ISTANBUL, TURKEY.-  The Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art presents "Stop for a Moment – Painting as Narrative", on view through June 15, 2002. The exhibition consists of figurative works where the emphasis is on the capacity of painting to act as a story – hence, painting as narrative. The works investigate the various ways of making particular, private experiences accessible and public. The position of painting in Turkey is quite similar to the one in the Nordic countries. In these relative peripheries the popularity of painting is very high. Rather than emphasising the conservative attitudes relating to its situation as a market commodity or fetisch, the exhibition puts forward an attitude that is critical and self-conscious. The first exhibition in Gävle Konstcentrum, Sweden, examined issues such as slowness, ‘painting’s place’ and painting as a place. The last exhibition in the series will be shown at the Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art in Turku, Finland, in autumn 2002, and also in the Arken Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark, from November 2002 onwards.