Exhibition opening: Tête-à-Tête by Övül Durmusoglu

tête-à-tête: in solitude is a conversations project conceived by Selim Birsel and Övül Durmusoglu exclusively for Akademie Schloss Solitude based on Selim Birsel’s same titled chair piece. Övül Durmusoglu invited volunteering Akademie Schloss Solitude residents to have an intimate talk on the chair at locations selected by them.

The interviewees were asked to start the conversation with their opinions regarding »difference«. While tête-à-tête travelled in and around Solitude, the conversations drifted along personal histories of why we make art, ideologies of architecture and urbanism, fundamentals of fashion, conception of cultural policies and politics of inclusion and exclusion among many things. Selim Birsel recorded the whole process in which his piece is transformed by catalyzing these talks spatially and mentally.

Övül Durmusoglu (*1978) is an Istanbul based travelling curator and critic. She completed her BA in Translation and Interpreting at the Bogazici University in Istanbul/Turkey and her MFA at the theory branch of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design at the Sabanci University in Istanbul/Turkey. From 2005 to 2006 she was a participant of Critical Studies at the Malmö Art Academy. She works on the performativity of artistic process and methodologies processing information in contemporary art alongside the issues of collective memory, amnesia and conception of cultural/political hegemonies. Her projects in Istanbul include street action performances and talk series EXOCiTi , the billboard project for Radikal newspaper RadikalArt: Face-to-Face, Work the Room and America. She was involved in some projects of the Generali Foundation in Vienna/Austria and Dia Art Foundation in New York City/USA. In 2008 she received the Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi Prize for young curators and curated the exhibition Data Recovery in Gamec Bergamo/Italy. Övül Durmusoglu has recently received a Rave Scholarship to work on a collaborative project of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa) and the Akademie Schloss Solitude.

Selim Birsel (*1963 in Brussels/Belgium) studied visual arts at the Ecole Beaux-Arts in Grenoble/France from 1985 to 1991 and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastique in Paris (IHEAP) 1990 to 1991. He lives and works as a visual artist and professor at the Sabanci University in Istanbul/Turkey. During his stay at Solitude, Selim Birsel worked in collaboration with the curator/writer Övül Durmusoglu on the Tête-à-tête: in Solitude project.

The exhibition is on view from Wednesday, May 12, 2010 to Saturday, July 3, 2010

Hours: Tues-Thurs 10am-noon & 2–5:30pm, Fri 10am-noon & 2-4pm, Sat–Sun noon–5:30pm