Dirimart

Contemporary artist Sarkis explores the relationship between space and object through installations. Although the artist’s earliest works were in the field of painting he then shifted to installations where sculptural, audio-visual elements became significant materials of choice. Identifying himself as a “space sculptor,” his work is a reflection of his personal history as much as of the history of the place it occupies. While providing integrity and continuity, this allows for a personal reading of his works. His large-scaled installation titled Golden Scaffold (L’échaffaudage en or) that he has originally realized in 2009 for Mimar Sinan’s Atik Valide Mosque and Complex in Üsküdar, Istanbul, emphasizes the thin borders between yesterday and today, history and contemporary. Filling almost the entire volume under the vault in the Atik Valide Complex, a space abandoned to its fate as a structure that needs to undergo restoration and restructuring, the installation appears as a rescue operation. Each of the uprights and cross pieces of the installation are gilded with leaves. Symbol of sublime values in many cultures, the plating of gold on an object can be interpreted as a sign of standing against time in Sarkis’ work. Sarkis redesigned and exhibited his Golden Scaffold in various venues, not only reinterpreting his own work, but also managing to refer to the concept of memory, in the traces of geography and culture. For SPARK, 2022, Expanded, Sarkis designed and placed The Golden Scaffold in the Marx Halle, referring to the renewing function of the building and approaching it as a space that reconstructs itself as its time repurposes.

Born in 1938 in Istanbul, Turkey. Sarkis lives and works in Paris. Graduating from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Istanbul, Sarkis had his first exhibition at Istanbul Art Gallery in 1960, before moving to Paris in 1964. Sarkis worked across a range of media and, by the late 1960s, had become an icon of contemporary art. In 2010, in the Passages exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Sarkis’ installations struck up a conversation with the works of Kasimir Malevich, André Breton and Joseph Beuys, one of Sarkis’ guides. In 2011, the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva (Switzerland) devoted a prominent retrospective on him called Hôtel Sarkis. Sarkis took part in La Triennale in Paris, Intense Proximité at the Palais de Tokyo, and in “Néon, who’s afraid of red, yellow and blue?” at the Maison rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert, as well as the Istanbul Modern exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen of Rotterdam (the Netherlands). In 2013, at the 55th Venice Biennale, Sarkis featured in the exhibition “When attitudes become form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013” at the Prada Foundation (Venice, Italy), a restaging of the historic exhibition from 1969 at the Kunsthalle in Bern (Switzerland) When attitudes become form: live in your head), to which the famous Swiss art historian and exhibition curator Harald Szeemann had already invited Sarkis at the time. In 2014, the Musée du Château des Ducs de Wurtemberg in Montbéliard mounted a major personal exhibition in his name. In 2015, at the 56th Venice Biennale (Italy), Sarkis was the artist invited to represent the Turkish Pavilion, and contributed to the Armenity exhibition at the Republic of Armenia Pavilion, which won the Golden Lion. In September,he exhibited at the 14th Istanbul Biennial (Turkey).

Founded by Hazer Özil in 2002 in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı district, Dirimart has been instrumental in strengthening Istanbul’s role in the global art world by cultivating long-lasting relationships with prominent international artists. It has successfully introduced internationally acclaimed artists, including Thomas Bayrle, Hermann Nitsch, Shirin Neshat, Bernard Frize, Julian Rosefeldt, Candida Höfer, Franz Ackermann, Peter Zimmermann, Sarah Morris, and Ghada Amer among others to the Turkish art scene. Dirimart is also strongly committed to promoting established and emerging contemporary artists from Turkey internationally, such as Sarkis, Ayşe Erkmen, Hayal Pozantı, Nasan Tur, Güçlü Öztekin, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, and Ebru Uygun as well as Fahrelnissa Zeid, Âbidin Elderoğlu and Yüksel Arslan who were active in the 20th century. Dirimart’s first gallery space was located in Nişantaşı and hosted more than 100 exhibitions between its inauguration in 2002 and its closing at the end of 2018. Inaugurated in May 2016, Dirimart’s second gallery space in Istanbul, Dirimart Dolapdere, is a significant addition to the contemporary art scene in the city. Dolapdere is a rapidly emerging art district within the Beyoğlu periphery, the cultural center of Istanbul. The opening exhibition was curated by Heinz Peter Schwerfel and featured both Turkish and foreign artists—Franz Ackermann, Haluk Akakçe, Ayşe Erkmen, Bernard Frize, Isaac Julien, Eva Rothschild, Tomás Saraceno and Ebru Uygun. Designed by archi Markus Dochantschi of Studio MDA, New York, it includes a generous exhibition and office space as well as an outdoor sculpture garden, making it one of the largest galleries in Istanbul.