ISTANBUL.- Curated by İpek Yeğinsü, Anna Laudel will present a group exhibition titled “Intergalactic”, showcasing selected artworks of 12 contemporary artists including Beyza Boynudelik, Şafak Çatalbaş, Alper Derinboğaz, Emin Mete Erdoğan, Horasan, Ekin Su Koç, Ali Miharbi, Ali İbrahim Öcal, Özcan Saraç, Meltem Sırtıkara, Merve Şendil and İrem Tok. Running between 3 September and 20 October 2019, the exhibition departs from the question of what the future will be like if we manage to bring and sustain our civilisation beyond the confines of our planet.

Adopting a transdisciplinary, site-specific and participatory approach in her curatorial practice, in “Intergalactic” İpek Yeğinsü focuses on how humanity’s existing socio-cultural structures will be affected by a potential migration towards space, and in doing so, opens an independent room for discussion with regards to contemporary conceptual dichotomies like the past and the future.

In this exciting age marked by our initiatives ranging from journeying to the dark side of the Moon to space tourism, from attempts at approaching the Sun to the quest for finding life on Mars, “Intergalactic” highlights the fact that our current desire to reach beyond our planet’s boundaries is not solely based on optimistic curiosity but it is also fuelled by the inescapable realisation that we have recklessly exhausted our planet’s resources. The exhibition asks the viewers some important questions about the future of our civilisation: In an age marked by climate change, dystopian scenarios and technological utopias where all our feelings of belongingness keep eroding, will searching for salvation in deep space be able to achieve anything beyond the creation a romantic dream industry?, Will our anxieties exacerbated by the awareness that our place in the universe is not as important as we have been told for centuries, and our consequently stimulated survival instinct be able to save us from vanishing into eternity? And if our century succeeds at carrying us upwards in the evolutionary ladder, how will our socio-cultural structures be affected?

The exhibition also explores the ways in which the identity building processes, rituals, inter and intra-species communication methods of our society’s representatives might evolve and change once they settle in other planets or even other galaxies. Offering a non-geocentric critical approach to contemporary dichotomies like the center vs. the periphery, the near vs. the far, the observer vs. the observed, and the past vs. the future, the exhibition will showcase artworks of 12 artists working with various media and disciplines like painting, sculpture, video, photography and new media.

Opening on Tuesday, September 3rd, “Intergalactic” will run parallel to the 16th Istanbul Biennial (14 Sept. – 10 Nov.) of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and will be held across three floors of the exhibition space at Anna Laudel in Istanbul until 20 October 2019. The exhibition will also present a programme of parallel activities including artist talks and curatorial tours.