Opening Hours
On April 28 - holiday evening - the exhibition is closed.
On May 10 - Memorial evening - the exhibition is open until 18:00.
May 11-12 - Memorial Day and Independence Day - the exhibition is closed.
June 5 - Shavuot Holiday - the exhibition is closed.
On Tuesday July 12, the exhibition will close at 6pm.
The artist Nilbar Güreş (b. 1978, Istanbul) works with diverse media including painting, photography, sculpture, performance, video and collage, through which she explores constructions of gender identity, sexual politics, religious traditions and social organization.
Güreş's work, Open Phone Booth (2011), presented for the first time in Israel, is composed of a three-channel video and a series of photographs that focus on a small village in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. The village, which is also the birthplace of the artist's father, is home to Kurdish residents, turkey's largest ethinic minority. For thirty years, the mountainous region has been cut off from basic infrastructure like water, roads and phone lines – services that the Turkish authorities refrain from providing, following the ongoing conflict with and discrimination towards the Kurds. It is a space that has been abandoned by the government, at least in terms of basic services, and where the residents are forced to create unconventional solutions to overcome their neglect and isolation.
In the video work, the artist follows the villagers' daily routines and the alternative ways in which they compensate for the infrastructure that's lacking; be it creating methods to store water or hiking to the mountain peak to make phone calls – the summit being the only place in the area that sporadically gets cellphone reception. The artist, who extensively studied the region and collaborated with residents, provides a subtle but profound insight into the different goings-on in the town, including: town gatherings, meetings with outsiders, and the changing relationship to communication technologies and the new spaces and possibilities that they usher in. By focusing on the spectacular expanses of the village and the minutest details of village life, the artist draws a tragicomic picture of developments in the region and the complex relationships between individuals and the public and private spaces in which they at least strive to maintain their daily lives.
Nilbar Güreş's exhibition is the first in a series of exhibitions at The Institute for Public Presence's new project space. The exhibition adds a unique dimension to the discourse on public space – where too often the conception of such spaces are defined first and foremost in terms of urban cityscapes. Open Phone Booth makes it possible to see actions and ways of life in rural areas and liminal zones anew. It portrays residents who oppose the status quo imposed on them thereby creating moments and spaces that initiate an evolving public sphere.
Nilbar Güreş (b. 1977) lives between Istanbul and Vienna. She has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the Berlin Biennale (2010), the Istanbul Biennale (2011), and the São Paulo Biennale (2015).
Curators: Udi Edelman and Yael Messer
The Institute for Public Presence, a platform for research and initiatives that seek to challenge the common perception of art and actions in the public sphere.
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
