Trykk på PVC / Print on PVC, 3x2m.

“Are you and your partner living in a genuine and stable partnership? (Lever du og partneren din i et genuint og stabilt forhold?)” sier et av bannerne i Meric Algüns verk Billboards (2012). Sammen med andre spørsmål, som: “Have you ever been declared mentally or judicially incompetent? (Har du noen gang blitt erklært mentalt eller juridisk inkompetent?)”, er alle plukket ut fra et spørreskjema som Algün, og andre som har søkt om statsborgerskap innenfor EU, har vært nødt til å fylle ut. Spørsmålene springer ut fra genuine bekymringer. Det som skurrer er når komplekse livssituasjoner brutalt reduseres til ja/nei-spørsmål.

The Orchard of Resistance (Narrative), video installasjon / installation.
The Orchard of Resistance (Walk), 153 c-prints, innrammet / framed.
The Orchard of Resistance (Observations), blandet teknikk / mixed media.

I år 100 e. Kr. var det sentrale området Galata i Istanbul, en landlig fikenlund. Under et forskningsopphold der begynte kunstneren Meriç Algün å lete etter og fotografere de fikentrærne som i dag vokser i gårdsrom, på parkeringsplasser og mellom brosteinene i det som nå er et tett byområde. Under disse ekskursjonene tok hun notater og gjorde observasjoner av omgivelsene sine, samtidig som hun reflekterte rundt sin egen tilstedeværelse som kvinne – overvåket, utspurt og tilsnakket – på gatene i Istanbul. Algüns inntrykk fra Galata, kombinert med hennes forskning rundt fikentrærne, er utgangspunktet for installasjonen The Orchard of Resistance (2018), som stiller spørsmål om det offentlige rom, tapte paradis og livet i et patriarkalsk samfunn. Den håndskårne marmorfiken-editionen er modellert etter hannfikener og reflekterer over den herdede formen til den mannlige identiteten, dannet gjennom voldelige former av patriarkat.

Billboards, 2012
Print on PVC, 3x2m.

“Are you and your partner living in a genuine and stable partnership?” says one of the billboard-sized banners in Meric Algün’s artwork Billboards (2012). It and other questions, including “Have you ever been declared mentally or judicially incompetent?”, are taken from the form Algün and others who have applied for resident status in the European union have had to fill in. These questions are based on real concerns. What sits badly is the brutal reduction of complex life situations to yesor-no questions.

The Orchard of Resistance, 2018
The Orchard of Resistance (Narrative), video installasjon / installation.
The Orchard of Resistance (Walk), 153 c-prints, innrammet / framed.
The Orchard of Resistance (Observations), blandet teknikk / mixed media.

In the year 100 A.D, the central Galata neighbourhood in Istanbul was a rural fig tree orchard. During a research stay there, the artist Meriç Algün began searching for and photographing the fig trees that today grow in courtyards, parking lots and between the cobblestones of what is now a dense urban area. She took notes during her excursions, making observations about her environment and reflecting on her presence as a woman – observed, questioned, and accosted – on the streets of Istanbul. Algün’s impressions from Galata, combined with her research into the common fig, form the basis of the installation The Orchard of Resistance (2018), which addresses questions of public space, lost paradise, and life in a patriarchal society. The hand-carved marble figs edition here are modeled after male figs, reflecting on the hardened nature of the male identity formed by violent modes of patriarchy.

Meriç Algün (b. 1983 in Istanbul), currently lives and works in Stockholm. The contrasting differences between the make-up of both cities – Istanbul and Stockholm – particularly socially and politically, as well as her movement between the two, play a key role in her practice. Her work concentrates on issues of identity, borders, bureaucracy, language and translation through appropriated and “ready-made” texts, collections and archives. She has explored the Bible as vertical lines of text, never-been-borrowed books in libraries, the bureaucratic language of visa application forms and has even produced a dictionary of all the common words in Swedish and Turkish languages.

Algün has had significant solo exhibitions at institutions including ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus (2016), Kunstverein Freiburg and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (both 2015), MOSTYN, Llandudno (2014), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver and Art in General, New York (both 2013), and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012). She participated in the 56th Venice Biennial, in the 14th Istanbul Biennial and in the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (all 2015), the 19th Sydney Biennale and the 12th Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador (both 2014), and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). Algün has participated in group shows at venues including Fondazione Prada, Athens and Istanbul Modern Museum (both 2017), Kunsthal Aarhus and Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (both 2016), Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2014), Kunstverein Hannover, Marabouparken in Stockholm, MoCA in Detroit and MAK, Vienna (all 2013), as well as at CCA Wattis, San Francisco and Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (both 2012). Algün’s artwork A Work of Fiction (Manuscript) was published in Art Review (Vol 66, No 6).