KUTU

Since the realization of its first activity in december 2002, “KUTU -portable art gallery” has been an initiative that supports the idea of institutionalizing an artist by placing him at the center.

“KUTU” connects with whatever that is public( art centers, galleries, art-schools) with in its own reated space, in the center, it opens up for itself; a sharp zone whose boundaries are drawn consciously in an eclectic manner, thus creating the strategy that allows free roaming for its institutionalized artists.

“KUTU” has been formed by a group of artists and aims to focus on its enviroment by ironically advocating instituonalization while produing additional exhibitions, which are becoming more independent in diverse art venues(places).

Borga Kanturk

"Kutu is a modular, transportable art gallery,project led since 2002 by Borga Kanturk, a Turkish artist/academician. He aims to gradually make the project into a foundation; it already has a graphic designer, architect along with the founding artists and curators.KutuV.1, the first version of thegallery is made entirely of ardboard, and hasalready held afew exhibitions at its current location. Afterwards, KutuV.2, an "info kiosk" version with a tougher structure was installed in the exhibition "B-Fact", which was put together by Huseyin Alptekin in Istanbul and featured some estalished artists from the Balkans.The mostrecent activity of the project was called "KutuV.3 : audio_files", which consisted of a listening booth installed at a group exhibition with a theme centered on music. Spectators were able tolisten through headphones to five sound art works with the ommon theme of "Hypoxia", creating another curated exhibition as a subset of the "parent" one."

KUTU "portable art gallery" Team:
Founder - Director: Borga Kanturk
Founder Artists: Gokcen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz, Gokce Suvari
Architect: Evrim Yigit , Art Director: Ali Bati

KUTUv.1, which is consisted of gallery room and office, covers an area of 20,25 m2. The place, with the height of 2.3 m. , keeps the chance of alterations in the lighting system and surface coverals according to due to the artists wishes.

KUTUv.1 “portable Art Gallery” is presented to an audiene for the first time in Proje4L’s group exhibition : “ Under the beach : The Pavement” from 22 november 2002 to 17 january 2003

After the first exhibition in Istanbul , Kutu has been transported to IZMIR.
This project rebuilded in a D.E.U. Faculty of Fine Arts and then Kutu will go an other activities in the faculty with an another artists.

Kutu welcomes all artists and curators to propose new ideas and projects for the gallery.

Merhaba İç Sıkıntısı / "Hello Tedium"

(22.11.2002 – 17.01.2003)

Artists: Gökçen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz, Gökçe Süvari
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Place: PROJE4L İstanbul museum of contemporary art
From the “Under the Beach: The pavement” exhibition

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The situation, which is meant to be the centre of attention in
"Merhaba İç Sıkıntısı" exhibition, looks like a weariness to lack of communication. The greeting in the title of the exhibition emphasises on the effort to communicate. However by means of the works, the issues of ways of resisting like self confinement and self focusing making communication are the also lack communication. Therefore the bashful atmosphere of the works of existence greets a different meaning; which is more likely an exclamation of boredom, than an aim to communicate.

Elmas Deniz creates scientific schemes and plans in her works as a way of communication. But these schemes, which are like scientific expressions, are not placed in the usual way, as they should have been. Instead, they are volatile traces, drawn with crayon on a fabric. The drawings have been carried out from the place where they make sense; so they look like puzzles that are, difficult to be solved. (Unless the timid traces have already fade out)In her works Elmas Deniz on coding herself, she looses the possibility of being understood in a self-conscious way.

"The Snail" by Gökçen Cabadan, in solitude and waiting for its partner in the closed area of the gallery. It is making its magical trace on the transparent wall, that at the same time exterior keeps it away from the exterior. This invisible wall reduces the possibility of being found and the hope for communication with exterior. So the Snail is imprisoned behind its invisible wall. The other work "Wind bell" is supposed to make musical voices in the wind, however it's made of paper; so it's silent. The fragility of it makes one think, that it might be torn out even in a slight wind.

Gökçe Süvari paints nice landscapes at her home and she does them with great care, like doing embroidery. She wants to be in the places that she has never been to but only seen them in book in call ender pictures. But her care makes more like ornaments veiled in domestic, household life, and more sticked to the place she is in.

Borga Kanturk

Kusursuz Seyirci / Perfect Spectator
30.04.2003 - 10.05.2003
Kutu v.1 "portable Art Gallery
Place: D.E.U. Faculty of Fine Arts - İzmir

Artists: Murat Gunes, Zafer Gungen, Gencer Yuzer
Curator:Borga Kantürk

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
"THE PERFECT SPECTATOR"

The second exhibition held in Kutu V.1 titled "The Perfect Specator" is presenting three recent works by three artists in an interwoven manner within the prefabricated interior of the gallery, inviting its spectators to a new way of reading these works created independently of each other.

The photographic images Zafer Güngen has extracted from international weekly news magazines and newspapers are spread over large pieces of flowing fabric, not bound to a frame. The works bring together unrelated images that the artist does not belong in and watches from a distance on the same surface, freeing them from their contextual meanings. Regardless of the amount of violence on the images, the density that forms when the images are duplicated onto the fabric and painted over with opaque colors makes us unable to hear the realities of the photos that each scream on their own. We start seeing them as a whole, as if zapping through hundreds of channels all displaying reality shows. The works are fixed to the walls of the exhibition interior without spaces in the fashion of a wallpaper full of images. The composite structure that is percieved as one piece in this state diffuses an agitating ambiance into the gallery. It's like a wallpaper, but the covering, artificial beauty of a conventional wallpaper is replaced by a sharp and empty reality here.

In the middle of the gallery covered with this alternating and chaotic mass of images we see Murat Güneş's silent video works that interweave the news broadcasts of television channels. The "talking head" image is subject to a series of manipulations that overlap the faces of the news anchors and transform the news imagery to the extent of dizzy, almost hallucinatory states. In the screen we face here, faces of the people speaking the news the same hour every day in a different manner melt inside each other in their frightening silence, without any single image dominating the scene at any time.

And among all this dizziness, exactly opposite the monitor that displays the video works lies Gençer Yüzer's modified bench that invites the viewer to the explosion of images that is about to surround them. The bench, in its essence, a design that belongs to the public space, but this singularized version designed for only one person is totally closed to sharing and independent. In its solitary state it leads the viewer into a position at the center of an isolated and "perfect" spectation, sitting on their own as usual.

Borga Kanturk

Alexandre Yorgi //
RETROSPECTIVE
20-30.05.2003

KUTU v.1 "Portable Art Gallery"

Place: D.E.U. Faculty of Fine Arts, İzmir

Curator:
Ahmet Uhri

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The third exhibition held in Kutu V.1 titled "Alexandre Yorgi Retrospective"; is presenting selected works by Alexandre Yorgi.

Kendisi; Nesne Olarak resim, Resim Olarak Nesne
Itself: Painting as an object, Object as a painting
(30.10. 2003 - 14.11.2003)

Artists:
Nilay Atsiz, Gokcen Cabadan, Seda Ozen
Curator: Borga Kantürk

Place: KUTU v.1, in DEU GSF, Floor-1, IZMIR

'the city-engraver'

(18.12.2003 – 20.01.2004)

Artists:
Elmas Deniz,Merve Sendil
Uygar Ozel, Isik Yaren

Place:KUTU v.1, in DEU GSF, Floor-1, IZMIR

KUTU v.2 : office:
Borga Kantürk, Evrim Yigit, Ali Bati, Elmas Deniz,
Gokce Suvari, Gokcen Cabadan, Murat Günes

KUTU v.2 is a place which was designed as an art office
for the purpose of documenting the works of the artists of “KUTU”

B-fact: “Black Sea / Baltic Sea / Barents Sea”
Mutual Realities/ Artistic Exchange/ Inter-regional Solidarity,
Recognition/Switch/Hospitality” realized within
the scope of the international exhibition.
Place: Bilgi Atelier 111, ISTANBUL
Date: 20 – 27. September. 2003

KUTU v.3 : audio_files
“Derinlik Sarhoslugu”(Hypoxia),
“Kutu v.3:audio_files” (Sound-Music Project.)
This project is an inner Cd exhibition, edited as an Audio-Cd.
It was displayed within the scope of the joint exhibition
of “80m² Music” .

“Hypoxia”
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Artists: Dissastrato, Murat Gunes, Okan Oganer,
Ugursal Sark, Fergun Urgancioglu
Place: A.S.G., Istanbul - Date: 7 – 30. November. 2003

KUTUV.4 team:

Founder / Director: Borga Kantürk
Arhchitecht: Evrim Yiðit
Artists: Gökçen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz,
Murat Güneş, Gökçe Süvari,Oliver Noens
Art Director: Ali Batı

ABOUT KUTUv.4:

KUTU v.4 made up of EPS, is the box that has the maximum space as compared to the pervious ones. The interior seems almost without any boudaries, as the material is light, easy to break and white. The entrance, which is 1.5 meters high, is designed to minimize the perception of the interior of “KUTU”. The 2.5-meter long corridor, through which the viewers will have to stoop to pass, will be insulated from sound and noise to crate a deep silence in comparison to the noisy hum of the gallery.

As artist will be working at the construction of “KUTU”, the construction should be completed without any difficulty. Some details have to be taken care of during the initial stages of the construction. The artists will decide where they will hang up their works or how they shall display them. This means that the artists will design the geometry of the interior of “KUTU”. Areas will be created within “KUTU” to enable the artists to make displays in “KUTU” variations made up of a variety of materials. One of the main features of “KUTU” is that it grants architectural flexibility. KUTU v.4 creates an insulated and sterile area.

Evrim Yigit

"the deepest breath”

Artists: Ali Bati, Gökçen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz, Murat Günes,
Borga Kantürk, Gökçe Süvari, Oliver Noens, Evrim Yigit

Place: Kutu v.4 ( in exhibition “Rainbow for Tedium” AKBANK Art Centre)

Date: 7 May - 12 June 2004

About the exhibition;

Why carry out an exhibition called “the deepest breath”? What kind of structure is its existence based upon? What are the priorities? What has been altered sine the first exhibition - the initial “KUTU” exhibition of “Merhaba ic Sikintisi”( Hello Tedium) which portrayed the identical feeling as well as the pessimist search for a way-out? (And let us not forget that it was “Hello Tedium” that actually created “KUTU”(the box). It revelated the intencitive that provided strategic solutions to the implications of the title.)

“the deepest breath” emerges from a condition, which encompasses the desired to experience, to approach and eventually to reach. It consist onf the indication (suggestion) of a special place and the state that achieved by the same feeling that is experinced by the artists.

Its dilemma is to gather those who have the same feeling at the ideal moment and place and to make feel at peace. This sense of good taste emerges through a radiation of light, produced by the structure and a sterile and original state, which is created by the (special) area.

The exhibition (in its original form) does not posses a social analysis or a result. It does not target to develop an intense transmittal web or other suggestion of definite liberation. Neither does it develop alternative theoires with regard to the future of art. Ýt tends to take shape away from assertive desriptions of art.

It aims to pursue a pocket size version of a mini-utopia, rather than a great articulation, in order to capture the vision of integrality that coincides with the moment of a simple and sincere matching feeling.

A sterilized, closed circuit, isolated structure. This is an area, which has been structured from scratch for the sole intention of experiencing the summit of a moment of well-being. Consequently the mentioned state of well being can only be captured upon the competion of the structure of this place. Still yet, all can be just a dream and a “deep breath” can still be impossile to inhale. The result can only be achieved by building the structure and getting into it. The search (that produced the creation of all KUTU”portable art galleries” and the exhibitions displayed in them) continues as a result of the dissilusioning and (yet) hopeful dilemma and continues its path with the same partnership.

Borga KANTURK

CHECK-IN EUROPE. Reflecting Identities in Contemporary Art
18 May to 13 July 2006

p2p curated by Marketta Seppälä/Veronica Wiman
EPO, Erhardtstr. 27, 80469 Munich
Participants:
Jasper Sebastian Stürup (DK)
Joachim Koester (DK)
Kathrine Aertebjerg (DK)
Veli Granö (FI)
Jari Silomäki (FI)
Tellervo Kalleinen (FI)
Anu Tuominen (FI)
Jacob Dahlgren (SE)
Frida Fjelllman (SE)
Uglycute (SE)
Hale Tenger (TR)
KUTU (TR)
Ahmet Ögüt (TR)

http://epart.epo.org/exhibition/check-in/index.en.php

This is a paper model of KUTUv.1 that hosted
the first KUTU exhibition called 'Merhaba ic Sikintisi' (Hello Tedium) (22.11.02-17.01.03)

KUTU v.1 :

1-“Merhaba ic Sikintisi”(Hello Boredom)
Curator: Borga Kanturk
Artists: Gokcen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz,Gokce Suvari
Place: Proje4L Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum
(within the scope of exhibition “under the beach: the pavement”)
Date: 22 October 2002 - 17 January 2003

2- “Kusursuz Seyirci”(Perfect Spectator)
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Artists: Murat Günes, Zafer Gungen, Gencer Yuzer
Place: DEÜ, Fine Arts Faculty, First Floor, Izmir
Date: 2 - 12 May 2003

3- “Alexandre Yorgi” Retrospective
Place: DEÜ, Fine Arts Faculty, First Floor, Izmir
Date: 20 May – 5 July 2003

4- “ITSELF:painting as an object, object as a painting”
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Artists: Nilay Atsız, Gokcen Cabadan,Seda Ozen
Place: DEÜ, Fine Arts Faculty, First Floor, Ýzmir
Date: 30 October - 14 November 2003

5- SEHIRKAZICI (the City-engraver)
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Artists: Elmas Deniz, Merve Sendil, Uygar Ozel, Isik Yaren
Place: DEÜ, Fine Arts Faculty, First Floor, Izmir
Date: 18 December 2003 - 20 January 2004


KUTU v.2 : office:

Borga Kantürk, Evrim Yigit, Ali Bati, Elmas Deniz,
Gokce Suvari, Gokcen Cabadan, Murat Günes

KUTU v.2 is a place that is designed as an art office
for the purpose of documenting the works of the artists of “KUTU”

B-fact: “Black Sea / Baltic Sea / Barents Sea”
Mutual Realities/ Artistic Exchange/ Inter-regional Solidarity,
Recognition/Switch/Hospitality” realized within
the scope of the international exhibition.
Place: Bilgi Atelier 111, ÝSTANBUL
Date: 20 – 27. September. 2003


KUTU v.3 : audio_files
“Derinlik Sarhoslugu”(Hypoxia),
“Kutu v.3:audio_files” (Sound-Music Project.)
This project is an inner Cd exhibition, edited as an Audio-Cd.
It was displayed within the scope of the joint exhibition
of “80m² Music” .

“Hypoxia”
Curator: Borga Kantürk
Artists: Dissastrato, Murat Gunes, Okan Oganer,
Ugursal Sark, Fergun Urgancioglu
Place: A.S.G., Istanbul - Date: 7 – 30. November. 2003


KUTU v.4

Founder: Borga Kanturk
Architect: Evrim Yigit
Graphic Design: Ali Batı

“En Derin Nefes…”(the deepest breath)
Artists: Ali Bati, Gökçen Cabadan, Elmas Deniz,
Murat Günes, Borga Kantürk, Gökçe Süvari, Oliver Noens
Place: KUTU v.4 – AKBANK Art Centre -Ýstanbul
Date: 7 May –12 June 2004

This “KUTU”exhibition was displayed within the scope of the exhibition”Rainbow for the tedium” in AKBANK Art Centre.

KUTU v.5
Founder: Borga Kanturk
Architect: Evrim Yigit
Graphic Design: Ali Batı

CHECK-IN EUROPE. Reflecting Identities in Contemporary Art
18 May to 13 July 2006
Erhardtstr. 27