Starting from the exhibition When Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1969, Sarkis has became a groundbreaker in the world conceptual art. His works have been exhibited worldwide in established institutions such as Centre Georges Pompidou, New York Guggenheim Museum, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Bonn Kunst-und-Austellungshalle, Museée du Louvre, Berlin Bode Museum, to name few. Documenta VI, Documenta VII, Kassel (1977, 1982); and the biennials of Sydney, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Moscow, and Istanbul are among the most significant exhibitions he participated in. He represented Armenia and Turkey at the International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, but the 56th was special for Sarkis with his Respiro at the Pavilion of Turkey and Armenity at the Pavilion of Armenia. This specially designed catalogue was published in the context of the exhibition titled Mirror by Sarkis that took place on January 18-February 19, 2017 at Dirimart Dolapdere. Combining arts of Sarkis, the conceptual artist and Bu]lent Erkmen, the pioneer of graphic design in Turkey, it features a text by the co-curator Ceren Erdem. In Mirror, a space for refractions, proliferations, screams, and silence opens as the artist's timeless works from different periods that mark the time encounter the new works for this exhibition. Placing the theory of memory at the core of his practice, Sarkis is introducing a layered critical view to today's social and political issues by inviting witnesses from history. The works transform the art's faculty of bringing the traces of the past to the present into the competence in conjuring up the future through artistic production. A battle scene from the 15th century and the responding lightning provoke the space as they transmute into neon installations. In this space, golden rainbows, images of which histories are touched by Kintsugi technique, moments captured and enlightened by stained glasses, spoils of war coated with lipstick convene and live in a mirror. And many photographs witnessing this confrontation integrate with the faces staring at them and reflect our world like a giant mirror.
About the Author: Ceren Erdem (b. 1979, Gaziantep) is a curator based in Istanbul. She has recently curated As Worlds Colliding and co-curated Sarkis' solo exhibition titled MIRROR at Dirimart, and Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury at MAXXI (Rome, Italy). Some of her curatorial projects include Inverse Grayscale (2016, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich); The Water Knows All My Secrets (2015, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York); Private Matters (2014, apexart, New York); How to Dream Otherwise (2012) at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, and Cross-time Stories: Global Subjectivities After 1989 (2012, Wallach Art Gallery, New York)--a generational exhibition that brought together artists from the Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Caucasus and China. Erdem worked in the Istanbul Biennial, the British Council Turkey, Tina Kim Gallery (New York), co-founded Court Square (New York) and is currently the Director of Dirimart (Istanbul). She has initiated, contributed, and edited numerous online and print publications. She received an M.A. in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University (2012) and an MFA in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design from Sabanci University (2004).