An exhibition at the Odunpazarı Modern Museum focusing on the the ways in which we define the Other
Nilbar Güres, TrabZONE series: Junction (Mother-Daughter), 2010. C-print, edition of 3/5 +1 AP. 100 x 150 cm. İdil Tabanca Collection
The Odunpazarı Modern Museum is a cross-cultural platform where modern and contemporary art from Turkey and abroad is exhibited with a universal perspective. It was founded by Eskişehir-born architect and art collector Erol Tabanca.
The Don’t Look Back, Deep is the Past exhibition at the Odunpazarı Modern Museum brings together 41 works by 31 artists and focuses on the roles and identities assigned to individuals in the context of their relationship with society, the habits based on social norms, and the ways in which we define the Other.
Informed by perspectives and forms of expression that the individual often conceals (and occasionally articulates) in their journey as part of a collective memory; the exhibition looks into concepts like “taboo” and “freedom” from the standpoint of social order and its rituals.
Works exploring feelings of belonging, conformity, rejection and defiance, the unavoidable vulnerabilities reserved to being human reveal the systematic relationship between the part and the whole as well as the individual and society. While the exhibition examines the eternal and deeply rooted conflict between the individual and society arising from polarised, contradictory points of view, the artworks find a commonality in the traditional techniques and images they are imbued with.
Providing opportunities to discover new connections between individual and collective, the exhibition gives viewers new ideas about pre-assigned roles, prescribed constraints and the possibility of alternative lives while inviting them to reconsider their idiosyncratic placements and positions in a new light.
