INSTANCES OF ERASURE

Video Screening Program 
October 19, 2023 - February 17, 2024

with Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat, Simon Wachsmuth & Isaac Chong Wai
Program by: Nazlı Yayla & Marjolein van der Meer

Conversation with İz Öztat and Füsun Türetken
Thursday, 19 October 2023, 19H

İz Öztat
Constituting An Island, 2014
Single channel HD video, endless loop

By intertwining fiction and reality, in Constituting an Island (2014) İz Öztat investigates the effects of myths and official national narratives and how power is historically built. Since 2010, the artist has been fabricating the (auto)biography of Zişan (1894 – 1970), an enigmatic author who appears to her as a historical figure, a ghost and an alter ego. By interpreting Zişan’s archives, Öztat explores the possibilities of fiction and creates a body of work where the repressed past intervenes with the present.

After encountering the short story Cezire-i Cennet/Cinnet (Island of Paradise/Possessed) written by Zişan, Öztat decides to pursue the story of Ada Kaleh, a missing island submerged underwater after the construction of the Demirkapi Dam in 1968. A river island on the Danube River within the borders of present-day Romania, Ada Kaleh was the last Ottoman territory in the Balkans and a site of projected imperial longings. The video shows a succession of canoes moving collectively in a circular way and tracing the borders of an imaginary island. The video expresses the intention of the artist of searching for something missing, an imaginary potential of a river island erased from the map. Thus the island becomes a speculative element of the history that serves for imagining otherwise. The video is part of a larger body of work and is accompanied by the artist’s book titled Conducted in depth and projected at lenght.

Read more about İz Öztat here. 

Füsun Türetken is Professor at HfK Bremen, HfG Karlsruhe and graduation supervisor at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK). Her PhD at Goldsmiths was titled 'On the Most Powerful Catalyst on the Planet' and provides a reading of conflict and capital through matter, more precisely metal. 

Her academic background lies in architecture, urban studies and visual culture with studies in Germany, the United States and England. In 2008 she was director of the German Pavilion with raumtaktik at the Venice Architecture Biennale. For four years she has been editor and curator with Shrinking Cities in Berlin. Publications and works include “The Amalgamated Toxicity of Ground Zero”, Forensis Sternberg Press, 2014; “Gold. Alchemic Desire” Christoph Merian Verlag, 2020; “Neodymium. Superconductive Lifelines for Metallic Monsters” Umbau Journal, 2022.

She founded collective Å in 2022, which establishes the format of Å Radio Roundtable, a new hybrid platform for discursive reflection and learning, funded by Media Arts Karlsruhe to be shown at the Architecture Biennial Venice 2023. She runs the series “Postheroic". 
-
Platform 82  powered by Zilberman is a new art space, a platform that aims to bring together artists, curators and institutions from different corners of the world, generating dialogue through conversations, presentations, publications, and exchange programs. From October 2023 onwards, we extend an invitation to institutions, curators, artists and all other contributors of the art scene for artistic exploration, discursive practices and dialogue.

Instances of Erasure

Platform 82 will start its activities with a video screening program titled Instances of Erasure, bringing together 8 video works by 8 artists, accompanied by a series of conversations. Running from October 19th 2023 until February 17th 2024, we will screen two videos by two artists roughly every four weeks, with conversations between artists and guests. The program will start on October 19th with a talk between İz Öztat and Füsun Türetken, followed by a talk between Guido Casaretto and Marianna van der Zwaag. After that we will have films by Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Itamar Gov, Simon Wachsmuth & Isaac Chong Wai.

Instances of Erasure delves into the theme of erasure. Through their visual narratives, artists invite the viewer to contemplate the delicate threads that connect memory, history, and the shaping of identity. It encompasses urban structures, architectural fragments and unseen traces that enable one to re-read social and personal histories.