Silence introduces us to the work Vuslat has developed in her studio in recent years. An exhibition immersed in an atmosphere redolent of memory, joy, loss and the search for an artistic language often been tinged with a sense of the elegiac.
Vuslat’s unique gift is to embody a lyrical world in form and matter. Her work develops a unique sensory-based experience that is, at the same time, very receptive to stories. We see these forms and we immediately sense them too. Touch becomes a a place where true synesthesia takes place. They are placed in a gallery and yet, we can easily imagine them outside, guiding us through a path where nature merges with memories and also stories that we kept in our minds. Think about it. What makes this work special? Western Modernity has been hyper-focused and obsessed with the description of experiences, but not with experience itself. That is perhaps the reason why, when it started losing its centrality, story telling emerged with such force. This is the force that these works possess: expression and the primacy of touch, of presence. Vuslat’s works say: the skin exists. And for her the skin, is the true core of the body, being both subject and object, within and without.
Silence presents a close family of sculptures—some monumental in scale—. It is the first exhibition ever by Vuslat. For years her life revolved around another world, one in which her practice as an artist was not its center. But the making of art became important, and
with it, becoming an artist became possible. Sharing the work, being an artist represents a fundamental and important move in her life. Why then “Silence”?
Should it not be said it loud voice? In her approach, language is a thing that dominates and is removed from nature, something which veils true experience.
Silence to enhance expression, to be visceral, loud, while remaining soft and receptive. The practice of sculpture –for Vuslat—is the practice of understanding mutuality in a state of being together with organic and un- organic life. Bodies radiate wisdom and that it is our duty to be attentive and receive it, as a gift, reciprocating. Therefore, the materials, marble, a stone that contains the Oceans. Therefore, the texture, soft, emulating an infinite skin that makes interaction with the others possible, desirable, respectful. Therefore, the forms, organic open, able, receptive, willing, waiting. Therefore, the rhythm of the pieces, dynamic, as if a wind or a stream was about to touch them and move them.
The exhibition is conceived as a mirror of the states of the mind. Her works are uniquely committed to the spiritual and also psycho-dimensional origins of art. Like in the poetry and philosophy of Rumi (born in the early thirteenth century) in the work of Vuslat the main exercise is finding oneness.
my place is the placeless, the trace of the traceless neither body
or soul
I belong to the Beloved,
have seen the two worlds as One and that One called to
and know:
First,
Last,
Outer,
Inner.
—Rumi
Silence will run until 11 June 2022, for detailed information, interview and images please contact jade@piartworks.com
Chus Martínez (born 1972) is a Spanish curator, art historian, and writer. She is currently the director of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design,
Basel. In 2017, Martínez was curator of KölnSkulptur #9.
Martínez was chief curator at El Museo del Barrio, New York, from 2012–2014.[4] Prior to that she was the head of the department of artistic direction and a member of the core agent group for DOCUMENTA(13), for which she edited, with Bettina Funcke, the series “100 Notes–100 Thoughts.” Formerly, as chief curator at the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) (2008–2010), director of the Frankfurter
Kunstverein (2005–2008), and artistic director at Sala Rekalde, in Bilbao (2002–2005), She sits on the advisory boards of numerous international art institutions,
including Castello di Rivoli, Turin; De Appel, Amsterdam; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin; and Museum der Moderne, Salzburg.
Vuslat Doğan Sabancı is a self taught artist who has been making sculpture for almost two decades, all of which have yet to be publicly exhibited. A former publisher of newspapers in Turkey, and a leader in civil society and the business world, she has dedicated her life and career to creating spaces for self expression. Continuing her work towards fostering authentic connection and exchange, in 2020 Vuslat Doğan Sabancı established Vuslat Foundation (www.vuslatfoundation.org), Turkey's first and only global philanthropic initiative. The foundation's mission is to create a worldwide culture of generous listening, to oneself, to the other and to nature. She serves as a member of the Columbia University Global Leadership Council; a member of the Board of Leaders at the Leaders for
Peaceand a lifetime honorary board member of the International Press Institute (IPI), supporting freedom of expression and media globally.