April 20–June 11, 2017
Organized in the context of the five-year L’Internationale program, The Uses of Art: Final Exhibition attempts to provoke original responses and readings from its users of what SALT Galata, as a cultural entity, is or could be. Four artistic interventions / architectural gestures—by Abbas Akhavan, Refik Anadol, Futurefarmers, and Laure Prouvost—embrace the user through their reinvigoration of previously underused aspects of the building and its resources, such as the archive, bringing to the foreground suggestions of different potential functions or possibilities that temporarily reframe the institution.
Opening on April 20
Refik Anadol, Archive Dreaming
Commissioned to work with SALT Research collections, Anadol employed machine learning algorithms to search and sort relations among 1,700,000 documents. His immersive media installation Archive Dreaming transforms the gallery space on floor -1 into an all-encompassing environment that intertwines history with the contemporary while challenging immutable concepts of the archive.
Opening on April 27
Abbas Akhavan, “they hit a tree with an axe”
Akhavan’s site-specific works often respond to the natural and built environment, reflecting upon the fragility of life, but also the structures of life that we dwell within. For this exhibition, Akhavan has produced three new site-specific interventions that coexist with the architecture and rhythms of the building, and respond to current sociopolitical realities.
Futurefarmers, Seed Journey
Futurefarmers’ seafaring voyage project Seed Journey, which was launched from Norway in 2016, will conclude in Istanbul in September 2017. In advance of the boat’s arrival, Futurefarmers have begun to narrate aspects of the crew’s research and combined knowledge through an installation of sourced and produced materials housed in the treasury of SALT Research. The installation will remain and grow in tandem with Seed Journey.
Laure Prouvost, softer and rounder so as to shine through your smooth marble
Can a building respond to its users, present its own fictions and layers of history? Prouvost’s interventions around SALT Galata integrate aspects of earlier works along with site-specific reflections on the spaces and uses of the building. She brings to the surface activities that remain hidden through intended miscommunications, cultural slippages, and storytelling.
This exhibition is part of the five-year program The Uses of Art – The Legacy of 1848 and 1989, organized by L’Internationale. Public programs will begin with a conversation by Akhavan and Prouvost on April 26.
Future
Slavs and Tatars, Mouth to mouth
June 22–August 27, 2017
SALT Galata
