Raffaele Quattrone

Ergin Cavusoglu

 

One of my favorite artists and a friend with whom talk for hours and always learn many new interesting things. The German philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer said “Culture is the only good of humanity which, divided among all, rather than decrease becomes larger” and this is really true in the case of Cavusoglu always helpful to make available his knowledge. And this in a period of widespread individualism is by no means a foregone conclusion. He is well-known for his multi-screen video installations in which he explores and posits questions about our place in a globalised society marked by mobility and meeting between different cultures reflecting in this way about concepts like space, non-place, liminality and the conditions of cultural production.

Ergin Çavuşoğlu (born in Bulgaria, 1968) studied at The National School of Fine Arts ‘Iliya Petrov’, Sofia in the early 1980s. He consequently received a BA from the University of Marmara, Istanbul, MA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD from University of Portsmouth. He currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He is a Professor of Contemporary Art at Middlesex University, London. Central to Çavuşoğlu’s conceptual art practice are themes that examine notions of place, liminality and the conditions of cultural production, which he has been exploring in a diversity of media, including narrative film, video and sound installations, sculpture and drawing. The pattern of literary references in his large-scale narrative installation works unfold a series of moral parables that have a hypothetical relevance to contemporary art and furthermore comment on the creative processes at large.Ergin Çavuşoğlu represented Turkey at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. He was shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures Prize in 2004, and in 2010 for Artes Mundi 4 – the UK's biggest international contemporary art prize. Solo exhibitions include, Adaptation – Cinefication, Rampa Gallery, Istanbul (2014); Dust Breeding, The Pavilion, Downtown Dubai (2011); Alterity, Rampa Gallery, Istanbul (2011); Crystal & Flame, PEER, London (2010); Ergin Çavuşoğlu, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2009-10); Place after Place, Kunstverein Freiburg (2008); Quintet Without Borders, ShContemporary, Shanghai and Haunch of Venison, Zurich (2008); Point of Departure, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2006); and Entanglement, DCA, Dundee (2004). Group exhibitions include 4th International Canakkale Biennial (2014); Other Waters, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland, New Zealand (2014); Plurivocality, Istanbul Modern Art Museum (2014); Kino der Kunst, Munich (2013); First Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2012); Seven New Works, Borusan Contemporary Museum, Istanbul (2011); Paradise Lost, Istanbul Modern Art Museum (2011); Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain (2010); fast forward 2 The Power of Motion, Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2010); The First Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art, Haifa, Israel (2010); All Inclusive – A Tourist World, Schirn Kunsthalle (2008), Frankfurt; Between Borders, MARCO Vigo (2006); the British Art Show 6 (2005); the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); and the 3rd Berlin Biennial (2003).

 

 

www.ergincavusoglu.com