ART-PRESENTATION: Ahmet Öğüt-No Poem Loves Its Poet
Ahmet Ogut, a conceptual artist from Turkey, works in a wide range of media including photography, video, and installation, in order to address topics such as cultural identities and political ideologies. His work is the perfect example of contemporary socially engaged art – Ogut often uses humor and loose narrative structures to offer his commentary on rather serious or pressing social and political issues. Ogut is regularly collaborating with people from outside of the art world so that he can produce more impactful pieces, able to create slight shifts in the perception of common, worldwide issues.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: YARAT Contemporary Art Space
Ahmet Öğüt’s solo exhibition “No poem loves its poet” features two new, site-responsive commissions spanning across video and sculpture, entitled “Hiçbir şiir, şairini sevmez” (No poem loves its poet) and “Living Beings Squatting Institutions”. Referring to the physical and societal structures imposed by mankind throughout history – dividing both living beings and cultures – Öğüt’s works allude to how these structures are ultimately permeable states. The video installation “Hiçbir şiir, şairini sevmez” takes its title from a piece of Turkic graffiti the artist encountered during a visit to Sovetsky, a historic neighborhood in Baku now under demolition. Presented on a large modular LED wall, with original music composed by Sub-Botnick (Ahmet Öğüt and Maru Mushtrieva), the video features overhead footage spanning across Baku’s central districts. Two lost flight attendants can be seen within the rubble holding a road sign for Tolstoy Street, which formerly ran through the Sovetsky neighborhood. Observing the cultural evolution and radical urbanization of Azerbaijan, which has shared Soviet, Turkic and Azerbaijani histories, Öğüt gestures towards the succession of governing bodies who have attempted to remove traces of their predecessors via urban gentrification, social norms and economic powers. Interweaving throughout the exhibition space, an architectural installation mimics Baku’s city walls, originally erected to hide undesirable areas; those which are occupied or are remains of Soviet culture. Creating a path for viewers which both blocks and reveals the video and sculptural works, Öğüt’s installation acts as a metaphor for those who have lived and are still living in Baku today. Also featured in the exhibition, “Living Beings Squatting Institutions” is comprised of five sculptures which merge animals with the global cultural institutions they inhabit, including: the Peregrine falcons of the Tate Modern; the Weimaraner dog of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; bats of the National Museum of Cambodia; polar bears around Artica Svalbard; and a cat of YARAT Contemporary Art Centre. Whilst Öğüt highlights how mankind has built spaces to purposefully exclude others, the artist also nods to how living beings and cultures – in their many different forms – will find ways to coexist.
Info: Curators: Mari Spirito, Protocinema and Suad Garayeva-Maleki, YARAT Contemporary Art Space, National Flag Square, Baku, Duration: 18-3-14/6/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-20:00, www.yarat.az
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, YARAT Contemporary Art Space is closed until April.
