Muta-morfoz / Muta-morphosis – Solo show @ C.A.M Gallery & ArtitledCONTEMPORARY

Muta-morphosis

The different traces left by various people and slices of time co-exist as layers in cities that have a particular past. The global trends and economical conditions strain this multi-layered traditional urban structure. An architecture with a language that cannot be considered as local anymore but universal, attacks the old texture of cities during the urban growth. This intervention usually implemented through gentrification supported by big capital, causes the urban tissue and its components to face mutation and even beyond this, undergo metamorphosis. Following this interaction and consecutive natural selection, some constituents disappear and some survive after being transformed.

The concept of “muta-morphosis”, a combination of the notions of mutation and metamorphosis, and the connected artwork series was obtained by reducing panoramic images on one axis. The image compression on the horizontal level points to the dynamics between the urban components that can persist and the ones that give up, vanish in the various historical, residential and business urban districts. The visual urban result obtained after this contraction process points to the much discussed notion of evolution, where stronger components of existence survive the others after a natural selection process and change the course of life.

The lack of a single perspectival structure due to multiplicity of perspectives after panoramic imaging, can be linked to Ottoman miniatures, which in turn, connects the global contemporary representation to its local traditional counterpart. A similar connection to history is made by Stephan Berg (director, Kunstmuseum Bonn): “The city that Murat Germen creates in his group of works Muta-Morphosis evinces an inner affinity with Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Germen’s works also establish a narrative that should not be confused with the city that is described therein. The city seems to collapse and partially to liquefy: skyscrapers and bridges are bent out of shape, become soft and amorphous. Entire metropolitan districts disappear in strange spatial ridges and canyons, urban highways resemble surging streams of lava, and buildings repeatedly look as if they have been chewed upon by oversized termites, thinned out into skeletons.”

Kerstin Stremmel (independent curator and art critic, Cologne) defines the artist’s practice as “Photographie Automatique” and further asserts that “Germen’s images at once effortlessly visualize the fact that in many places in the world rapid, urban developmental misplanning with a propensity for gigantism is shredding the existing infrastructure.” On the other hand, Necmi Sönmez (independent curator, Düsseldorf) sees Germen as a “cartographer mapping global cities and an artist who emphasizes not the human figure itself, or its portrait; but its labour, its dedicated effort, and its urban creations.”

Barbara Hofmann-Johnson (art historian and independent curator, Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne) states that Germen’s “work, with its experimental openness, can be seen within the open field of a contemporary approach to photography linked to a subject such as urban landscape.” Finally, Murathan Mungan (author, short story writer, playwright and poet, Istanbul) perceives the artist as an urban activist “having a cause to argue for. Germen’s works, which display a combination of mastery and craftsmanship, one notices at the very outset that he is a photographer with a point to prove.”

Web sites, publications, auction, venues, art fairs, events at which Muta-morphosis series is covered / displayed:

INTERNATIONAL

– Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown S06E07 Istanbul / https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6napjm

– Skira monograph / http://www.skira.net/en/books/murat-germen
– Designboom, world’s first and most popular digital architecture and design magazine / https://www.designboom.com/art/murat-germen-muta-morphosis-12-19-2016/
– DIPE, Dali, China, 2017
– Solo show at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, 2016
– Daegu Photo Biennale, Korea, 2016
– FOTOISTANBUL international photography festival, 2014
– PhotoShanghai 2014
– Christie’s (Dubai) and Sotheby’s (London) auctions:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5546493 –

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5486454 –

http://www.christies.com/lotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5362274 –

http://bit.ly/TBFP7o
– Vignette magazine / United Kingdom / http://www.vignettemagazine.com/
– Empty Kingdom, contemporary art blog / http://www.emptykingdom.com/main/featured/ek-interview-murat-germen/
– GUP magazine / The Netherlands / http://www.gupmagazine.com/portfolios/212-muta-morphosis
– living design blog / http://bit.ly/njGIfO
– 500 photographers / http://bit.ly/mTtl1w
– Ahram online (Egyptian newspaper) / http://bit.ly/yoSm1R
– fotofever art fair, 2011, Paris
– VIP photo art fair, July 12 – August 12, 2012 with Rosier Gallery, USA
– The SoloProject Basel / 13 – 17 June, 2012 with C.A.M Gallery, Turkey
– artMRKT San Francisco May 17 – 20, 2012 with Rosier Gallery, USA
– Art Marrakech (WIRED magazine) / http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2011/10/marrakech/?pid=1237
– EVA London 2012 / http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/46083
– ISEA 2011, Istanbul / http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/mr.germen
– Computational Aesthetics 2011, Vancouver, Canada
– O Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazilian newspaper
– IJACDT journal article (IGI Publishing), USA / http://bit.ly/xbUVCr

NATIONAL

– ARTunlimited magazine / http://bit.ly/vtxkXF
– ARTAM Global Art magazine / http://bit.ly/A0xPCv
– Arredamento Mimarlik magazine / http://bit.ly/A3BEwP
– Milliyet Sanat art magazine
– Lebriz Sanal Dergi online magazine
– 46 magazine / http://bit.ly/zPQVDA
– Metropol TV channel / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efugedrEjFY
– TRT (Turkish National Radio Television channel)
– Ekavart TV (online TV) / http://bit.ly/th5rQU

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Muta-morfoz

Dikkate değer geçmişleri olan kentlerde farklı halk ve zaman dilimleri tarafından bırakılan izler farklı katmanlarda bir arada var oluyorlar. Küresel eğilim ve ekonomik şartlar çok katmanlı bu geleneksel kent yapısını zorluyorlar. Dilini artık yerel sayamayacağımız evrensel bir mimarlık, kentsel büyüme ile birlikte eski dokuya taarruz ediyor. Bu müdahale genellikle büyük kapital destekli mutenalaştırma üzerinden ilerliyor ve kentsel doku ile bileşenlerini mutasyona, hatta onun da ötesinde metamorfoza uğratıyor. Bu etkileşimi ve ardından gelen doğal ayıklanmayı takiben; bazı yapıtaşları yok oluyor, diğerleri ise ancak dönüşerek ayakta kalabiliyor.

Mutasyon ve metamorfoz mefhumlarından türeyen “muta-morfoz” kavramı ve ona bağlı olarak üretilen işler panoramik kent tasvirlerinin yatay düzlemde sıkıştırılması ile elde edildi. Bu sıkıştırma eylemi, kentlerin tarihi yapı stoku; konut ve iş merkezlerini barındıran bölgelerinde, kentsel gelişmeye karşı durabilen ve duramayan bileşenlerin arasındaki dinamiğe dikkat çekiyor. Bu daralma sonunda elde edilen görsel kent tefsiri, daha güçlü olanın yaşamaya devam ettiği ve hayatın akışını değiştirdiği bir süreç olan evrim kavramına gönderme yapıyor.

Muta-morfoz serisi gözün tek bir bakışta göremediği içeriği tek bakışa sığdırıyor. Bu fotoğraflar bütünüyle belgesel nitelikte, çekim sonrası bilinçli ekleme veya çıkarma söz konusu değil; sadece görüntünün ufki düzlemde sıkıştırılması sürecinde yok olan bazı bileşenler var. Serideki fotoğraf tabanlı anlatım, kentleri gezdiğimde aklımda kalan bölük pörçük sözcükleri içeren bir sinopsis aslında. Diğer bir deyişle, içinden kareler düşürülmüş ve pürüzsüz bir devamlılığı olmayan, stop-motion tekniğindeki gibi kırık hareketler içeren bir video metrajı gibi. Panoramik görselleştirmenin getirdiği çok perspektifli çatkı ve egemen tek perspektifin olmaması hali ise, Osmanlı minyatürlerindeki görsel yapıyı hatırlatıyor olması dolayısı ile zamanımız küresel görsel temsilini yerel muadiline bağlıyor.