Türkiye Presents Hollow and Broken: A State of the World by Gülsün Karamustafa at the 60th La Biennale Di Venezia

Karamustafa’s installation will comprise an interconnection of sculptural works from found materials, inviting viewers to reflect on the current state of the world, akin to the tragic feeling of a tumultuous reality and issues threatening humanity.

What I am dealing with” Karamustafa says of this work, “is the state of a world hollowed out to the core by wars, earthquakes, migration and nuclear peril unleashed at every turn, threatening humankind while nature is ceaselessly scathed and the environment made sick.

I attempt to physically and emotionally summon into existence this phenomenon: the emptiness, the hollowness, the brokenness produced by the devastation that has become commonplace, whose pace becomes ever more impossible to keep up with, by the unimaginable grief that keeps on striking again and again at relentless intervals, by empty values, identity struggles and brittle human relationships.”

Space plays a central role in the exhibition for the artist, championing unconventional methods and disparate materials, exploring themes of turmoil and portraying “the world, a battlefield" as an "endlessly shifting ground". In an element of the installation, the artist alludes to the perpetual conflicts among faiths that, throughout history, have never ceased fighting one another.

Gülsün Karamustafa is one of the most influential artists for younger generations. Through her art practice, spanning the course of over fifty years, she focuses on such topics as the modernisation of Türkiye, uprooting and memory, migration, locality, identity, cultural difference and gender from an array of perspectives. Within her works, which stem from both personal and historic narratives, she champions the use of disparate materials and methods. Through media as diverse as painting, installation, photography, video and performance, she calls into question historical injustices in the social and political fields.

Karamustafa has participated in numerous international biennials, including Istanbul, TR; São Paulo, BR; Gwangju, KR; Kyiv, UA; Singapore, SG; Havana, CU; Thessaloniki, GR; Sevilla, ES. She has presented solo exhibitions at major institutions and galleries worldwide, including Salt Beyoğlu and Salt Galata, Istanbul, TR; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, DE; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL; IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia, ES; EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, GR; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, DE; Lunds Konsthall, Lunds, SE; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AT; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, DE; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, DE, among others.

Her works have been included in the permanent collections of Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Tate Modern, London, GB; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, US; Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, FR; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, DE; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, DE; MUMOK, Vienna, AT; Wien Museum, Vienna, AT; Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL; EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Athens, GR; Istanbul Modern Art Museum and Arter, Istanbul, TR.

She received the Roswitha Haftmann Prize in 2021 and Prince Claus Award in 2014.