The Pavilion of Turkey
Arts Asia Pacific, May 2007
This year’s Venice Biennale artistic director, Robert Storr has broken with convention by inviting special pavilions into his curated exhibition, an African Contemporary Art Pavilion and a Turkey Pavilion. ArtAsiaPacific asked Turkey Pavilion commissioner Vasif Kortun, of Istanbul’s Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, to discuss his plans.
ARTASIAPACIFIC: What will you [...]
Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, 1957-2007
ArtsAsiaPacific, March - April, 3008
Born in 1957 in Ankara, Turkish artist Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin died of a heart attack in his Istanbul studio on December 31, 2007. A towering figure, Alptekin was known for his generosity, wit and intelligence. His personal and artistic dictums included Democratic Luxury; Modest Optimism; Ornamentation without Aesthetics; Global Mockery; Mythology [...]
A discussion between Vasif Kortun and Hüseyin Alptekin
XXIV Bienal de Sao Paulo, (exh. cat.), Sao Paulo 1998
Vasif Kortun / Is there an ethics of appropriation, and how does that apply to the appropriationist? What does the cannibal defecate?
Hüseyin Alptekin/ There is no ethics in appropriation, only an intention. The instinct of appropriation is to admit, to like and admire (love and hate, [...]
Interview with Hüseyin Alptekin
Dulcinea Gallery Catalog, 1999, Istanbul
Vasif Kortun:
I would like to start out by touching on the issue of the reappropriation of Courbet. In the exhibition we see a reproduction of a Courbet painting that confronts us in a monumental manner. This is definitely due to the fact that it is a piece whose location was unknown. [...]