For its first major exhibition of 2016, TILL IT’S GONE: An Exhibition on Nature and Sustainability, Istanbul Modern brings together artists who address nature and ecology with a particular emphasis on the notion of sustainability. Cosponsored by Eczacıbaşı Group and Şekerbank and with the contributions of TAV Airports Holding, the exhibition is on view January 13 – June 5, 2016, and features works by twenty artists and art collectives from different corners of the world proposing different perspectives on our perception of nature and new kinds of awareness vis-à-vis our relationship with the ecosystem. The press conference for the exhibition was attended by the Chair of the Board of Istanbul Modern, Oya Eczacıbaşı; the CEO of Eczacıbaşı Group, Dr. Erdal Karamercan; the General Manager of Şekerbank, Halit Yıldız; the exhibition curators, Çelenk Bafra and Paolo Colombo; the artists Alper Aydın, Bingyi, Jasmin Blasco, Elmas Deniz, Lars Jan and Annie Saunders, Maro Michalakakos, Camila Rocha, and Canan Tolon; and representatives of ikonoTV’s Art Speaks Out video art program.
Curated by Çelenk Bafra and Paolo Colombo, the exhibition features paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, photographs, and moving images by Roger Ackling, Bas Jan Ader, Alper Aydın, Bingyi, Jasmin Blasco and Pico Studio, Charles A. A. Dellschau, Elmas Deniz, Mark Dion, Hamish Fulton, Rodney Graham, ikonoTV ‘Art Speaks Out’, Lars Jan, Mario Merz, Maro Michalakakos, Joni Mitchell, Yoko Ono, Camila Rocha, Canan Tolon, Francesco Garnier Valletti, and Pae White.
Bafra and Colombo describe TILL IT’S GONE as a manifestation of a yearning for nature, a livable world, and a desire for sustainable ecological balance. The exhibition aims to reinforce humankind’s relationship with nature and the ecosystem and introduce fresh perspectives by looking at the concept of sustainability through the lens of art. Ranging from diverse periods from the nineteenth century to the present, the works in the exhibition reflect their artists’ perception of nature and relationship with the concept of sustainability, offering interpretations of and inventive proposals for interactions between human beings and the ecosystem, and plants and animals in particular. Some of the works suggest the impossibility of solving major ecological issues, while others make proposals for safeguarding the ecosystem and the survival of humankind in harmony with it. A considerable number of the artists use nature itself as the medium for their production. The exhibition takes its title from the refrain of the 1970 song Big Yellow Taxi by the Canadian singer-songwriter and artist Joni Mitchell: “You don’t know what you’ve got – Till it’s gone”.
Apotheosis of Glasgow High-rises was part of the looping video art program ART SPEAKS OUT by ikonoTV which was projected in the exhibition.
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Place
Istanbul Museum of Modern Art
Istanbul
Turkey
