Open Closed Open: Avner Sher / Personal Map Since 2008: Nezaket Ekici

About

Avner Sher’s works are typified by an act of violent wounding. He works with cork boards and cork peels—a porous, resilient woody substance. The external tissue cells of the cork oak trunk die and are replaced every few years. New cells emerge out of the trauma, preserving the tree’s appearance, which continues its physiological rejuvenation and growth. A material capable of surviving wood fire, the cork represents the cycle of birth and revelation, death and resurrection, often informing Sher’s practice. Operating like a surgeon, he paints, sculpts, and carves with various knives in the wooden substance, conjuring up images from different strata of consciousness.

The exhibition takes its title from Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai’s book, Open Closed Open. Amichai discusses the peeling of history’s layers, moving like a pendulum between times, broken feelings, and memory fragments which entrench themselves in the mundane reality. Sher—an architect by profession—delves into historical monuments and geographical signs imbued with the imprints of erosive time, spawning new configurations, either concocted or based on ancient maps.

Concurrent with Sher’s solo exhibition about mapping, the project room features video that based on interactive performance installation by Berlin-based Nezaket Ekici: Work in Progress – Personal Map.

Ekici’s artworks derive from multiple subjects, including everyday situations, her dual cultural background (Turkish & German), and the history of art. Her confrontations with the ordinary allow Ekici to explore the various social and cultural atmospheres in which she operates. These confrontations are then translated and expressed as performances and art installations.