Ahmet Öğüt

Moment before the Crisis

17 August 2020 / 7–8 pm CEST

No poem loves its poet, 2020, modular LED screen, found objects, video installation, commissioned by YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku

Öğüt will discuss the role of art and art institutions in times of crisis. He will refer to several of his own works as well as a series of art institutions and biennials that were forced to close due to economic crises, natural disasters, uprisings, or the global outbreak of the current pandemic.

Ahmet Öğüt, born in Silvan, Diyarbakır (TR) in 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. His work often deals with migration, but at its most compelling refuses to simply illustrate migrants’ experiences. A case in point is The Silent University, an education platform – outside the restrictions of migration laws, language limitations and other bureaucratic obstacles– which Öğüt co-initiated in cities across Europe. Each school is run by its participants, and provides a collective teaching and learning site for people whose qualifications are not accepted in the country in which they are applying for residency or asylum.

Öğüt’s gallery installations interrogate ways in which governments oppress marginalised individuals on a systemic level. As a writer, Öğüt is a regular contributor to various platforms, where he questions the functions of art and speculative design in neoliberal economies. Always, his focus is on broadening the definitions of aesthetic and political engagement, while criticising – with uplifting humour – both the perils of nationalism and the dangers of global thinking. (see: interview with Harry Burke, King Kong Magazine, 2019)

Solo exhibitions (recent)
2019 The Missing T, Merdiven Art Space, Istanbul (TR). Happy Together: Collaborators Collaborating, La Galerie de l’Université du Québec en Outaouais (GUQO), Québec (CA). 2018 Bakunin’s Barricade, Kunstverein Dresden, Dresden (DE). 2017 Hotel Résistance, KOW, Berlin. Ahmet Öğüt, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Goshka Macuga & Ahmet Öğüt, Witte de With, Rotterdam (NL).

Group exhibitions (recent)
2019 All that We Have in Common, MOMus, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (GR). YOU ARE, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Gothenburg (SE). Zero Gravity, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul. Take My Money/Take My Body, LACE, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA (US). 2018 Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale 2018, Niigata Prefecture ( JP). Seen, Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur. Floating Utopias, neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK), Berlin. The Street. Where the World Is Made, MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome.

www.ahmetogut.com

Portrait photo: Mira Turba