Above: “Racing Car,” Mehmet Guleryuz, 2017, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art
But I’m not going for realism…. I’m not going to paint his cage. Lemon will be perched in front of the window like a wild bird who has alighted there of his own free will.”
The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk, 2009
Birdcages. Potent symbols. Ever since visiting Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Istanbul on this same trip, it seems I have been seeing birdcages incorporated in artworks everywhere I go. Often with human figures inside – women.
A large projection screen dominating a gallery in Istanbul Modern Art Museum confronts you with a discomforting cage, a performance art piece by Nezaket Ekici (1970-), wearing an Alice-in-Wonderland-style dress.
In ‘But All that Glitters Is Not Gold,’ the challenge is to choose the right one from among the many identical-looking keys hanging at various distances around the cage. What initially looks like a fun game over time becomes an agony.”
Curator’s Notes, Istanbul Modern
Continue reading “Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: Modern art seems a culture clash”
Postcards from Barton Springs 