To Hell

Cehenneme Kadar

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The Turkish contemporary art scene obviously bloomed after the 1990s, and Art-ist Publications represents the most innovative and critical approaches to emerge from this momentum. Art-ist Publications publish debate-oriented texts as well as books that help to create memories and knowledge of the art that is being produced. The series, Contemporary Art Artist Books, are a set of books dedicated to this purpose. Our Artist Books aim to create opportunities for artists who think deliberately, about the very unique and inventive elements of Turkish contemporary art. This was the reason to choose Artist Books as a format. Because Artist Books offer the ideal form for seeing a body of work of a single artist, while recognizing continuity and phases in each particular artists work as well as in the broader art community. Thus, Artist Books both help to understand the oeuvre of an artist, and support the popularity of these art works in Turkey. It should not be forgotten that some of the works of these young artists have never been shown elsewhere in Turkey. By including all the works of an artist in one single book, reviews of their works, and interviews where the artist has the opportunity to express themselves, we are able to present a wonderful in-depth overview of the artist.

Art-ist Publications, begun this series in 2008 with a book of Ahmet Ögüt: “Informal Incidents”. The second book was of Bashir Borlakov: “Fictional Reality”. The third, of Can Altay: „Pigeons are People“. The fourth, Sener Özmen: „A Sener Özmen Book“. The fifth is of Asli Çavusoglu: “Mercury in Retrograde”; the sixth is of Burak Delier: „Displacing Silence“. The seventh one, which you are holding now, represents the work of yet another important young Turkish artist named CANAN.

CANAN is an important representative of the personal is political motto in Turkish art world since 1990s. She is known as being one of the leading defenders of women’s rights in Turkey and her identity as an artis has been mostly shaped by a feminism which accompanies a political opposition. Yet, CANAN’s crucial contribution may have been her sophisticated interventions to attempts of trying to turn ‚past‘ into histories. CANAN protests all efforts to transform a ‚past‘ of violence, torture, rape, obedience to authority, cooperation with evil and consent to power into sterilized tales, historical narratives and progressivist stories. In short, she says: „I know your past, do not come to me with such histories“. She adds, speaking to the power, to the opposition, to men, and to mothers: „do not tell me tales, if you need a tale, sit down and listen, I’ll tell you one.“

In CANAN’s work, tales to do not make you sleep, they awaken you. History helps you sleep. And you are about to awake to a past.

We hope CANAN’s genuine contribution to the art world will be more visible as a result of this book.