Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » 2011 » Art in The Auditorium » Inci Eviner
Inci Eviner
25 September - 7 November 2010 in the Adam Gallery
Inci Eviner’s film, Harem (2009), is based on a series of early 19th century engravings by German artist Antoine Ignace Melling, who was invited by Sultan Selim the Third to chronicle the court and city of Constantinople. Melling spent 18 years in Istanbul as an architect to the reigning Sultan, during which time he also observed and documented the Ottoman court, producing many detailed engravings later published as‘Voyage Pittoresque de Constantinople et des Rives du Bosphore’. Among these is the harem image with which Eviner’s work engages.
In this work Eviner replaces Melling's original static figures with animations of women performing repetitive, mundane actions. Dressed in nightclothes, the figures all appear alike, and the routine nature of their activity heightens the sense of confinement. Set within the architecturally precise precinct of Melling’s space, Eviner’s women simultaneously play on and subvert the eroticism conventionally expected of the Orientalist genre. Melling was one of a number of European artists who played an influential role in the development of Orientalism, depicting both real and imagined scenes of the East. His album was first published in Paris is 1795.
In Eviner’s Harem, the formerly immobile women, imprisoned in time and perceived as subjects to male fantasy, become dynamic figures who have their own fantasies and fears. Shown on a continuous loop, the film challenges the Western perception of the harem as a place of sexual intrigue and subjugation with an alternative view of it as a place where women are the active subjects. In their movement there is the possibility of resistance.
After studying in Istanbul in the 1980s Eviner exhibited widely in Europe, Asia and the US. She is known for her intricate drawings combining a finely balanced sense for ornament with hybrid human characters. Of her often disturbing narratives she says: ‘I imagine myself as one of those old-time storytellers–a storyteller, however, who cannot control the story and is eventually swallowed by it.’
This exhibition is part of Art in the Auditorium, a collaborative project organised by the Whitechapel Gallery, London, along with institutions from Europe, Asia, South America, New Zealand and the USA, to provide an international showcase for the work of some of the most exciting young artists working with film, video and animation today. Inci Eviner was selected by Istanbul Modern in collaboration with the Institute for the Re-adjustment of Clocks.
Harem, 2009
Video, 3 minutes duration
25 September – 7 November 2010
Credits:
Video editing and compositing: İlhan Poyraz
Sound design: Serkan Emre Çiftçi
Video camera: Metin Çavuş, Ferit Katipoğlu
Cast: Seyhan Baysoy, Canan Yücel, Gizem Oylumlu
Technical team: Orton Akıncı
Produced by: Exposition “Istanbul, Traversée”, Lille3000, France
©İnci Eviner, 2009
Inci Eviner’s curriculum vitae
See also http://www.incieviner.net/index.htm