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SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

CURATORIAL EXHIBITIONS

OTHER WORKS

The Land of Oblivion I-II

2024

The Land of Oblivion series was created for an exhibition titled Critical Shifts at Barın Han, Istanbul. These pieces connect both to Emin Barın’s cultural legacy—masterfully bridging the Ottoman and Republican eras—and to the physical characteristics of this unique space which was used as a bookbinding and calligraphy workshop in Çemberlitaş. These works echo the woven patterns of the floor tiles on Barın Han’s third floor, intertwining bricks, a symbol of mod- ernism, with traditional ceramic vessel forms. They weave together different eras by drawing on the varied associations of ceramic mate- rial, constructing a new structure.
The sculptures, which merge architecture and ceramics, also embody an effort to fill the memory voids caused by the rupture between tradition and modernity.

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The Land of Oblivion I - II, 2024

Installation; glazed bricks, ceramics, MDF pedestal

90x60x50 cm (with pedestal), 160x130x130 cm (with pedestal)
Installation view, Barın Han, Istanbul, 2024

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Brick's Reverie series

2022

In the series Brick’s Reverie, the artist uses the bricks from the demolished Bomonti Brewery. The old images of the building also ooze out through the glaze which holds the bricks together. As a collector
of the debris from the past, Bingöl brings the memory of the material along with the disappeared images of of Turkey’s near past.

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Brick's Reverie I-II-III, 2022

Found bricks from the debris of Bomonti Brewery, glaze

36x26x29 cm, 16x24x27 cm, 8x25x20 cm

Flawless Flow

2016-2023

"The works from the Flawless Flow series in this exhibition are part of a singular narrative that has produced them simultaneously, and they spread throughout the exhibition space. In 2016, as the artist was waiting next to her work in the kiln, a sudden explosion destroyed it. The same day, the artist is informed of an explosion in central Ankara, where she has spent her life. This sad synchronicity suddenly led her to question the power of absence. The ceramic shards coming together again for this exhibition and surfacing for the first time point to a different facet of absence, opening the door to creation after destruction. The artist has meticulously embellished the shards with flowers and glazed them. These fragile flowers extend outwards from the walls, turning the exhibition space into a garden as they scatter around. Reminiscent of the scattering of seeds in spring, they also evoke the sense of sprouting from the place of disappearance."

*Excerpt from Ela Atakan’s catalogue text for A Momentary Absence, Galerist, Istanbul 2023

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Flawless Flow I, 2016-2023

Installation; glazed ceramics, metal

Installation view at A Momentary Absence Galerist, Istanbul, 2023

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Flawless Flow II-III, 2016-2023

Glazed ceramics, metal, 42x20x22 cm

Installation view at A Momentary Absence Galerist, Istanbul 2023

Avatar series

2020-2023

The Avatar series, which re-evaluates time and space with a longing for rooting; looks closely to the ground, what grows from there, and processes it again; goes deep from where the body stands and explores new knowledge and interests between the roots of life.

Avatar - Istanbul Root, was formed with Istanbul’s flora; including roses, redbuds, and wisteria, collected by the artist herself from various parks of the city. The shadows of all these Istanbul-based plants that came under her perspective settled into her own shadow.

Inspired by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s novel “Teslim” (Surrender), the artist focuses on the relationship between root and body through the city where she lives and works: Istanbul. Delving into the individual’s curious bond with the flora, Bingöl’s silhouette echoes within Tanpınar’s narrative as the root calls for the body.

Avatar - St Ives was formed with St Ives’ flora; including Japanese camellia, Spanish bluebells and Chinese goldthreads, collected by the artist herself and visually transferred to the ceramic surface. The reflection of all these St Ives’ plants settle into her own silhouette. The work also has handwritten excerpts from Barbara Hepworth’s texts.

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Avatar: Istanbul Root -

Living Inside a Tale and There Only, 2022

Glazed ceramics, 200x90x1.5 cm

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Avatar: Istanbul Root - Surrender, 2022

Glazed ceramics, 200x95x1.5 cm

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Avatar: St Ives Root -

B's Rightful Kingdom

2023

Glazed ceramics, 200x95x2 cm

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Above Mentioned Tiles

2021

 

Above Mentioned Tiles is based on a precise projection of the grouts in between the çini tiles on a wall at the Harem section of the Topkapı Palace. Recreating the grout body that holds the pieces together -rather than the pieces themselves, the work points out İznik tiles’ tessellated spatial aspect. 

 

Although they are made in an attempt to appear seamless, the grout that holds the tiles together – at times as thin as to be unnoticeable, at times as wide as to creep into the tiles - gives their fragmented structure away. Bingöl takes on the form of these grouts as a way to accentuate the seams that are often overlooked while seeking perfection.

 

The çini panels of the Topkapı Palace are an architectural manifestation of ceramics. The reason they have stayed in their home in Istanbul is that they are a part of the architecture: attached to the walls with the grout that holds them together piece by piece. In the work, the tiles are absent, but the seemingly unimportant grouts are what stand out - they appear to be oozing out of their place. Their impressions have been shifted into the third dimension; as if they are moving forward at us in space and time by protruding out of the wall. 

 

Above Mentioned Tiles proposes a new interpretation of the ceramic material with its conceptual relationship to space and time. The heritage of ceramics is brought to the forefront not through the precious çini tiles, but through their placement which has held them together for centuries.

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Above Mentioned Tiles (I-II-III), 2021

Glazed ceramics

145x87x5 cm, 90x113x5,5 cm, 118x88x5,5 cm

 

 

 

Avatar: Primer Root

2020

 

Avatar: Primer Root is the first work in Bingöl's Avatar series, which revaluates time and space with a longing for rooting; looks closely to the ground, what grows from there, and processes it again; goes deep from where the body stands and explores new knowledge and interests between the roots of life. Avatar - The Primer Root, as we know it, was formed when the artist watched the changes of the plants from her desk at Gümüşsuyu from moment to moment during the quarantine times when life stopped. The shadows of all these plants that came under her perspective settled into her own shadow. This plant-shadow that followed the artist to Cunda, was colored here with rich stone and earth tones unique to the region formed by thousands ofyears of geological transformations. While the conditions of pandemic that secure and distance the human body from where it is, the screen views enable us to the corners of the world. In this new interval, when the physical and mental part of the being is radically divided, new dreams and thoughts are waiting to take root.

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Avatar - Primer Root, 2020

Handmade natural dyes from local plants and stones of Cunda on paper

230x100 cm

 

 

 

Adapting Charlottenburg series

2019

Adapting Charlottenburg photograph series are of the site-specific installations at Zilberman Gallery Berlin, 2019. Dried plants are collected from the ruins of Istanbul as silent and resilient monuments of the passage of time. They become micro landscapes with their clay bases in their newly adapted setting.

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Adapting Charlottenburg Series, 2019

Pigment print on archival paper

Ed. 5+2 A.P.

 

 

 

Timescape series

2018

The Timescape series are a reconfiguration of the very meaning of the ceramic material and its association in a certain geographical and historical context. Traditional Ottoman vessel forms problematize the distinction between arts and crafts, and formation and de-formation. A formless, improvisationally applied piece of clay intervenes to the culturally significant shapes and shifts them to new configurations.

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Timescape Series (I-II-III), 2018

Glazed ceramics

25x22x18 cm, 40x25x25 cm, 42x30x20 cm

 

 

 

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Debris, 2018

Ceramics,105x80 cm

 

 

 

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detail

 

 

 

Loaded series

2017

Loaded is a continuation of the artist’s series of works from 2015 where she uses traditional vessel forms. She rethinks the phenomena of constructing the destructed through ceramic material where she uses similar methods.

 

The Loaded series, which emerged in the political climate in Turkey, 2016, attempts to go below the surface in the midst of a geography that is shaped by destructions. With vessel forms that completely hide themselves by sinking into the earth, only visible from the surface in places, the series draws a representative cross section of the past that is layered under the soil.

 

Loaded explores and interprets elapsed time and weakening memory through the possibilities of ceramic material. Shaped with both traditional and experimental methods, the form is decorated with floral images that the artist produces by transforming real plants. The form looks for its own balance and an escape among the debris and through the regenerative aspect of nature.

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Loaded I-II, 2017

Ceramics

41x41x15 cm, 45x21x8,5 cm

Memory Loss

2017

Memory Loss series is about the artist working on visual translations of a scenery. Using the teqnique of frotage, the artist copies an exquisite marble carving from the Tophane Fountain onto a paper surface. Copying from the past masters of Istanbul, this work emphasizes their artistry.

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Memory Loss I-II, 2017

Charcoal on paper

100x70 cm, 76x56 cm

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Bingöl using the frotage technique on the Tophane Fountain, Istanbul, 2017

Rooted Matters

2016

An Ottoman vase, known for its stylized beautiful floral décor, immersed to the lump of clay that the object is also made of. It is no longer clear whether it’s captivated by or created from the material. The direct translations of the real flowers with its imperfect renderings to emphasize the unprocessed nature without any stylization. The work is a part of the series that problematizes the material ceramics and it's history by making formal experiments. 

Rooted Matters, 2016

Glazed ceramics, 37x33x41 cm

Temporary Permeable

2016

 

This work, which was created for the exhibition Nature Morte curated by Marcus Graf, approaches to the idea of nature with both floral and cultural point of view. The idea of temporariness, which states that everything has a certain lifespan, is fixed to the material ceramics and wallpaper ironically with a decor made out of dying flowers. Traditional Ottoman ceramic vessels emerge and/or hide themselves on this rich floral texture, and become one with the time and space. These vessels, that we can’t tell whether if they are appearing or disappearing, get hung somewhere between this finite process. Temporary Permeable recalls the garden and craft culture that is no longer a part of Istanbul through incomplete vessels and flowers left to rot. 

Temporary Permeable, 2016

Site-specific Installation; glazed ceramics, wallpaper

290x180cm

Unforeseen Resistance

2015

“Burçak Bingöl brings together a scene from a 17th Century Persian miniature with the recent political events in Gezi Park in her piece Unforeseen Resistance (2015). The original miniature, a tile panel in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, depicts a garden picnic. Vessels, vases and other crockery decorated with floral motifs are strewn across the grass, similar floral motifs appear on the figures’ dress. There is no real distinction between the opulent flora in the garden, its surrounding landscape and representations of nature used as decoration on crockery and garments. What is camouflaging or decorating what, and which came first: art or nature? All the visual elements of the tile dissolve into each other in one magnificent homogenised layer. In her project Bingöl reverses this process: her sculpture - modelled after a commonly used Ottoman vase - is growing out of its source material, a clump of clay. Is the object resisting the clay and breaking free from it, or is it subordinated by its own source material and imprisoned by it? It is hard to say, but the cracks of a struggle show visibly in the work. Gone is the flat surface of the miniature. Bingöl has bestowed volume and a sculptural presence onto her vase. Her decorative element is a controversial one: grass from Gezi Park. In May 2013 Gezi Park became the backdrop and symbol of nationwide unrest. Starting originally as a protest against plans to turn Gezi Park, one of the last green spaces around Istanbul’s Taksim area, into a shopping mall, protesters “occupied” the park in ways the gentry in the Persian miniature did. They sat on the grass, asserted their presence, held picnics…until the police violently broke it up. Soon the protest turned into broader demonstrations against the AKP government’s increasing encroachment on freedom of expression and other civic liberties, as well as on Turkey’s secularism. Fast forward to 2015 and the situation in Turkey has deteriorated on every front. The Gezi protests, like the grass motifs on the vase, left their indelible mark on Turkish society. The question of what this means in the long run is, like Bingöl’s object’s relationship to its material, an uneasy one.”*

 

*Excerpt from the catalogue of the exhibition Minor Heroisms, curated by Nat Muller

Ceramics, 28x21x26 cm

Unforeseen Resistance (Detail - Scenary - Surface), 2015

Ceramics, marker and watercolor on paper, wallpaper

Variable Dimensions

Installation view, Zilberman Istanbul, 2015

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Tha Fall series

2015

The work problematizes the idea of making. It builds itself with the broken shard of a typical traditional ceramic vessel. It reveals visual information with the glamorization oozes out of the cracks of a broken Ottoman vase. The secret potential of the local history is expressed with today’s point of view, while the pieces come together to form a fragile whole again. 

The Fall I-II, 2015

Glazed ceramics, plexiglass

24x45x24 

Self-Conscious

2015

Self-Conscious is a video work that defines a threshold of the artist’ practice where past and present collide into each other to form an alternative construction for the future. 43 seconds-long still video was shot in her new studio in Istanbul where she eventually settled in 2011. The work portrays a highly conscious precarious moment that seeks ways to relate the now and then. The artist sits on Daydreamer (2011), a fragile, one person ceramic table and a chair, placed in front of Cruise (2014), a ceramic life-size truck. She wears a dress from a site-specific installation Unforeseen Transformation (2011) with her hair decorated with fresh leaves from Gezi Park. While a Victorian wallpapers hang down and divide the place, various works and different patterns from east and west blends in and composes this quite personal diorama for the unglazed Ottoman vase that stands still on the edge of the table waiting for a shift to have a new form.

 

The artist not only reflects on her own history but also on the very meaning of the ceramics material of a very specific geography and seeks alternative ways of coming to terms with a loaded heritage. 

Self-Conscious, 2015

Video, 43", Ed. 5+1 A.P.​

Barbie Blues

2013

Burçak Bingöl, in her sculpture named ‘Barbie Blues’, deals with a world order where nothing can be ideal. Here however, we are faced with a beauty that is idealized as the symbol of Western beauty. One half of Barbie’s body is covered in a depressive blue, making a reference to ‘the blues’. Barbie is quiet in her deep sadness. On a table as wide as her height, she broods over the future in her deep sadness, as if to make a reference to Rodin’s “The Thinker”. She fears a world where ideal beauty may disappear. With her mind all topsy-turvy with intercultural notions of beauty, she questions the meaning of existence.”*

 

*Excerpt from the catalogue of the exhibition The Way We Were, curated by Ferhat Özgür

Ceramics, 28x21x26 cm

Barbie Blues, 2013

Glazed ceramics

28x21x26 cm / pedestal d:30 cm, h:110 cm

Maneuverability I-II-III

2012

This work was made out of gold glazed ceramics by molding a vehicle’s water tank. The form comes from the function, which is to contain the maximum amount of liquid. The work re-defines the relationship between form and function and which comes first. As a functional object transforms and looses its functionality, the intricate form exists only for it visuality. This work that puts forward the form-or formlessness- of the object which is only determined by its function, reinventing the relationship between ceramic and the container that goes way back to ancient period, from an industrial point of view and transforms an average industrial waste into a sculpture by emphasizing the subjects of visuality and value. 

 

Gold glazed ceramics, 27x55x17 cm, Ed. 3+1 A.P.

Maneuverability - Part I - II - III, 2012

Gold glazed ceramics

26x51x26 cm, Ed. 3+1 A.P

Impact

2014

The work decontextualized a car’s hood that is wrecked in an accident by covered with burgundy velvet. Pieces of the car examine the relationship between art and industry by focusing on the duality between the unique and mass production. As the unfortunate errors become monuments with the idea of “accident”, an industrial waste covered in velvet and transforms the perception with its feminine character.

Impact, 2014

Velvet, metal

105x95x40 cm​

Permeable series

2013

Burçak Bingöl’s new works on paper reflect her dense cultural heritage and extend her continued fascination with patterns. Through her choice of a vivid floral pattern, Bingol acknowledges the influence of Islamic tradition. Through her labor-intensive process of tracing, copying and reconstructing she adopts an analytical approach to ornamentation. The works convey an unusual sense of order, although they are largely made up of non-symmetrical lines and patterns. This “mandala” like form alludes to a spiritual journey, without offering any clearly defined narratives. In fact, the works are organic (psychological) landscapes that hover between abstraction and representation, seduction and repulsion, mysticism and consumption that both embrace and disregard Eastern and Western tradition.

 

Permeable I-II, 2013

Marker on paper

100x95 cm, 119x112 cm

Permeable II (detail)

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