A Handful of Rights
Aslı Uludağ

Performance

March 2, 2018 / 15:00

Pera Museum is presenting a month-long durational performance: A Handful of Rights by artist Aslı Uludağ. Inspired by Suna and Inan Kıraç Foundation Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection exhibition, and taking place over a month in the exhibition gallery of Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters, the performance A Handful of Rights revisits the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its 70th anniversary.

During this multi-phase performance, one by one the words contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are erased from the Turkish dictionary, and are then translated into a numerical value based on their listing in this dictionary with participation from the gallery audience. These numbers are converted to the weight of wheat, reflecting an interpretation of the collective and settled lifestyle, proposed by this Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the last stage of the performance, the artist aims to calculate the physical weight of the declaration based on the weight of the wheat.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed by the United Nations in 1948. Composed of thirty articles, this declaration provides the frame for equal rights, freedoms, and lifestyle for all people in the world regardless of their religion, language, race or gender. As the performance deconstructs and scrutinizes the declaration, the artist reinterprets this important text into various aspects, forms and concepts. The performance, in search for the lost meaning of words through a poetic and absurd approach, ironically takes place in the court of the ambassadors from the Ottoman era, whose portraits are displayed in the Orientalist Paintings Collection exhibition of the museum.

Performance Program
2 March - 1 April 2018 every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
 
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday- 12:00 - 19:00
Friday- 15:00 - 22:00
Sunday- 13:00 - 18:00
 

Aslı Uludağ’s A Handful of Rights performance is presented on the exhibition floor of the exhibition “Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters” compiled from Suna and Inan Kıraç Foundation Orientalist Paintings Collection.

Aslı Uludağ
Born in 1990 in Istanbul, Aslı Uludağ completed her bachelor’s degree at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Uludağ developed an interest in theatre and contemporary art when she was studying in high school at Robert College. Following her graduation, she focused on sculpture, and worked with a wide range of materials from metal, plastic, wood, and fiber. She is currently working on projects that focus on architectural structures, urban design, limits set by social, cultural and legal rules, and their impact on the society, the movement managed by these limits, and how they both control and reflect life. Her work has been exhibited in the Womanmade Gallery, The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and Union League Club.

From two portraits of children…

From two portraits of children…

The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Orientalist Painting Collection includes two children’s portraits that are often featured in exhibitions on the second floor of the Pera Museum. These portraits both date back to the early 20th century, and were made four years apart. One depicts Prince Abdürrahim Efendi, son of Sultan Abdulhamid II, while the figure portrayed on the other is Nazlı, the daughter of Osman Hamdi Bey.

Return from Vienna

Return from Vienna

Józef Brandt harboured a fascination for the history of 17th century Poland, and his favourite themes included ballistic scenes and genre scenes before and after the battle proper –all and sundry marches, returns, supply trains, billets and encampments, patrols, and similar motifs illustrating the drudgery of warfare outside of its culminating moments.

Memory of Objects

Memory of Objects

In his book exploring the cultural history of souvenirs, Rolf Potts discusses how such objects assume meaning through personal stories: Objects turn into memories with the stories they hold.