Sarkis: Respiro / Pavilion of Turkey at Venice Art Biennale 2015

Conceptual artist Sarkis represents Turkey at this year’s Art Biennale in Venice, Italy, with an exhibition entitled Respiro. Sarkis conceived an installation of mirrors, stained-glass panes and site-specific neon works. In this video, we have a look at the work at the Turkish Pavilion at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale.

“In Respiro, I will be reaching out beyond geopolitics, to a more expansive context of a million plus years, going back to the creation of the universe and the beginning of time, back to the first-ever rainbow—the very first magical breaking point of light. Instead of binding ourselves to specific instances within the histories of politics, religion, philosophy, and the arts, we will be embracing contemporaneity of both the present and the distant past in our continued attempt to defy stagnation.” — Sarkis, 10 February, 2015.

The installation is curated by Defne Ayas (Director of Witte de With) and commissioned by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV).

Sarkis: Respiro / Pavilion of Turkey at Venice Art Biennale 2015. Exhibition walk-through, Venice (Italy), May 8, 2015.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.

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