the installation arrangements are guided by the aesthetics of preservation spaces, such as cabinets of curiosity and laboratories
Äther, 2020
- Year 2020
Site Specific Installation
Fluorescent lights of various colors and sizes, specimen bell jars, glass tubes, shards of fluorescent tubes, glass sand, glass powder, phosphorus
Goethe-Institut, Galatasaray, Istanbul
Exhibition dates: 13.02.2020 -15.09.2020
These four distinct works, which were designed for the niches along the staircase of the building, address the ideas of the object, of collecting, storing and preserving, as inspired from the cabinets of curiosities of the Italian Renaissance.
Placed inside specimen bell jars, fluorescent lights exhibit different forms of composition and features on each floor. Their arrangements are guided from the aesthetics of preservation spaces, such as Cabinets of Curiosity and laboratories.
Cabinets of Curiosity are display units in which collectibles are exhibited. On the other hand, fluorescent lights are common industrial items found everywhere. The installation establishes a functional opposition relationship between the unique and the ordinary. On the other hand, light itself is a phenomenon that does not conform to the habits of storing and preserving. Under common conditions, light is directed towards objects through the physical act of illumination. In this work, light reverses this dominance of the eye over the object. Instead of a source of illumination for other objects, it manifests itself. In this manifestation, light passes through the glass, so it is not truly stored.
Buşra Tunç, who frequently works with items which point at industrial production processes, follows a similar path in this study. In one of the compartments, the specimen jars are filled with Phosphor and glass powder, which are commonly used in the production of fluorescence lights. The display of the materials that constitute the tubes structurally, the debris, and defective fluorescent tubes along with functioning ones, states a prioritization of the very nature and alteration of objects instead of the hierarchy of collectibles.
Curious objects From Curator
The exhibition “Curious Objects” refers to the Wunderkammer that came up with the idea of the Renaissance in the 16th century: Wunderkammer were private collections that brought together extraordinary natural or man-made objects to classify knowledge about things.
In the technological twilight of our time, in which both intangible knowledge and material things increase exponentially, our need to understand, to understand meanings and to be curious grows.
The three interrelated exhibitions “Thought Objects”, “Remembrance Objects” and “Objects of Desire”, which will be held throughout the year at the Goethe Institute, invite artists to express their contemporary curiosity.
The first installation of the exhibition series, named “Äther” was realized by Buşra Tunç.