Addressing notions of inhabited space, what it is to hold space in relation to community and cultural production, Lara Ögel and Merve Ünsal use photograms and sculptural inventions to create a constellation of surfaces in the halka art project space in Moda, Istanbul. The exhibition was the last one in the space, before the artist-run initiative was pushed out due to rising rents. The departure point for the installation is a found image of the Salt Lake in Turkey, which had turned red after the appearance of a species of algae because of the climate emergency. This image’s hinting at imminent danger served as the foundation of the installation.
On the ground floor of the exhibition space, a photogram of the window above the door at 430pm—the golden hour of photography—marks the space. On the second floor, a column is reproduced using saran wrap, gesturing to marking, tracing, and holding a space at a specific time and place.
Tracing the boundaries of the objecthood of space and time, Lara and Merve contemplate on the relationship between architectural bodies and the image as a body, collating the two to see where and how architecture overlaps, undermines, buries the image.
The two-week exhibition also hosted reading and discussion groups, using the objects and surfaces of the exhibition as a toolbox to dissect some of the themes the artists deal with.
merve ünsal 