Surplus

Ever since I started buying artworks, the artists in our country, who have been in a constant struggle
to create continuously, have been modern Don Quixotes for me. They were the protagonists of a tale
who followed the call from deep within and persistently went on expressing their states of mind
despite all hardships.

It is particularly the process of young artists’ “creating themselves” which proves to be one of the
most difficult periods, if not an insurmountable one, in a country like ours where concepts of “art”
and “artist” haven’t still found a sound basis and remained far from support and recognition. It is
Support art ist’s foremost aim to is provide financial support and creative motivation for the artists
throughout this challenging period of their life and enable them to continue their creative process. A
preoccupation with financial matters as dictated by everyday life may, sometimes, shadow creative
production and prevent new works to be created.

All of the artists in this exhibition are going through a process of “creating themselves” and are
naturally engaged in works out of their artistic profession to overcome this period without becoming
commercialized. They strive to make their artistic output possible and keep their creative spirit alive
and strong. I am talking about artists who prefer not to mention the other things they have to do to
make a living when talking about artistic practices.

The exhibition “Surplus” has found its theme when this challenge the artists have to face has come
out to be a common problem. It features works, which the artists had to produce without adding an
artistic input but revisited for this exhibition to a new dimension. Taking another look on the works
they produced and chose to forget, the artists endeavor to face what they had done, release the
tension between their dual identities, reconcile these identities by building bridges.

For this exhibition, which, I hope, will be a step forward in their careers, Alican Durbaş reinterprets
the simple and static stock videos he uses as an assistant director. Begüm Yamanlar joins with a
video work that wasn’t used in the exhibitions she took part because it was too abstract. Beril Gür
takes part with a video and a photograph that represents the state of alienation and senselessness
she felt while shooting for commercial purposes. Eren Sulamacı shows a work composed of road
images that he had taken to ease for the inquisitive and restless state of mind while travelling for
works out of his artistic practice. Neslihan Koyuncu shoots wedding videos to support her artistic
production and tries to reconcile these two contradicting careers in this exhibition.

Özge Topçu performs simple chemical experiments for children at the science center she works to support her
master’s degree studies. For “Surplus” she performs them one last time and for the first time she
doesn’t feel that she has to push her artistic call while making these experiments.
“Surplus” unveils the concerns of its artists and the generation they represent which we all know but
can not actually see.

Support art ist would like to thank REM Art Space for providing a space for the project.