I was born on August 15, 1998 in Istanbul. My enthusiasm for art started at a young age. Various theatres, concerts and exhibitions became my favorite destinations with the great guidance of my family. I was listening to Janis Joplin in the car, not missing the plays at Bakırköy Belediye Tiyatrosu, and regularly visiting Pera Museum. After my high school life in Saint Benoit, I preferred to focus on Theater and I received a comprehensive education on theoretical theater for 3 years at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. Since my graduation, I have been working as an assistant in various theaters, writer and editor in magazines, and producing fashion shoots. I never break my ties with art and I continue to follow the art world with interest and pleasure in order to be informed about current exhibitions.
This exhibition aims to shape the approaches of artists who embrace the extremes that an emotion can reach in their works through the lens of assigned emotions. It is essential to examine the sensualization dictated by artistic production within a spectrum and to consider the works in a new context through the dramatization of emotions.
The moments when we think we are in control of our lives are often limited periods of time when our emotions hand over the steering wheel to our logic. As long as momentary clarity of mind is not lost in the cloud of feelings that are difficult to block, it is possible to move safely on a straight path.
As Juniper Wiley's article "The dramatisation of emotions in practice and theory: emotion work and emotion roles in a therapeutic community" points out, emotions can be compared to the self and reality, both in terms of inner feelings and expression. Since both phenomena are considered as social objects, they are shaped by daily interactions and external conditions. In this case, while external factors, which are out of one's control, can create emotions, how dramatically they will be felt or how loud they will sound inside the person is a completely subjective phenomenon. Since artists are people with a wide range of emotions, they have the chance to use what external factors make them feel to the fullest in their favor.
Art often appears as a product of a practice in which emotions are dominant. This is why art producers are special, they position themselves in a universe dominated by emotions, at a point where they can turn their dominance in their favor. The excess of emotion is translated into production and shared with the world. Each work has a personal story behind it. It reveals the essence of a person dominated by a certain emotion and nourished by personal experiences.
Even though my use of the word essence is in direct conflict with Buddha's philosophy, his teachings make valuable points about accepting the existence of emotions and living our lives accordingly. According to Buddhism, there are two types of truth: worldly truth (samvriti satya) and absolute truth (paramartha satya). Relative truth leads us to recognize the existence of emotions and to make peace with them. We recognize the existence of happiness and suffering, but we are encouraged to choose the path of happiness. In Buddhist practice, feelings and our connection with them are vital to reaching the promised land called "Nirvana".
If we assume that an artist's nirvana is the moment of creation, we can think that the path to nirvana is to make peace with emotions. Works in which no emotion, good or bad, is taken for granted, on the contrary, which allow us to hang from the edge of the abyss by going to the extreme, have the magical ability to control the beating of our heart.