Proje4L :Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, Levent Istanbul, Turkey
“Selection 2007” and the 10th Istanbul Biennial – a collection in perpetual motion

On entering art space, Proje4L / Museum of Contemporary Art in Levent, Istanbul one is immediately confronted by the dripped and painted black writing on the pristine gallery wall by German performance artist and painter, Jonathan Meese. The writing is the record of his recent Istanbul performance where the artist romped and stomped his way through the gallery, clearly delighted by his own desecrations, but also more seriously invoking his philosophy and opera heroes, Nietzsche, Marx and Wagner. On the opposite wall, a formal abstract painting Painting 443, 2006 by Turkish grand master painter, Abdurrahman Oztoprak shares space with a recent acquisition, Sarah Morris's funky
High Heels(purple),1996 a strong graphic statement in high gloss house paint. These provokative juxtapositions hasten one's awareness of the contemporary art space as a site of inquisition, dialogue and change quintessential to recent developments in art. They also alert one to the Elgiz collectors' willingness to take risks with what they choose to collect, and how they choose to present it.

For three years, from 2001-2004, “Proje4L / Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art” provided exposure to established and emerging artists in Turkey, helping young artists to gain recognition within the international art scene. In 2004 it reopened its doors to host the permanent collection of its founders, Sevda and Can Elgiz. “Proje4L / Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art” is a non profit organization dedicated to increasing the profile of contemporary art in Turkey. Consisting of works by influential Turkish and International artists, The Elgiz Collection explores a diversity of recent concerns in contemporary art, notably bringing to the fore recent innovations in both traditional and new media.

The arrival of the 2007 10th Istanbul Biennial provided a lens for viewing and evaluating existing art institutions in the city. The Elgiz Museum, newly reconstituted around its recent acquisitions, in “Selection 2007” appeared as a microcosm of some of the concerns of the Biennial, retaining and celebrating the specific personal identities of the artists in the collection, but also setting up a cultural and global connectivity and interactivity. Biennial curator, Hou Hanrou repeatedly stated the importance of art being a part of the incident and continuum of city life. The relationship of a building or venue to its environment, and its significance is key. Proje4L / Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art is situated in Levent, a major intersection of Istanbul, as it moves between village and metropolis, urban and rural, Asia and Europe. Dolmuses and buses bring commuters from the Bosphoros villages, the Black Sea coast and beyond. The presence of exclusively designed Western shopping mecca, Kanyon, where British retailer Harvey Nichols recently launched a flagship store, also signals Levent as a crucial juncture in the modernization of Turkey. Thus Proje 4L / Museum of Contemporary Art emerges as a fitting site for a global collection of contemporary art.

New Istanbul Art space “Santralistanbul”, former Ottoman power plant and the brainchild of Bilgi University, is being hailed as a worthy counterpart to the Pompidou Centre in Paris, with a nod also to the Tate Modern .The Elgiz Museum, in its reclaimed Levent office block context, is perhaps its forerunner.
Coupled to the critical context of the collection is a personal intelligence informing its specificity. The collection spanning the last twenty years is impressive, including the works of Jan Farber, Gilbert & George, Cindy Sherman, Bedri Baykam, Kendall Gears and Mustafa Kula to name a few. It also includes some of the earlier, rawer, arguably more original hand crafted works, Sometimes 2001 and Nature I, 2001 of controversial art personality, Tracy Emin, recent occupier of the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Can and Sevda Elgiz claim to have put together a collection “with affection” that allows for a dialogue between the art works. It is this dialogue or conversation that makes for a unique viewing experience.The way in which the works interact is not prescribed by any hierarchy or theme, specific time frame or movement, but rather allows for an open ended viewing experience. It is a highly entertaining collection as the viewer is free to play, and imaginatively construct his or her own connections, or stories, if you like. This play is intellectual too, as the viewer is challenged and called upon to question her ideas about art, seeing and identity.

Narrative in its broadest sense is unquestionably an aspect of this enjoyment. Identity is another, as the artists question what it means to be Turkish, man or woman, global citizen, human being. Ragip Basmazolmez's caps 2005 installation is a witty play on identity, where the context of the installation adds to the sheer enjoyment and tactile pleasure of his work. Hou Hanrou refers to the global population as “always in between and on the move.” Ragip's hats are made for such a population. With their quirky, and immediately recognizable use of Anatolian cotton fabrics, they refer both to an urban jauntiness but also perhaps to the alienation of the city, experienced by someone “in between and on the move”. Hale Tenger's Autoportrait 2005 evokes a similar feeling of displacement and shifting identity through her juxtaposition of a photograph of a particular shambolic junk shop and a spinning LP aptly titled 'perpetual motion'.

In contrast Sarah Morris's painting High Heels (purple), appears rather anonymous. But within the context of the busy Levent street outside the gallery it takes on a new identity. Morris's strongly contemporary statement immediately speaks to the installation Natura Morta 2007 by Robert Gligorov where the group of mannequins, with much attention paid to the detail of their everyday clothing and their positioning, sets up a conversation not only with each other and the haunting visual image of tree and bird skeleton, but also with the visitors to the gallery as they wander, and momentarily become one with the gathering. Moving through the installation we join the mannequin crowd also as art viewers, as they observe the mysterious, strangely cool light box presentations. The crowd, its presence and its absence are another emerging theme. Thomas Struth's Intersection with Passersby 1995 engages the viewer's attention at eye level, drawing her into a more chaotic and less intimate city experience. In a sense the collection arrests the viewer from the continuous passage of the crowds of Levent, inviting her into a quieter conversation: to contemplate Tine Benz's coolly constructed visions of utopia or Fausto Gilberti's humorous graphic musings on teachers and their students in The Teacher 2005.

The collection's presence within Istanbul's two thousand year history, means that it is viewed not only with the sound of urban traffic still ringing in one's ears, but also with a sense of ancient stone, and, particularly relevant to this collection, calligraphy. A lively conversation is set up between the likes of Yigit Yazici 's playful evolution in oil paint in A page from my sketchbook 2004 and Lea Asja Pagenkamper's intimate discovery of her Berlin neighbourhoods, and her fellow graffitti artists or graphologists in Abgang II (Gebombte Wand), 2004. She in turn would probably enjoy Ozlem Gumyol's photograph of tattooed legs and feet part of a documentation of an art performance, where the graphology finds its place on the body.

An altogether more meditative space is explored unususually in Nan Goldin's painterly photographic evokation Red Sky, From My Window, New York City, 2000. Known for her intimate investigation of human character, Goldin here chooses instead to conjure up a sense of absent presence. One's concept of New York as a frenetic city, is temporarily suspended, as the artist contemplates the space where a red sky meets the industrial skyline. The resulting image has a Rothko like effect, not unlike David Tremlett's pastel triptych Drawings for a new wall no 2, 2000 where the artist's quest is spared from pure formalism in one's tactile awareness of his manipulation of the pastel on the paper and the subtlety of his choice of colour. A similar awareness of pictorial organization and geometry as a means to create a transcendant space, is evident in Abdurrahman Oztoprak's Painting 443, 2006. Oztoprak mounts a major retrospective of his work at the museum later this year.

The Museum also houses a project room in the museum. The Artvarium is an experimental space, literally a white cube, where temporary exhibitions, performances and installations are presented. During the Biennial this space is occupied by an exhibition of works on paper by emerging Turkish artist and fine draughtswoman, Burcu Yagcloglu, thoughtfully curated by the museum's director, Isin Onol.

Proje4L / Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, manages to keep alive the Biennial spirit of living, global art within its uniquely situated urban space. The exhibition is never static as the dialogue set in motion between the artworks continues to evolve in the hands of invited local and international curators.
As a focus of continuing intellectual discourse, the museum also provides a podium for presentations by artists, art theorists, collectors and curators visiting the city.

-DIANA PAGE

Museum Details:

Adress: Harman Sok. Harmancõ-Giz Plaza 34394 Levent - Istanbul / Turkey
Tel: 00 90 212 281 51 50
Fax: 00 90 212 283 17 99
E-mail: info@proje4l.org
Web: HYPERLINK "http://www.proje4l.org/"www.proje4l.org

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