Press Release

TRACE 14
8 January – 28 March 2014

Curator: Billur Tansel

TRACE 14 presents a selection from the Elgiz Collection in the Temporary Exhibition Area of the Elgiz Museum. Marking the 14th year of the museum, two and three dimensional works, as well as video art, which have left a trace on the collectors are on view.

Since centuries, artists have worked at changing periods: at times some left behind traces, while others worked away rather quietly. Although some were more visible and had been heard of, each has left an important mark in the past as present day culture. Collectors help sustain these values; specific works have given them an entirely different understanding and value system.

If we consider that following generations will have a cultural fabric that has been marked by these traces, art has to be the most just tool to carry forms or traces of general cultural theory. This show brings together art’s history, the artist, the collector and the viewer.

In this sense, the collector’s responsibility of sharing that collection goes without saying. In the TRACE 14 selection, what becomes apparent in the collecting adventure of the collector is that as the years pass, and tastes change, the works that are side by side here still preserve their very special place, and the importance they carried on the very first day. Artists whose works have left a trace on the Elgiz Collection are on view for the public, and thus promise visibility and immortality over time.

The artists whose works embellish the imagination of the collectors, affect their choices and have left a trace on them are:

Alex Prager, Alexander Liberman, Andreas Gefeller, Burak Delier, Burhan Uygur, Friedrike Feldmann, Giuseppe Belvedere & Bedri Baykam, Guillermo Mora, Günther Förg, Halil Vurucuoğlu, Haşim Nur Gürel, İrfan Önürmen, Liam Gillick, Maren Krass, Maria Kılıçlıoğlu, Matthew Monahan, Mehmet Aksoy, Nan Goldin, Oleg Dou, Peter Bonde, Ramazan Bayrakoğlu, Saim Bugay, Sarah Morris, Stephen Dean, Tomur Atagök and Tülin Onat.

Ümit Turgay Durgun realized a site-specific artwork with a performance.