Press Release - The Myth of the Death Dance Illuminates the Questions

28/02/2017 - 30/04/2017


“The myth of the death dance illuminates the questions
and our answers that we don’t speak, that are quiet
for how much longer until the far future a small port,
ornamenting for whom, crowning, accumulating
closing in our palms-“[1]

Zilberman Gallery’s project space Zilberman Projects – Istanbul is proud to announce Sevinç Çalhanoğlu’s project exhibition The Myth of the Death Dance Illuminates the Questions to take place between February 28 and April 22, 2017.

In her work The Myth of the Death Dance Illuminates the Questions, Sevinç Çalhanoğlu takes as the subject Nilgün Marmara’s “Daktiloya Çekilmiş Şiirler” [The Poems Typed] within the framework of the poet’s suicide. She uses Marmara’s method in her thesis, “The Analysis of Sylvia Plath’s Poetry in the Framework of Her Suicide”, re-typing the sentences that have connotations of suicide in her poetry, tracing the path of death. By extracting words that she sees as clues from the text, she tries to approach the poet and her work through different constructions. This attempt to “weed out” evokes tension while bringing about new interpretations.

The notebook that is at the center of the exhibition features words and resistance rods that have been stored away in plastic bags research the possibilities of stopping/inclusion. The colors that we encounter in the notebook and on the walls carry to different surfaces the colors that the poet used in her poems, trying to make tangible her relationship with nature, symbols, and the universe of text that she constructs with symbols. Marmara’s difficult-to-understand, alienating language evolves into a familiar situation through Çalhanoğlu’s writing-reading experience, acquiring layers.

The exhibition seeks an answer to the question, “How does one move towards or away from the work to an artist’s life?” If the movement itself is momentum towards death, the book itself is surrendered to the reader as a site of repetition and overflowing, the last protected area. The reader can play detective in this book space. The reader’s mental resonances are transformed into a web of associations among Marmara’s outcries and silences while Çalhanoğlu seeks to share with the viewer different experiences of reading.

For more information on the exhibition, please contact Zilberman Gallery at serhat@zilbermangallery.com.

Sevinç Çalhanoğlu (1988, Istanbul) completed her studies in the History Department of Boğaziçi University. Her work is inspired by the polyphony of space, memory, and literary texts. Among the exhibitions that she participated in are: Young Fresh Different (Zilberman Gallery, 2014), Anıların Muharebe Meydanı (Depo, Istanbul, 2014), and Mamut Art (Istanbul, 2013). She presented her article “How did the Istanbul Biennial transform the city?” at the Annual Meeting of American Folklore Society (Long Beach, USA, 2015). She did research for the projects, namely “Çukulata: Çikolatanın Yerli Tarihi’’ (Saadet Özen, YKY, 2014) and “D-evrim? Dijital Çağda Kitap’’ (St. Joseph High School, 2015) and is currently working as a researcher as part of the memory team at the Beykoz Kundura Fabrikası. Her book of poems “Evde Bir Gezinti (Periferik)” was published by Nod Publications in 2016 and her book of poems and photographs “Et/ve/Fal” will be published by Heterotopya Publications in March 2017.

[1] Nilgün Marmara, Daktiloya Çekilmiş Şiirler, 23, Everest Publications, 2010. 



Artist Pages
  - Sevinç Çalhanoğlu

Exhibition Works