Borusan Contemporary Awaits Art Lovers

Borusan Contemporary invites art enthusiasts to a multi-layered art experience through exhibitions prepared for the new culture and art season. British artist Mat Collishaw, known within movements shaping contemporary art through his artistic practice since the late 1990s, combines proposals from the perspectives of art, science and history disciplines with artificial intelligence technologies in his new solo exhibition Arrhythmia. art Referencing the work of two important figures from art and science, Albrecht Dürer and Ernst Haeckel, Collishaw visualizes nature's deteriorating rhythm. Arrhythmia brings to the fore concepts of empirical method and nature observation that Renaissance artists like Dürer believed were essential for developing our view of the world. Like Dürer, Collishaw is concerned with approaching catastrophe. The video work titled Until the End, presented within the scope of the exhibition, draws from Wardian Cases, a terrarium form that enabled the overseas transport of plants in the 19th-century colonial world. In the video flowing to the accompaniment of Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, the destruction and regeneration of nature dramatically follow one another. The animation video Hybrid Force addresses the nature/culture duality, strikingly visualizing how wildlife takes over the National Gallery of London, and thus the "culture" that humans have produced as an alternative to nature.

Mat Collishaw references the Istanbul Strait in his new works in the exhibition

Collishaw's work titled Pandora draws inspiration from the Istanbul Strait. The artist transforms Haeckel's illustrations of sea creatures with Albrecht Dürer's woodcut The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse using artificial intelligence to produce an original illustration. The striking installation Wailing Sirens, structured in the zoetrope format characteristic of the artist's signature work, emphasizes the excessive proliferation of jellyfish species beyond their natural rhythms; it compares these invasive creatures with a trapped octopus symbolizing nature's intelligence. Mat Collishaw emphasizes the necessity of senses and imagination alongside theories in connecting with nature by incorporating philosophy and the history of science. Arrhythmia, with the aid of technology, explores new ways of seeing regarding nature and our relationship with it. Mat Collishaw speaks about his new exhibition Arrhythmia to be held at Borusan Contemporary: "I sought to create an exhibition that takes account of the stark evidence that climate change is dramatically transforming the planet's face and ecology, and Borusan Contemporary's exceptional position on the shores of the Istanbul Strait. There is no shortage of information about the gravity into which the world has fallen, but there is clearly a problem in the solution part. In my works in Arrhythmia, I will present a series of patterns evoking unsolved riddles: a solitary voice against disturbing indifference, the inconceivable complexity of digital/genetic code, the Sisyphean burden of balancing the world's ecology and ultimately humanity's Herculean pride. In this exhibition, unfortunately no solution will be offered to the difficult situation we find ourselves in, only the reflection of riddles through which we clumsily attempt to navigate will shimmer." Dr. Kumru Eren, Director of Borusan Contemporary, speaks about the new temporary exhibitions: "We are delighted to welcome Mat Collishaw to Istanbul after a ten-year hiatus, with a special selection that includes a site-specific installation in zoetrope form created by commission for Borusan Contemporary. Collishaw visualized nature's disorderly heartbeat through the trajectory covered by the sciences, via artificial intelligence technologies. Arrhythmia is Mat Collishaw's summa; a sketch notebook of an artist thinking across disciplines, encompassing nature, science and history. A startling and captivating portrait of the human condition ranging from melancholy to climate decadence…"

Digital Mythologies examines the different production possibilities of New Media Art

Digital Mythologies, presenting a selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection under the curatorship of Necmi Sönmez, highlights experimental approaches shaped by the different production possibilities of New Media Art. "Digital experiences," now part of contemporary life, have opened doors to numerous investigations previously impossible for creative artists since the 2000s. The Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, with its orientation toward such investigations, traces the path of the "new visuality" it underlines in digital image production. The exhibition examines the images brought to the fore by this visuality under a magnifying glass using a comparative approach. Neon sculptures as examples of New Media Art, video installations and manipulated photographs, when brought together with collages shaped by classical production techniques, canvas and paper works, the differences between "moving image" and "still image" become apparent simultaneously. Within the scope of Digital Mythologies, four previously unexhibited works from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection will also meet with viewers.     Visiting hours and important information: Borusan Contemporary is open for visits only on weekends from 10:00–19:00. Additionally, reservations for free guided exhibition tours held at 11:00–13:00–15:00–17:00 should be made via [email protected]. Last visitor admission is at 18:00, and details regarding admission fees and visit information can be accessed through Borusan Contemporary's website.