Monday, May 23, 2011

zümrüdü anka/ simurg/ phoenix

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus gave the following account of the phoenix in the fifth century BC while describing the animals of Egypt:

Another sacred bird is the one called the phoenix. Now, I have not actually seen a phoenix, except in a painting, because they are quite infrequent visitors to the country; in fact, I was told in Heliopolis that they appear only at 500-year intervals. They say that it is the death of a phoenix's father which prompts its visit to Egypt. Anyway, if the painting was reliable, I can tell you something about the phoenix's size and qualities, namely that its feathers are partly gold but mostly red, and that in appearance and size it is most like an eagle. There is a particular feat they say the phoenix performs; I do not believe it myself, but they say that the bird sets out from its homeland in Arabia on a journey to the sanctuary of the sun, bringing its father sealed in myrrh, and buries its father there.

The Roman poet Ovid wrote the following about the phoenix:

Most beings spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Phoenix. It does not live on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous gums. When it has lived five hundred years, it builds itself a nest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm tree. In this it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these materials builds a pile on which it deposits itself, and dying, breathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the parent bird, a young Phoenix issues forth, destined to live as long a life as its predecessor. When this has grown up and gained sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own cradle and its parent's sepulchre), and carries it to the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun.

French author Voltaire thus described the phoenix:

It was of the size of an eagle, but its eyes were as mild and tender as those of the eagle are fierce and threatening. Its beak was the color of a rose, and seemed to resemble, in some measure, the beautiful mouth of Formosante. Its neck resembled all the colors of the rainbow, but more brilliant and lively. A thousand shades of gold glistened on its plumage. Its feet seemed a mixture of purple and silver; and the tail of those beautiful birds which were afterwards fixed to the car of Juno, did not come near the beauty of its tail.

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Rivayet olunur ki, kuşların hükümdarı olan Simurg ( Zümrüd-ü Anka ya da batıda bilinen adıyla Phoenix ),Bilgi Ağacı'nın dallarında yaşar ve her şeyi bilirmiş.Bu kuşun özelliği gözyaşlarının şifalı olması ve yanarak kül olmak suretiyle ölmesi, sonra kendi küllerinden yeniden dirilmesidir.....

Kuşlar Simurg'a inanır ve onun kendilerini kurtaracağını düşünürmüş. Kuşlar dünyasında her şey ters gittikçe onlar da Simurg'u bekler dururlarmış. Ne var ki, Simurg ortada görünmedikçe kuşkulanır olmuşlar ve sonunda umudu kesmişler.
Derken bir gün uzak bir ülkede bir kuş sürüsüSimurg'un kanadından bir tüy bulmuş. Simurg'un var olduğunu anlayan dünyadaki tüm kuşlar toplanmışlar ve hep birlikte Simurg'un huzuruna gidip yardım istemeye karar vermişler.

Ancak Simurg'un yuvası, etekleri bulutların üzerinde olan Kaf Dağı'nın tepesindeymiş. Oraya varmak için ise yedi dipsiz vadiyi aşmak gerekirmiş, hepsi birbirinden çetin yedi vadi... İstek, aşk, marifet, istisna, tevhid, hayret ve yokluk vadileri...

Kuşlar, hep birlikte göğe doğru uçmaya başlamışlar. İsteği ve sebatı az olanlar, dünyevi şeylere takılanlar yolda birer birer dökülmüşler. Yorulanlar ve düşenler olmuş...

"Aşk denizi"nden geçmişler önce...". "Ayrılık vadisi"nden uçmuşlar...". "Hırs ovası"nı aşıp, "kıskançlık gölü"ne sapmışlar... Kuşların kimi "Aşk denizi"ne dalmış, kimi "Ayrılık vadisi"nde kopmuş sürüden... Kimi hırslanıp düşmüş ovaya, kimi kıskanıp batmış göle...

Önce Bülbül geri dönmüş, güle olan aşkını hatırlayıp;
Papağan o güzelim tüylerini bahane etmiş (oysa tüyleri yüzünden kafese kapatılırmış);
Kartal, yükseklerdeki krallığını bırakamamış;
Baykuş yıkıntılarını özlemiş;
Balıkçıl kuşu bataklığını.

Yedi vadi üzerinden uçtukça sayıları gittikçe azalmış. Ve nihayet beş vadiden geçtikten sonra gelen Altıncı Vadi "şaşkınlık" ve sonuncusu Yedinci Vadi "yokoluş"ta bütün kuşlar umutlarını yitirmiş... Kaf Dağı'na vardıklarında geriye otuz kuş kalmış.

Sonunda sırrı, sözcükler çözmüş: Farsça "si", "otuz" demektir... murg" ise "kuş"...
Simurg'un yuvasını bulunca ögrenmişler ki; "Simurg - otuz kuş" demekmiş.Onların hepsi Simurg'muş. Her biri de Simurg'muş. 30 kuş, anlar ki, aradıkları sultan, kendileridir ve gerçek yolculuk, kendine yapılan yolculuktur.


towards unknown fields of imagination: nilbar güres for universes in universe




http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2011/nilbar_gures

TOWARDS UNKNOWN FIELDS OF IMAGINATION: Nilbar Güres
After many years, the Turkish contemporary art scene has been developing another strong woman artists generation, as evident from the exhibitions opened in young galleries during recent years showing more and more women artists. The issue of visibility is still relevant not only in Turkey but in many centers of international contemporary art scene. And this was again made clear in WHW curated 11th Istanbul Biennial where maybe for the first time such a large number of local women artists participated, among them Istanbul and Vienna based Nilbar Güres. Actually Istanbul's first serious encounter with her work was a group exhibition at Outlet Istanbul called 'Emergency Exit' in 2008. Following, her Unknown Sports (2009) series presentation in staged photographs and mixed media collages during the Biennial proved the local presentations she had before constituted only a small part of her big promise: The wise, humorous and taboo breaching way she translates what she has experienced and witnessed in her body as a woman and in her life around women into an oeuvre that has a strong base in the will to struggle and survive. Her individually queer tone of imagining and scripting alternative scenarios for the daily that makes open ended identifications possible. Her potential to expose and transform vulnerabilities experienced under the societal norms into nodes of strength.

Nilbar Güreş' first solo presentation in Turkey opened at Rampa Istanbul last April. The well designed and informative exhibition covers not only her recent production ÇırÇır (2010) commissioned and first shown by Berlin Biennial, the first time appearing TrabZONE (2010) and the freshly finished collage Yüz (2011) but also two earlier and fundamental works she produced in 2006; Undressing performance video and Self-Defloration collage.The invitation card; a camp wedding invitation selected by the artist which displays two androgynous figures as bride and groom inside a pink glittery heart can obviously be counted as part of the exhibition. It is an exemplary gesture of the gallery to support Nilbar Güres' flourishing production with a solo exhibition at this point. On the whole this solo statement is a great opportunity to see where the artist's strongly sensitive practice towards pressure and violence inserted by patriarchal, authoritarian and heteronormative societal codes to subordinate what is different has arrived from and is going towards. Güres' main issues always interconnect among each other taking different forms of performance, photography, drawing, collage and video. Each character appearing as part of her open ended narratives acts as herself. Each series works with a strong desire to deterritorialize and re-code the spaces and locations they took place, the artist believes in unexpected performances of the body may alter its surroundings.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

some lyrics for kay walkowiak's work - refer back to the wigs @ sweet anticipation



Class Acts

Class acts in sleek spaces
Follow your inner savage detectives, baby
Stay truthful to your heart of darkness
For the thrill of it all

Class acts in undiscovered rooms
They want to enjoy where they are, girl
Don’t you take it too serious
I never meant to turn you on

Class acts in liminal zones
There lies the curator’s egg, darlin
Try to remember the future
And make it worth while you can

Class acts and copycats
We are in a Dada state of grâce, babe
Shall we seek where all the good tunes have gone?
Maybe it is them who set us free.





Paused

Now the show is over
And I am tired
Then I see you coming
Meaning  complete with motion
You whisper in my ear
Long forgotten childhood fantasies
Where the world is once clear, once obscure yet expandable
What are we doing under this table
And you hush me

(Refrain)
Ooooo
Here is something in your palm
Ooooo
There it is gone where did you hide it ?
Daaaaa
You wanna keep me there
Daaaaa
Here it appears, must be magic

I open my eyes in a different place
In the cherished darkness of an unknown language
He found us hiding
Then we start running
Disappearing into the flood of people in the market
You suddenly shouted « stop » to that black taxi
I don’t know where we are going
And you hush me

(Refrain)
Ooooo
Here is something in your palm
Ooooo
There it is gone where did you hide it ?
Daaaaa
You wanna keep me there
Daaaaa
Here it appears, must be magic







May the Circle Remain Unbroken

Change your heart
Look around you
Who do you wanna be now ?
Where do you wanna go ?
Until when the spirits of dead philosophers will guide you ?
It’s the easiest to accept the authority of tradition
Challenge yourself
Take the challenge

Dig down baby dig down dig down
To the roots
To see of our lived experience of this world

Hold it, yeah, keep it do not let it fall
There it is, how it feels, just above my head
Can someone please teach me how to remember my dreams?
Let us imagine in the dark and of its spaces
Tickle me humour me make me dream
It’s the easiest to accept the authority of tradition
Challenge yourself
Take the challenge

Dig down baby dig down
To the roots of experience
To feel how deep is the sphere of imagination

new text for susanne kriemann's book 'reading'


http://www.sternberg-press.com/index.php?pageId=1315&l=en&bookId=210&sort=year&PHPSESSID=cecdf51182c42cdac79f39943e809d5a
Hans Dickel and Lisa Puyplat (Eds.)Reading Susanne Kriemann

Texts by Hans Dickel, Övül Durmuşoğlu, Matts Leiderstam & Susanne Kriemann, Vanessa Joan Müller, Lisa Puyplat, Dieter Roelstraete, Monika Szewczyk, Mirjam Varadinis, Axel John Wieder

The essence of Susanne Kriemann’s intermedial and intertextual work is expressed in her photographic installations and corresponding artist books whose formats reflect their particular contents that revolve around historically definable objects. Kriemann’s exhibitions in particular reveal the process-oriented nature of her works, where the elements are constantly rearranged and undergo conceptual transformation. Throughout this process the book takes on a decisive role in her work, with its structure, its history, its contents and its form.

The book is comprised of texts on Susanne Kriemann’s practice and its relation to the concept of Reading in a wider sense: reading photographs, archives, and texts and transforming these into new compositions with photography, urban space, and historiography. Nine authors have approached intertextuality’s various manifestations and meanings and in doing so, confront the notion of reading (of text, image, object, context). The authors trace the permeation of the intermedial in Susanne Kriemann’s work in various ways. Quotes from writers, scientists and journalists dispersed throughout the book touch on themes present in the Susanne Kriemann’s work, both deepening as well as linking it to the current discourse of art in general.

Design by NODE Berlin Oslo


April 2011, English/German
12.5 x 20.5 cm, 216 pages, hardcover
ISBN 978-1-934105-49-8
$24.95 | €19.00


History --in the making


“…the archive […] determines that all these things said do not accumulate endlessly in an amorphous mass, nor are they inscribed in an unbroken linearity, nor do they disappear at the mercy of chance external accidents; but they are grouped together in distinct figures, composed together in accordance with multiple relations, maintained or blurred in accordance with specific regularities.”
- Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, 1972, London: Tavistock, and New York: Pantheon, 128.

History is hysterical: it is constituted only if we consider it, only if we look at it – and in order to look at it, we must be excluded from it.”
- Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, 1981, New York: Hill and Wang, 65.

Nothing Is.” - Sun Ra

I.

We were able to experience cinematic spectacle in the cinemas that hadn’t yet been tucked inside shopping malls. I remember taking in the catchy iconography of the science fiction comedy Back to the Future (1985) starring Michael J. Fox in a popular cinema in Ankara where I grew up. A crazy professor named Doc Brown transforms a DeLorean DMC-12 into a time machine. The main protagonist Marty McFly finds himself instantaneously transported from 1985 to 1955 shortly after being introduced to the time machine by his friend. Marty spends his time in 1955 to better his family history – ultimately, in order to better his present. No wonder it was a favorite of the US president at the time, Ronald Reagan: the film’s message is typical of 1980s Hollywood, espousing a good, happy American family and the preservation of social values based on that good family.

Back then, following the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown (the box office success was expanded into a trilogy), I was mesmerized by the film’s exciting drama of intervention in the flux of time and its notion of changing the course of things. In the first film, Doc Brown mentions the existence of parallel universes. With the archive of images and newspaper clippings at his laboratory, he shows how Marty is disappearing since he involuntarily intervened in his parents’ meeting each other. Marty must take action to secure his own existence in the present. As the film evolves, we see photographic material changing in a state of appearances and disappearances according to the results of the actions committed by the protagonists.

Viewing these films today, one might begin to question such neo-liberal efforts to maintain the time continuum and the keen interest in preserving a society with its lineage of certain morals in the past, present and future, back and forth. But let us read between the lines. How do we fit reality into a constructed projection of the future? Back to the Future is about a history in the making, a future being performed. The film suggests that we question our attachment to archives: accumulating, cataloguing, representing the traces, the past. Doesn’t this remind us of a similar phenomenon from the censorship mechanisms of Stalinist times; how a figure might suddenly disappear from a photographic document according to the decisions of high ranking officials, thanks to a simple action of montage?

II.
I came across a remarkable cross-referential text by Peter Friedl, in which he examines the essential relationship between the documentary image and what is called history.1 To do this, he compares the image material of the “Twitter Revolution” against the Iranian presidential elections in 2009 with that against the Paris Commune in 1871. Questioning photography’s role as the eye of history from an insightful and humorous perspective, Friedl demonstrates how the creation and dissemination of a certain image creates its own agenda and performs the moment creating a history, rather than the history it is supposed to document and stand for.

As we might recall, the world started hearing about the protests against the Iranian elections after the dissemination of Neda Agha-Soltani’s filmed death through e-mails, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Friedl directs our attention to the moment when a hysterical mass media found a photo of a woman with a similar name, Neda Soltani, on Facebook (probably thanks to the Google search engine) and how it was impossible to stop the found image of a still-living person from being used as the symbol of martyrdom in the name of democracy – even after the authentic photographs were provided. Fragments used over and over again without external validation demonstrate the uncontrollable desire for image consumption to prove reality. The performed agenda becomes another sort of aura in the contemporary sense that is shaped by the filters of dissemination – not how it is said but how it is heard. Again, it is a history in the making that images perform.

“Photography’s melancholy is based on the fact that it shows something that once was and has meanwhile elapsed. By the power of its existence, it confirms that what one sees was actually there; to this extent, it is the epitome of standstill and enchantment,” writes Friedl and asks, “What else is capable of stopping time?”2 Friedl shatters assumptions surrounding documentation, subjectivity and reality when he reflects upon the existing image documentation of the Commune in 1871, such as the fact that the Commune did not have its own photographers per se, or that photographers like Eugène Appert profited from the photo montages he compiled to discredit the Commune. Similar moves and mentalities worked in terms of documenting a scene, spreading the information, creating the agenda and gripping the masses. The issue of what kind of images were decided to be produced, by whom and under what circumstances turn out to be the equivalents of our present condition consumed by a hysteria of fragments.

III.
In his book Militant Modernism (2009), prolific writer Owen Hatherley takes the 1960s architectural vernacular of his hometown Southampton as a starting point and in the course of four interconnected chapters on brutalism in Britain, Soviet cinema theory and Bertolt Brecht, challenges our well-known rants about Modernism as being alienated, unsexed and totalitarian and points us instead towards a reading of Modernism as a counter-culture and important aspect of Leftist thought. In his chapter on the Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt [English: alienation effect], he notes its origin in the theater’s need to debate with cinema and radio with their ability to reach greater audience; that it is “nothing but a retranslation of the methods of montage – so crucial in radio and film – from a technological process to a human one. It is enough to point out that the principle of Epic Theatre, like that of montage, is based on interruption.”3

This comment on the alienation effect took me back to theories of montage: alienation and engagement processed through editing. It was Sergei Eisenstein who posited that montage was the essence of cinema, re-positioning it as a symbolically loaded action of engagement. He proposed a new editing form, the "montage of attractions" – in which arbitrarily chosen images, independent from the action, would be presented not in chronological sequence but in whatever way would create the maximum psychological impact. For Eisenstein, editing involved the audience more than the passive reception of information from static and lengthy shots and could drive the audience into a frenzy through the dynamism of the rhythm of images.

“DON’T STARE SO ROMANTICALLY” challenged an early play of Bertolt Brecht, demanding critical engagement of its audience. The power of montage comes from the superimposed element that disrupts the context into which it is inserted. Taken a step further, montage can be read as a gesture that engages through performing the context. In Susanne Kriemann’s publications, montage resurfaces as an artistic method, presenting archived materials and allowing an open end to the relationship between historical objects and their various interpretations. One such “open” example is her artist book 12 650 000, in which her combination of archival images with her own photographs allows for a critical view of the object and sets the rhythm of its narration. The book, which was printed in a limited edition of 100 + 10, opens with historical photographs documenting the construction of the 12,650,000 kilogram-heavy Schwerbelastungskörpers [English: heavy load body] in Berlin-Tempelhof, which was built to test the resilience of the ground for the gargantuan “Germania” project that Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer planned for the capital city, and which stands intact to this day. Kriemann cinematographically repeats one archival image showing the completed object 380 times on each page. At the end of the book, one of her own photographs depicts the object obscured by scaffolding during its renovation in 2007.

Such gestures clearly fracture linearity, questioning the multiple relationships that arise from the images grouped together. They motivate readers to think in terms of fragments, pushing them to imagine possible re-connections between those fragments. Their rhythm of appearance, as well, should not be ignored, but rather intrigue the reader further. Do such gestures fill in the gaps intentionally left open by the archiving state of mind? Or do they create an exclusive layer of a narrative “in-the-making” that proposes another sort of relation altogether with time and its documents? In both cases, an encounter with 12 650 000 invites the curious to participate and perform the references and fragments proposed by the artist. No thing is complete.



Övül Durmuşoğlu

1 Peter Friedl, “History in the Making,” e-flux journal #18, September 2010.
2 ibid.
3 Owen Hatherley, Militant Modernism, London: Zero Books, 2008, 101.