Apocryphon

14/12/2019 - 21/02/2020


Zilberman Projects – Istanbul is pleased to announce the opening of Alpin Arda Bağcık’s exhibition Apocryphon that will be on view between December 14, 2019, and February 21, 2020. The exhibition presents a highlight of Bağcık’s first solo show in Berlin Apocrypha on view at Zilberman-Berlin from November 22, 2019, to February 8, 2020.

In his works, Alpin Arda Bağcık questions the truth of knowledge production, especially the images circulating in the media and the myths or conspiracy theories around them. His paintings take inspiration from defining moments in the history of the 20th century. While the historical moments are often the driving force behind his paintings, Bağcık invokes the numbing effects of the media in the 21st century. Consequently, the artist names his artworks after antipsychotics and antihistamine drugs such as Zopiklon, Metilfenidat, Imovane or Ritalin.

The theorist Jean Baudrillard mentions the strength of propaganda imagery in the book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. According to the theorist, during the First Gulf War, the stylized media (misre)presentations generated a simulacrum of war, a video game, far from reality. Similarly, Bağcık concentrates on the notion of post-truth as well as stories such as world domination—the claims on a single totalitarian authority holding power. While apocrypha, removed from its Biblical context, alludes to the distortion and manipulation of word(ing)s and images to the extent that they become bereft of meaning, the title of the Istanbul show ‘Apocryphon’ –  the plural of the same word – refers to the texts that are meant to impart “secret teachings”.

On view at Zilberman Projects, Benzodiazin, 2019 depicts a new photograph of the historical Tiananmen Square in China. The clear image in the first piece of the work that consists of twenty-four additional pieces gets more and more blurry each time as it is replicated through the special technic Bağcık uses. Thus the work becomes a visual manifestation of how the stories and truths around the square are deleted by the highly controlled mainstream media.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with contributions by Çelenk Bafra, Christoph Tannert, and Lotte Laub.

For more inquiries, please contact Naz Beşcan, naz@zilbermangallery.com.


Alpin Arda Bağcık (1988, İzmir, Turkey) graduated from the Painting Department at Dokuz Eylül University in 2007. He currently lives and works in Istanbul. His solo exhibitions and presentations include: Red Prescription (Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2017) and Ambivalence (Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015). He has participated in various group exhibitions including Young Fresh Different 10: One Must Continue (curator: Burçak Bingöl, Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2019), Motherland in Art (MOCAK, Krakow, Poland, 2018), Darağaç III (İzmir, Turkey, 2018), Remote Memory (curator: Yaren Akbal, Abud Efendi Konağı, Istanbul, Turkey, 2018), Rotary Art Competition (Proje 4L, Istanbul, Turkey 2015), Borders and Orbits (Siemens Sanat, Istanbul, 2013), Violence(?) (Contemporary Art Museum, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece, 2013), and Young Fresh Different-3 (Zilberman, Istanbul, 2012). His works are part of public and private collections, a.o., MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (Krakow, Poland), 21c Museum Hotels (Kentucky, The USA), OMM – Odunpazarı Modern Museum (Eskişehir, Turkey), Salsali Museum (Dubai, UAE) and PAPKO ART Collection (Istanbul, Turkey).


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