Nasan Tur explores the political and social conditions that define our times. His works are experimental arrangements that draw attention to ideologies, social norms and behavioural codes and expand our options for individual action. To this end, he examines statements, gestures and images found in the media or in the public space and distils them into miniatures reflecting current social crises and discourse. In particular he asks how we are influenced by established role models and what drives us, in the light of oppression, powerlessness and manipulation, to break out from these boundaries and change the social paradigm.
For his show at the Berlinische Galerie, Tur has produced new works that address the exercise of power and rationales for its legitimation. Why do people kill? How much violence do we harbour within us and under what circumstances is it triggered? The visual impact of Tur’s spatial arrangement conveys ambivalent attitudes to death and life. The elements range from a confrontation with inner demons to interviews with hunters about the act of killing and a respectful mise-en-scène of lifeless animals.
Nasan Tur (*1974 in Offenbach) lives and works in Berlin. He has shown at events such as documenta14, the 10th Istanbul Biennial and the 6th Taipei Biennial and at many institutions, including the Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and Maxxi Museum in Rome. In 2012 he was awarded the Will Grohmann Prize by the Academy of Arts in Berlin and in 2014 he held a residency at the Villa Massimo in Rome.
The exhibition has been funded by SAHA – Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey
Berlinische Galerie
Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, 10969 Berlin, Germany