Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck
Alexander Calder’s performing mobile Orange Fish (1946) at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (detail). From the series Cultural Diplomacy: An
Art We Neglect, 2007-2009
In collaboration with Media Farzin
Framed C-print, vinyl lettering, wall label with
narrative text, Framed print 105 x 130 cm, Installation
dimensions 177 x 160.5 cm, Ed. of 5 + AP
Untitled (Abstraction) takes the viewer on a journey through the landscape of the city. This part, which opens the Istanbul Biennial, acts likes an introduction: it is a dictionary of textures, an investigation of the aesthetics of labour, craft and language each gradually inflected with personal and political narratives.
In the work of Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck and Media Farzin, art history collapses into the political history of the Middle East offering a critical rereading of both. This exhibition becomes a point of departure for the next two exhibitions on the upper floor: Untitled (Passport) and Untitled (Ross).