One of the leading names in Turkish contemporary art, our newspaper writer Bedri Baykam's new exhibition "Les Demoiselles Revisited" has opened to visitors at S/Beaubourg Gallery in Paris. The artistic investment of the exhibition, which can be seen until June 14, is undertaken by Micaela Neveu and curated by Patrik Gunnteg.
The exhibition establishes a critical dialogue with Picasso's iconic work "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", which has shaped the history of contemporary art.
PERCEPTION, IDENTITY AND POWER RELATIONSHIPS
Shaped with Baykam's fragmented narrative language developed since the 1980s, the exhibition destroys classical art constructs and draws the viewer into a constantly transforming perception experience far from stagnation. Reconsidering the modernist perspective established by Picasso on the female body with a post-orientalist interpretation, Baykam dismantles this perspective and questions Western-centered aesthetic and cultural codes.
The exhibition approaches eroticized representations of the female body from a critical distance, constructing a multi-layered narrative language with collages, transparent surfaces, lenticular structures and free brush strokes. The artist's de-identified or faceless figures question the viewer's gaze and the acceptance of female representation in art history. The exhibition offers a reminder of the potential of art to transform perception, identities and power relations.
‘EVERY DAY FRESH, EVERY DAY YOUNG’
Baykam makes the following statements about the exhibition: “The Demoiselles series, which I created with very different techniques, free brush strokes, collages, and lenticular surfaces, is among my favorite works of my entire career.
The “Les Demoiselles Revisited” series also carries a Parisian legend within itself. Creating these works, which are born from the intersection of my different periods, gives me special pleasure. The brothel of Avinyo Street, the Varol in Istanbul, and the brothel of the legendary Madame Claude, which was in Paris 60 years ago, are the most memorable of these special places that I have visited in many parts of the world... Don’t get me wrong, of course I have never visited the daughters of ‘Madame Claude’! Where are those days! I was thinking about them from those years, but it coincided with my adolescence, what could I do? After all, I have always continued my ‘Demoiselles’ works with great pleasure and insistence. ‘Demoiselles’ are fresh every day, young every day, and will remain so forever. They are both modern and ‘ageless’! Maybe this eternal ‘youth’ will rub off on us who fall in and out with them, who knows?”
Sourcehttps://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/kultur-sanat/baykamdan-pariste-sergi-2336664