Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words

Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words


Kerem Ozan Bayraktar’s solo exhibition “Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words” is about reflecting on “life” on earth. It is organized around the concepts that Kerem has been tackling in his recent work “Great Oxidation Event” (2019). The exhibition opens on September 5th at SANATORIUM and is curated by Kevser Güler.

Kerem, interested in the possibilities of the materialistic foundations of fluxes and relations in biological life, focuses on notions of diversity, variation, and complexity through images of movement, transformation and flux that make them possible. Exhibition presents a wall piece of Kerem including illustrations, images, infographics, texts, and symbols regarding the “Great Oxidation Event” and a video; portraits of plants, animals, and objects depicting life-movement relations; and an object installation on the transformation of inorganic matter. Also on view at the exhibition are miniature ambulances which are among the artist’s works on variation and diversity, and images of possible life forms produced with a specific image generation technique. Looking at the transformation and temporality of vital relations on earth, the exhibition also invokes questions on the transformative potentiality of the image and the conception of the actual digital image. Movement and stillness; living and non-living; natural and artificial; digital image and the question of representation; data and information are among the main themes of the exhibition as well.

The title “Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words” is borrowed from a sentence in Manuel de Landa’s A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, a book that has inspired Kerem in his recent productions. It defines matter as an active agent and suggests reflecting on nature-culture relations starting with defying this dichotomy itself, and problematizes anthropomorphic ontologies.

A book including images of works by Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, texts by curator Kevser Güler, philosopher Gaye Çankaya Eksen, and artist Sergen Şehitoğlu, as well as a poem of poet Asuman Susam, designed by Dilara Sezgin, accompanies the exhibition.

“Rocks and Winds, Germs and Words” runs through September 5 – October 20, 2019 at SANATORIUM.

About the artist:

Kerem Ozan Bayraktar (1984) lives and works in Istanbul. He mainly uses animations, 3D computer renders, scaled models, and texts, and carries out researches and works focusing on change, mutation, diversity, and copying. He reproduces and depicts the boundaries, loops, and interactions between artificial and natural systems in the context of a wide research area ranging from planet morphologies to urban plants. Bayraktar completed his MFA and PhD in Marmara University Fine Arts Institute with two thesis on "Systems Theory" and "Digital Image". His works have been shown in many publications, video screenings and group shows. Kerem Ozan Bayraktar is currently participating in Berlin Senate Residency Program between July - December 2019.

About the curator:

Some of the exhibitions and projects that Kevser Güler took part in are: flesh and bone, second exhibition, Bilsart, İstanbul, 2019; Potato Growers, Books and Research, Istanbul, Nevsehir and Rotterdam, 2019; flesh and bone, first exhibition, Operation Room, Istanbul, 2019; The Future of Ecology, Corridor Project Space, Amsterdam, 2018; Colony, Kaos GL 2nd Contemporary Art Exhibition, Istanbul, 2017; Ways Out From the World, Cappadox, Nevsehir, 2017; Let Us Cultivate Our Garden, Cappadox, Nevşehir, 2016; Living/Matter: In and through, Proto5533, Istanbul, 2016; Cappadocia struck, Cappadox, Nevşehir, 2015. Kevser Güler received her bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Boğaziçi University and studied Philosophy in Galatasaray University for her MA. Güler, who has been a member of the Istanbul Biennial team between 2007 and 2014, has been conducting researches on Arter collection since 2014 while she continues her works as a freelance curator.