Past Exhibition
16 Oct 2009 – 03 Jan 2010
Inci Eviner’s film, Harem, (2009) is based on a series of early 19th century engravings by German artist Antoine Ignace Melling, who was invited by Sultan Selim the Third to chronicle the court and city of Constantinople. Eviner replaces the original figures with animations of women performing repetitive, mundane actions. Shown on a continuous loop the film challenges the Western perception of the harem as a place of sexual intrigue and subjugation with an alternative view of it as a place where women are the active subjects.
After studying in Istanbul in the 1980s Eviner exhibited widely in Europe, Asia and the US. She is known for her intricate drawings combining a finely balanced sense for ornament with hybrid human characters. Of her often disturbing narratives she says: ‘I imagine myself as one of those old-time storytellers–a storyteller, however, who cannot control the story and is eventually swallowed by it.’
This exhibition is part of Art in the Auditorium, a collaborative project organised by the Whitechapel Gallery with institutions from Europe, Asia, South America and the USA to provide an international showcase for the work of some of the most exciting young artists working with film, video and animation today. Inci Eviner was selected by Istanbul Modern in collaboration with the Institute for the Re-adjustment of Clocks.
