Artists Space

BAS / Bent
Banu Cennetoglu

Talk
August 30, 2012, 7pm

For her presentation at Artists Space, artist Banu Cennetoglu will speak about the formation of BAS, and the imprint Bent, as aspects of her artistic practice. She will also touch on how the projects are situated within the broader cultural landscape in Istanbul, particularly in relation to the production of artists’ books and some of the titles Bent has published.

A wide shot of an interior space. Several books and pamphlets rest on metal shelving to the image
BAS, Istanbul. [A wide shot of an interior space. Several books and pamphlets rest on metal shelving to the image's left and right. A low wall separates the foreground of the image from the background, in which a figure sits at a long desk with their back to the viewer. More pamplets and books are strewn about and propped upon this desk. Several gray square and rectangular canvases hang on the walls.]

Artists Space : Books & Talks
55 Walker Street

$5 Entrance Donation
Members Free
Limited capacity, entrance on a first come, first served basis

BAS is a space located in Karaköy, Istanbul, initiated and run by artist Banu Cennetoglu. The project is centered on the display and collation of a significant inventory of artists’ publishing, and serves as resource, archive, and catalyst for the production of new titles. Founded by BAS along with artist Philippine Hoegen, Bent is a publishing imprint running since 2006 that focuses on the production and distribution of artists’ books from Turkey.

Publications from BAS and Bent include An Interrupted History of Punk and Underground Resources in Turkey 1978-1999; Pavement Myth-The Life of the Pavement’s Wolf (1,2,3,4,5,6) by Masist Gül; and KILAVUZ by Atil Kunst.

Banu Cennetoglu’s own work often stems from her engagement with books, and specifically the published photographic image as a context-specific carrier of information. Having studied psychology in Istanbul, she went on to study photography in Paris, and moved to New York in 1996 working principally as a photographer for publications such as Purple and Self Service. Her subsequent shift to the production and circulation of work within an art context, has been embedded in a consideration of photography, and by extension informational media, as volatile and subject to displacement through economies of taste and degrees of access.

Cennetoglu will participate in a group exhibition at Artists Space in 2013. Her recent solo exhibitions include Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm, Kunsthalle Basel (2011) and Sample Sale – 2010 BC, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul (2010). Her work has been shown at institutions including Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Cyprus (2012); Kumu Art Museum, Estonia (2011); Arter, Istanbul (2010); La Centre de la Photographie Geneve, Switzerland (2010); La Coleccion Jumex, Mexico (2008); San Francisco Art Institute, USA (2007); Walker Art Center, USA (2007). She participated in Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain; 3rd Berlin Biennal; 1st Athens Biennale; and the 10th Istanbul Biennal. In 2008 she co-curated the exhibition Masist Gül at Schinkel Pavilion as part of the 5th Berlin Biennial and in 2009 Cennetoglu co-represented Turkey at the Venice Bienniale together with Ahmet Ögüt.