Ali Artun: Giacometti’s cul-de-sac of reality

Conference

April 4, 2015 / 14:30

Giacometti has always tried to see and capture reality. But he can’t. In his quest for reality, he chips away at his early sculptures, reducing them to nothingness. He eventually begins to work with “surreal” objects and revolutionizes the field. Shortly thereafter, however, he returns to the age-old problematic of aesthetics and attempts to discover the interaction between art and reality. He gets stuck with endless copies. He fails to complete his brother’s portrait and bust for five years, even though he works on them every day. He admits he “can’t even finish a head.” In the end, however, he creates an aesthetics, a philosophy out of this cul-de-sac of reality that imprisoned him. He inspires the existentialists as much as he does the surrealists.

Free of admissions. Conference language is Turkish.
Limited space, drop in.

Ali Artun graduated from METU Department of Architecture. He is the founder and member of numerous associations in art and architecture. He took part in the establishment of Gallery Nev in 1984. Since then, he has organized numerous exhibitions for Gallery Nev in Ankara as well as other exhibitions in Ankara and Istanbul. He edited over a hundred titles published by Gallery Nev. Since 2002, he directs the “Art-Life” series that brings together works in cultural criticism, and teaches in the Graduate Program of Art History at ITU.

Temporary Exhibition

Alberto Giacometti

Pera Museum proudly announced the first major exhibition of sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti in Turkey taking a retrospective approach. Organized in collaboration with the Giacometti Foundation, Paris, this exhibition explored Giacometti’s prolific life, most of which the artist led in his studio in Montparnasse, through the works of his early period as well his late work, including one unfinished piece.

Alberto Giacometti

At The Well

At The Well

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz discovered the Orient in 1877, touring Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and the Crimea with Władysław Branicki. This experience made a profound impression on him, and he was to continuously revisit Eastern themes in his works for the rest of his life. 

Have you noticed the gigantic photo on the facade of our building?

Have you noticed the gigantic photo on the facade of our building?

Have you noticed the gigantic photo on our façade? Our Cold Front from the Balkans exhibition focuses on different generations of artists and art groups from the Balkan region.

Midnight Horror Stories: The Landlord <br> Hakan Bıçakcı

Midnight Horror Stories: The Landlord
Hakan Bıçakcı

Three people sleeping side by side. On the uncomfortable seats of the stuffy airplane in the air. Three friends. I’m the friend in the window seat. The other two are a couple, Emre and Melisa. I’m alone, they are together. And another difference. I’ve only closed my eyes. They are asleep.