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    Volkan Aslan’s recent practice is influenced by both his recollections, as well as his impressions of the malleability of our perception of time.

    These memories, half remembered, half forgotten, draw him to certain objects he comes across in his day-to-day life that recall his past. He playfully manipulates them to form surreal constructions that fuse his personal associations with new and unexpected interpretations.

    Aslan’s three-channel video Home Sweet Home (2017) was shown at 15th Istanbul Biennial commissioned by Biennial curators Elmgreen & Dragset. With his three-channel video installation, Volkan Aslan questions the boundaries between the sedentary and the nomadic, the indoor and the outdoor, the safe and the unsafe situations, pointing out to the fragility of the current state of each and every one of us.

    Volkan Aslan is born in 1982 in Ankara. He studied Painting at the Mersin University Faculty of Fine Arts in 2005. He currently lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.

    Gallery Exhibitions :
    We forget because it works
    A pillar of smoke
    Home is where the (he)art is

    For inquiries

      1982, Lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey

      Education
      2005 Mersin University of Fine Arts Faculty, Painting Department, Mersin Turkey

      SOLO EXHIBITIONS

      2021
      SAĞLICAKLA KAL, SALT Galata, Istanbul, Turquie

      2019
      We forget because it works, Galerie PARIS – B, Paris, France

      2018
      Shoot Me! Don’t Turn Me Over!, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey

      2015
      The Perfect Day, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey

      2014
      A Day Not Yet Lived, Pi Artworks London, UK

      2013
      Don’t Forget to Remember, Arter – space for art, Istanbul, Turkey

      2011
      Volkan, Macka Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
      Unstable Repetitions, Pi Artworks Istanbul Istanbul, Turkey

      2010
      Those Who Wear the Same T-Shirt, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey

      2009
      Four, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey

      2008
      Concern, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey

      2007
      Volkan Aslan in Istanbul, Under Construction, Istanbul, Turkey

      SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

      2019

      A Confrontation of Ideals, An Ren Biennale, Anren, Sichuan, China
      What time is it? Arter Istanbul, Istanbul,Turkey
      A Pillar of Smoke, curated by Ilgın Deniz Akseloğlu and Yann Perreau Galerie PARIS-B, Paris, France

      2018

      Under the Radar 5533, curated by Kari Conte, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York, US

      A Pillar of Smoke, Arles International Photo Festival, France
      Home is Where the (He)art is, Galerie PARIS-B, Paris, France
      First Round, Carmikli Collection, Galata Greek School, Istanbul, Turkey

      2017
      15th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
      Harbor, Istanbul Modern Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

      2016
      This One Is Smaller Than This One…Carte Blanche: Serkan Özkaya and Paulina Bebecka, Galerist, Istanbul, Turkey

      2015
      Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury, curated by Hou Hanru with Ceren Erdem, Elena Motisi and Donatella Saroli, MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy

      2014
      The Moving Museum Istanbul Exhibition, Turkey
      Disquiet, curated by Nat Muller, Pi Artworks, Istanbul, Turkey

      2013
      Mom, am I barbarian, 13th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey

      2012
      Pi@ Q – Q Contemporary, Beirut, Lebanon

      2011
      Trade Routes, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey
      If the Nature is Heaven, the City is Hell, CerModern, Ankara, Turkey

      2010
      Second Exhibition, Arter – space for art, Istanbul, Turkey
      When Ideas Become Crime, Depo, Istanbul, Turkey
      Floating Volumes, 5533, Istanbul, Turkey
      Floating Volumes, Frise, Hamburg, Germany
      Stuff and Nonsense, CerModern, Ankara, Istanbul

      2009
      Too Good to Be True, Delfina Foundation, London, UK
      Reciprocal Visit, Depo, Istanbul, Turkey
      A Question of Staging, Landscape Perspectives, Istanbul, Turkey
      Temporary Harassment, Istanbul 2010 Portable Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
      Once Upon a Time, 5533, Istanbul, Turkey and Bethanien Kunstlerhaus, Berlin, Germany

      2008
      On Produceability, New Talents, Köln, Germany
      Save As, Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Triennale Bovisa Museum, Milano, Italy
      Concern, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
      Cultural Jam, Weimar, Germany
      Accumulated: Put Aside, Left Aside, 5533, Istanbul, Turkey

      2007
      Art and Money, Siemens Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
      From Owner with View, Istanbul, Turkey
      The Most Curatorial Biennial of the Universe, Apex Art Center, New York, USA
      -X, Ankara, Turkey
      6th Korean-Turkish Exchange Exhibition, Pi Artworks Istanbul, Turkey
      Unfinished, BM Suma Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey

      2006
      Between Two Sides, Istanbul, Turkey
      So Far Away from Here, Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey

      2005
      Cultural Heritage, The Turkish-British Cultural Center, Ankara, Turkey
      Free Zone – Neutral Area, Roxy, Istanbul, Turkey
      Obsession, International Audio-Video Art Festival, Gallery X, Istanbul, Turkey
      24th Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Akbank Art, Istanbul, Turkey
      1st Electronic Art Festival, Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

      2004
      New Proposals – New Propositions, Borusan Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey

      2003
      Choose a Dog for Yourself and Bark, Adana and Mersin, Turkey

      2002
      3rd International Student Triennial, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

      RESIDENCIES

      2010
      Artist-to-Artist, Delfina Foundation, London, UK

      2008
      International Studio Program, ACC-Weimar, Germany

      PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

      Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio, USA
      Rodney D Lubeznik Collection, Chicago, USA
      Carmikli Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
      Eczacibasi Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
      Hitay Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
      Ozyegin University Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
      Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey

      • Volkan Aslan - Home Sweet Home

      Home Sweet Home
      Text by Pablo Larios for the 15th Istanbul Biennial

      Volkan Aslan’s video installation Home Sweet Home (2017) is a meditative take on realities of displacement. The work commemorates individuals forced to make long journeys, such as migrants or those who have suf- fered a loss of home. A starting point for the work is a hybrid boat-home structure found commonly in poor areas within large cities, and used to relocate homes through bodies of water. Aslan’s video depicts this iconic image of tragic human itinerancy: the boat as an emblem of homes forcibly mobile.

      The piece employs imagery of water, journey-making. With disjunctions of time and perspetive, it is also a poetic parable of the way all people share in an i nerant and fragile human condi on, though we may experience this condition vastly differently. The work comprises a 3-channel video installation set within the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul. Scenes of domestic interiors and daily routines meld with views of landscapes of shores and city views. A woman sits on the front of a boat, looks out on to the water and observing the passing landscape. As the work develops, we see, with sweetly sad irony, that the three ‘places’ in the lm – which ini ally seemed dis nct – are in fact depic ons of di erent views onto realities that are actually more linked than they initially seemed.

      The film speaks to various forms of collapse: between transit, passage and home; between the architecture of inside and outside. It reflects medita vely on a world upended and inverted, in which seemingly everyone is on the move and in disarray. The work elicits how even tragedies far and away hit home. Even sites which initially seemed to be too far away from us to affect us are closer than we think, and neighbors we may not they are in fact right beside us.

      The work Home Sweet Home, 2017 by Volkan Aslan is commissioned by 15th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Elmgreen & Dragset