16 Dec 2009

Ahmet Ogut. Mind the Gap at Peep-Hole, Milan

On December 17th Peep-Hole begins its exhibition program with Mind The Gap, a solo project by Ahmet Öğüt.

Öğüt works with a broad range of media including video, photography, installation, drawing and printed media. His work often borrows from the experience of everyday life, which he observes and then amplifies and alters to expose its many contradictions.

Mind the Gap, which is also the artist's first solo presentation in Italy, is developed by the artist using the whole exhibition space creating three different zones. Although with different approaches and scales, the three zones deal with representation of power, authority and control through a reflection about 'function' and the effects of its changing.

Öğüt's show presents his recent video Things We Count (2008), three drawings from the series Mission Calls (2009) and two interventions titled respectively The Swinging Doors (2009) and An ordinary day of a bomb disposal robot (2009) which are created specifically for the context. All the works exhibited in Mind the Gap, both individually and together, push the viewers to question themselves about the 'status' of things, their proposed use and the symbolic value that we assign them. Using the works as tools for punctuating the physical space Öğüt builds the exhibition as a path, which doesn't proceed linearly but, as the title suggests, through a narration made of alternation between fullness and gaps.

Ahmet Öğüt was born in Diyarbakir (Turkey) in 1981, lives and works in Amsterdam. He received his BA from the Fine Arts Faculty of Hacettepe University in 2003, and his MFA from the Art and Design Faculty of Yildiz Technical University in 2006. Ögüt has been a guest artist at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 2007-2008. Solo exhibitions since 2005 include Künstlerhaus Bremen, 2009; Kunsthalle Basel, 2008; Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona , 2008; Platform Garanti CAC, Istanbul, 2006; Galerija / The Museum of Modern Art of Ljubljana, 2005. Group exhibitions include 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 2009; The Generational: Younger than Jesus, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2009; 7th SITE Santa Fe Biennial, Santa Fe, 2008; 5th Berlin Biennial, Berlin, 2008; 15th Sidney Biennial, Sidney, 2008; Be[com]ing Dutch, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2008; Stalking with Stories, Apexart, New York, 2007. In 2009 Ahmet Öğüt (with Banu Cennetoglu) represented Turkey at 53rd Venice Biennale.

Ahmet Öğüt's show is supported by Royal Netherlands Embassy in Rome

Technical sponsor EPSON
Epson continues its commitment on support of the contemporary artistic research, offering its technology as an integral part of the most innovative forms of artistic expression.

Thanks to Bell Safety, Busto Arsizio (VA)

About Peep-Hole
Peep-Hole is a project space based in Via Panfilo Castaldi 33, Milan. Founded by Vincenzo de Bellis, Bruna Roccasalva and Anna Daneri, it wants to encourage people to take a closer look at each artist's practice through an agile program that moves between the format of exhibitions, publications, lectures and conversations. More info: www.peep-hole.org