Kemal Seyhan: Untitled / Poetics of Inner Space

About

Kemal Seyhan always had a collaborative approach in his art practice, dialoguing with writers, poets and philosophers. The exhibition’s starting point is based on theories by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. Since the 1980s, Seyhan has been developing works on an abstract language that is distant from any narrative elements. This exhibition represents an exploration of his forty-year artist practice, showing the different aspects of it. Looking at the concept of “space”, he aimed to construct a bridge between the inside and the outside world. Since his early years as a student in Vienna, he has been working around the idea of space, positioning the viewer into a shell that overlooks the different worlds.

Throughout the exhibition, the spatial feature is observed both physically and emotionally, like a cell membrane that opens up new visual experiences for the audience. The beginning and the end of the imaginary universe that Seyhan created can’t be defined. The artist pushes the limits of different aesthetic experiments, designing an area that can be accessed through imagination, and at the same time challenging viewers to define this area as a definite whole.

Kemal Seyhan (1960), Recent exhibitions; Syntax (solo) Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany, (2017); Freundschaftsspiel Istanbul: Freiburg, Museum for Modern Art Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany (2016); Ondas Negras (solo), GPLSpaceVI, Vienna, Austria (2015); 41 Meter (solo), Zorlu Center, Istanbul, Turkey (2013); Sieben Grenzgänge, House Wittgenstein, Vienna, Austria (2011); Kemal Seyhan (solo), Cora Hölzl Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany (2010). Major collections include: Ferdinandeum, Tiroler State Museum, Innsbruck, Austria; Arch Driend Collection, Vienna, Austria; Die Roland Madesta, Nürnberg, Austria; Istanbul Modern Museum, Turkey; Museum Evliyagil, Ankara, Turkey.