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SARKISSIAN PRESENTS HIS 'ISTORY' AT SALT BEYOGLU
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 16 2011
Turkey
Hrair Sarkissian's own history is closely tied to these books and
files.
Salt Beyoglu is hosting a new exhibition featuring the works of
Hrair Sarkissian.
In Sarkissian's work, landscape and the urban environment become
stages for the expression of moments in history. Employing traditional
documentary techniques, his photographs express the hidden paradox
existing between the beauty and constancy of the surroundings and
the potential realities they conceal.
The exhibition will last until the end of December.
In 2010, Sarkissian spent two months in Istanbul documenting the
history sections of various semi-private and public libraries and
archives in the city, from the Archaeological Museum and Topkapı
Palace Libraries to the Ataturk Library in Taksim, the Ottoman Archives
of the Prime Ministry General Directorate of State, and the Ottoman
Bank Archives and Research Centre.
Sarkissian's own history is closely tied to these books and files,
as his grandparents were forced to flee from East Anatolia to Syria in
1915 during the mass deportations of Ottoman Armenians. The official
historical narrative around this period in the Ottoman Empire, as
presented since its collapse and transformation into the Turkish
Republic, is a subject of increasing debate within Turkey.
The second exhibition in the Modern Essays series, Sarkissian's
photographs of rows of shelving caught in time and racks of files
that appear rarely opened - of dark and oppressive spaces shot with
only the light available - express the complexity of information
these archives contain, and their role in denying or confirming the
artist's inherited history and existence within the present.
Sarkissian studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in
Amsterdam.
Current exhibitions of his work include the third Thessaloniki
Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece, (2011) and Facing Mirrors,
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece (2011).
His recent exhibitions also include Out of Place at TATE Modern,
London, and Darat Al Funun.
The Salt Beyoglu exhibition is being organized with the support of
the Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki.
From: A. Papazian
Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 16 2011
Turkey
Hrair Sarkissian's own history is closely tied to these books and
files.
Salt Beyoglu is hosting a new exhibition featuring the works of
Hrair Sarkissian.
In Sarkissian's work, landscape and the urban environment become
stages for the expression of moments in history. Employing traditional
documentary techniques, his photographs express the hidden paradox
existing between the beauty and constancy of the surroundings and
the potential realities they conceal.
The exhibition will last until the end of December.
In 2010, Sarkissian spent two months in Istanbul documenting the
history sections of various semi-private and public libraries and
archives in the city, from the Archaeological Museum and Topkapı
Palace Libraries to the Ataturk Library in Taksim, the Ottoman Archives
of the Prime Ministry General Directorate of State, and the Ottoman
Bank Archives and Research Centre.
Sarkissian's own history is closely tied to these books and files,
as his grandparents were forced to flee from East Anatolia to Syria in
1915 during the mass deportations of Ottoman Armenians. The official
historical narrative around this period in the Ottoman Empire, as
presented since its collapse and transformation into the Turkish
Republic, is a subject of increasing debate within Turkey.
The second exhibition in the Modern Essays series, Sarkissian's
photographs of rows of shelving caught in time and racks of files
that appear rarely opened - of dark and oppressive spaces shot with
only the light available - express the complexity of information
these archives contain, and their role in denying or confirming the
artist's inherited history and existence within the present.
Sarkissian studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in
Amsterdam.
Current exhibitions of his work include the third Thessaloniki
Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece, (2011) and Facing Mirrors,
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece (2011).
His recent exhibitions also include Out of Place at TATE Modern,
London, and Darat Al Funun.
The Salt Beyoglu exhibition is being organized with the support of
the Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki.
From: A. Papazian