SANATORIUM will host Sergen Şehitoğlu’s recently produced data visualizations between April 25 / May 6, 2017.
The recent exhibition of the artist makes the “presence of the individual in online systems” the focal point of his works. However, this time, the individual positioned within the online world and analyzed in the context of the exhibition is actually one of the constitutive elements of the “art world”. How does an artist exist in the online world? These works are each an inquiry on the nature of internet-based “data banks” which are within arm’s reach at all hours and easily accessible for many people. The way how the identity of an artist is established and rendered visible in the aforementioned data banks is one of the basic problematics of the exhibition. These “data banks”, namely, all the sources such as online encyclopedias, virtual dictionaries, search engine results are signs of an attempt to bring order to a disorderly world. These are each a list and the analysis of the logic of online lists is one of the basic problematics of this exhibition. The works to be seen in Şehitoğlu’s recent exhibition can be considered each as an inquiry on the methods of obtaining online information on art and altogether they are an attempt to render visible the nature of the online world.
Sergen Şehitoğlu’s exhibition entitled “TRIALS: 310 Artist Portraits” invite us to reconsider the role of online worlds in the establishment and presentation of the identity of an artist, and our acquisition of knowledge about art.
