术家奥斯曼·波茨库特（Osman Bozkurt）的个展“交易观察”。在合作项目期间，艺术家和艺术机构以跨地域和跨文化交换、交流和商业流动为主题，进行了充分的交流和探索。作为项目的第一步，我们三家机构将北京，伊斯坦布尔和爱丁堡这三个城市的名称添加在各自标志的下方，造成一种在三地都设有分支机构或代表处的印象。在过去的一年中，通过“如何一手翻转世界”这个合作项目，我们三家机构互换空间，实现了不同形式的交流。
延续上述空间互换的原则，波茨库特携其装置作品进驻箭厂空间一个月。艺术家创作的灵感来自他在中国城市的市场中寻找土耳其和中国之间经贸活动，以及探寻土耳其商人活动的尝试。波茨库特关注那些存在着现实交换活动的商业空间，如集市、批发市场和旅游纪念品集散地。在这些交易中，交流和互动是最重要的因素，但有时由于语言不通，买卖双方必须借助其他的方法手段进行讨价还价。计算器在这里起着巨大的作用，它将讨价还价的复杂语言简化为你来我往的数字游戏。《交易观察》这件作品不仅凸显了计算器在中国这个重要的全球市场中发挥的关键作用，更关注计算器在每天的使用中逐渐变旧，成为非常富有卖家个人色彩的物件的过程。这件作品由艺术家在北京拍摄的视频片段构成，这些视频片段聚焦于交易发生那一刻里买卖双方的姿态。《交易观察》将计算器比喻为一种社会黏合剂，它使无需语言、气氛友好但同时针锋相对的讨价还价成为可能，并进而将整个社会联系起来。作品展现了在市集和批发市场里发生的讨价还价的行为——这也能在艺术家早先的作品《胶带共和国》（2009年）中看到——具有一种强迫性，构成一种典型的标准，能用来检测全球生产、分配和消费的网络。
奥斯曼·波茨库特（1970年生于土耳其）曾就读于希南艺术大学（Mimar Sinan University）学习摄影。他是PiST跨界项目空间的联合创始人，该空间位于伊斯坦布尔，是一家由艺术家运作的非赢利空间。波茨库特以摄影和摄像为媒介，阐释公民记忆的理念，并再现都市生活的错综复杂和那些被遗忘的都市悖论。他曾在英国伦敦泰特现代美术馆、土耳其伊斯坦布尔Platform Garanti当代艺术中心、意大利乌迪内Villa Manin当代艺术中心、法国里尔艺术宫和美国马萨诸塞当代艺术博物馆举办展览，并参加过曼彻斯特亚洲艺术三年展和其他群展。目前波茨库特在伊斯坦布尔生活和工作。 |
Osman Bozkurt
How To Turn the World By Hand – Anatomy of A Deal
June 25 - August 13, 2012
How does one undertake a collaboration spanning across two continents and involving artists and art spaces from three vastly different locations? Better yet, how does one conclude such a collaboration? Istanbul artist Osman Bozkurt’s Anatomy of A Deal represents the final chapter of a year-long collaborative project between Arrow Factory (Beijing), PiST/// (Istanbul) and Collective(Edinburgh) entitled How To Turn the World By Hand. This mutli-layered exchange among artists and art spaces explores themes of trade, exchange and mobilized commerce across geographic and cultural divides. To kick-off the project, each organization altered their logos as if to indicate sub-branches or “franchise operations” in each of the three respective cities. At different points over the last twelve months, How To Turn the World By Hand has manifested literal forms of exchange by instigating a tri-directional swapping and trading of art spaces.
Bozkurt’s month-long occupation of the Arrow Factory space continues the theme of trade and exchange and culminates in an installation inspired by time spent in Chinese markets researching Turkish-China business relations and merchant practices. Bozkurt focuses on spaces of commerce such as trade fairs, wholesale markets, and tourist outlet where physical transactions between buyers and sellers take place. In these zones communication and interaction are crucial, but without a shared language both parties must rely upon other methods and devices to interrelate and negotiate a deal. Enter the calculator, a ubiquitous and unifying tool that transcends language and returns all communication to a bare interplay of numbers. For his installation Anatomy of A Deal, Bozkurt not only picks up on the pivotal role the calculator plays in the global marketplace that is China, but on the ways in which these devices transform into personalized extensions of each seller and become worn with habitual, daily use. Combined with video clips shot in Beijing that emphasize split-second exchanges and gestures between buyer and seller, Anatomy of A Deal presents the calculator as a binding metaphor for a community united by systems of wordless negotiation and friendly yet cutthroat bargaining. The obsessive behaviors displayed within these marketplaces and wholesale centers—similar to his earlier work Tape Republic (2009)—form characteristic touchstones that fold sharply into larger global circuits of production, consumerism and distribution.
Osman Bozkurt (b.1970, Turkey) studied photography at Mimar Sinan University and is co-founder of PiST/// Interdisciplinary Project Space, a non-for-profit, independent artist-run space in Istanbul. Bozkurt uses photography and video to instigate notions of a civic memory, and to witness the intricacies and forgotten paradoxes of urban life. His works have been exhibited at Tate Modern, London; Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Villa Manin Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, Udine; Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; North Adams, MA; Asia Triennial Manchester, UK and many other group exhibitions. He lives and works in Istanbul. |
