HOMEWORK 2010-2012

Installation from “School Kit”:

Notebook covers- notebooks- pencils-eraser-pencil sharpener- pencilbox– stickers and in a school bag.

Series of "Seasons" (2012)

Certificate of Appreciation (2013)

Exhibitions:

“Once upon a time... A place” Home exhibition, Diyarbakır, Turkey, 2010

'Istanbul Apprisal' Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland, 2011

METHODICAL INQUIRIES #4 Gözde İlkin, working group: Özge Ersoy, Ahmet Öğüt, in collaboration with Adnan Yıldız and Övül Durmuşoğlu, Polistar, İstanbul, 2012

"Certificate off Origin" Solo exhibition, artSümer, Istanbul, 2013

Homework is an installation piece that reacts to the early-age confrontation to the socio-political threats by applying symbols of governmental power and military violence on school supplies and stationery.

Where I grew up, kids matured before they actually behaved and lived as children. It may be called pre-mature in a social meaning”, the artist explains. Instead of being protected and cherished, children are confronted to these ideologies, without a sufficient hindsight.

In today’s increasing marketing and propaganda, children became an important target. Whether they are taken in political crossfires or consider as consumers and market prescribers, they are victims of adult’s decisions. All around the world, I could mention kids as the victims of gentrification, living by themselves in the street, or constantly courted by mass media. They are also used as a tool in some more radical actions: adults encourage them to throw stones to the police, as they cannot be arrested due to their young age.

I made this piece for those kids who are taking part in this scene unwillingly. This is why I designed a special school kit that reflects this reality.

Detail of exhibition 'Istanbul Apprisal' Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland, 2011

METODİK ÇALIŞMALAR #4 Gözde İlkin

3 Ağustos, saat 20.00

çalışma grubu: Özge Ersoy and Ahmet Öğüt

sergi 18 Ağustos’a kadar devam ediyor

Metodik Çalışmalar’ın dördüncü solo sunumunu İstanbul’da yaşayan sanatçı Gözde İlkin gerçekleştiriyor. Gözde İlkin, farklı malzeme denemeleriyle ve toplumsal cinsiyet etrafında şekillenen gözlemlerinden kişilik haklarına uzanan geniş bir yelpazede siyasi farkındalık üzerine giden çalışmalarıyla tanınıyor.

Solo projesi için 2010 yılında gerçekleştirdiği ve daha önce Finlandiya’nın Pori Sanat Müzesi’nde sergilenen ‘’Ev ödevi / Homework” isimli yerleştirmesini sergi mekanında yeniden kurgulayan sanatçının proje kapsamında odaklandığı kavramsal zemin ilkokul eğitimi üzerine kurulu.

Sadece Türkiye bağlamında değil, sert modernleşme sürecini ulusalcı bir siyasi yapıyla deneyimlemiş pek çok toplumda, ders kitaplarından törenlere, ilkokul belleği resmi ideolojinin kendini yeniden üretmek için kurduğu sistemli propagandacı söylemlerle doludur. Bu söylemler, analitik düşünme yeteneği henüz yeterince gelişmemiş beyinleri gerekli gereksiz ezber bilgilerle doldururken, bir yandan da ideolojik, kalıplaşmış ve militarist mesajlarla seçmenlerini yeniden yaratır. İlkin, kurgusal bir yerleştirme dili ile; hayali defterler, kalemler ve ders araç-gereçleri üreterek, izleyiciyi ilkokul günlerine ışınlıyor ve gerisini hafızalardan kopup gelen anılar tamamlıyor.

METHODICAL INQUIRIES #4 Gözde İlkin

3rd August, 8pm

working group: Özge Ersoy and Ahmet Öğüt

the exhibition will be on until 18 August

The fourth presentation of Methodical Inquiries will be realized by Istanbul based Gözde Ilkin. The artist is well-known for her different material experiments and her work that expands the political consciousness on a wide scale from the observations shaped around gender to the individual rights.

Ilkin's solo project is a spatial and contextual reconfiguration of her installation “Ev Ödevi/Homework” she realized in 2010 and exhibited in Pori Art Museum in Finland. She conceptualizes primary school education as her fundamental base within this work.

In many societies, including Turkey, that experienced the brutal modernisation process through a nationalistic political structure, the primary school memory is filled with a systemical propaganda discourse that is constructed by the official ideology to regenerate itself from the school books to the ceremonies. While filling the brains that haven't fully processed anaytical thinking functions with trivial memorized information, this discourse recreates its electorate with its ideological, stereotypical and militarist statements. Creating imaginary notebooks, pens, and other stationaries with her fictional language of installation, Ilkin almost gamma rays the audience to their primary school days; the rest is completed by the memories that come back from far behind.