Friday 13 November 2009

Ahmet Ogut



Ahmet Ogut

Perfect Lovers, 2008

Two Euro and One YTL coins

Ahmet Ogut contributes with two works, Perfect Lovers, 2008 and Vote for the worst exhibition title of all time!!!, 2009. The former work has been exhibited in various countries and is a display of two circular objects that are almost identical. The piece takes its name from Felix Gonzalez Torres' famous piece showing two wall clocks working in perfect unison. Ogut introduces a twist into the perfect collison and puts a 2 Euro and a 1 YTL coin on display. The coins are aesthetically alike though do not correspond to the same value. Their similarity can lead to confusion at first glance, though they point two differing domains of socio-political reality. Euro as the representative of a grand narrative and Turkish Lira as a representative of a particularity that is striving to associate itself with the grand scale, are brought together under a title that requires a unity of some sort, or an investigation of the conditions in which perfect love is taking place. Ogut is associating the domain of romance with the domain of finance under the frame of power and leaves the audience with a statement that is precisely exhibited in a slick appearance. That is to say, the methodology he chooses to put the coins on display is a crucial part of the work where both coins lie on a black velvet cloth, protected by a plexiglass box placed on a black plinth standing on a black carpet. Ogut, in this respect produces the conditions in which we are to experience his piece thus the assigned value of that experience. The second work is of interactive nature, where the audience is asked to give votes to a selection of exhibition titles through sticking neon stickers next to their choice. The work, Vote for the worst exhibition of all time!!!, is a new compilation for Skopje and is in Macedonian, for to enable the local audience an access through the common. The exhibition titles are selected by the artist and display some kind of a failure of repeating clichés or lacking creativity or being in a streamline of ‘global’ discourses. Thus the titles vary from Turkish Delight to Red Light Art, from Younger than Jesus to Euro-centric. The audience are asked to make their own choice of which title they find the worst among others. Through collecting responses, the piece questions the domain of creativity in arts with its relation to socio-political factuality.

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