Thursday, May 25, 2023, 8 pm – 9 pm
The black-and-white animated video installations by artist Özgür Kar show figures seemingly locked inside large flat screens. Huddled together and full of melancholy, some whisper, letting the audience participate in their thoughts, while others play soft notes on a flute. Appearing like the protagonists of an unknown, deconstructed play, the figures come across as both emotionally charged and withdrawn. Kar’s work draws on the traditions of the danse macabre, experimental theater based on the plays of Samuel Beckett, animated film, and cinema classics. The artist’s audiovisual installations address contemporary existentialism in a “live” format without human actors.
Özgür Kar (*1992 in Ankara, lives in Amsterdam) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include At the end of the day, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022); STORAGE DRAMA, Emalin, London (2021); MACABRE, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna (2021); A Decade of Subjugation, Édouard Montassut, Paris (2020); and A New Beginning, UKS, Oslo (2019). His works have also been included in various group exhibitions, such as the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon (2022); Ghost:2565, World Travel Service, Bangkok (2022); Fata Morgana, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2022); Anticorps, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020); and Sâr Dubnotal, CAC Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge (2020). Kar was awarded the 13th Volkskrant Visual Arts Prize in 2020. DAWN REDUX, the event’s title, takes its name from the artwork DAWN commissioned by the Renaissance Society, Chicago, in 2023.
In English. Free of Charge.