The far/o/ther architecture

Curator: Hasan Bülent Kahraman
Consultant: Luca Molinari
Space is a fundamental issue for the humankind. Imagination devoid of space would be impossible. The existence of the human being is sustained by space. Transforming a space the human being transforms itself. And transforming space always has a counterpart in the form of a mental vision. The transformation in question is intertwined with the mechanical transformation of consciousness. Any intervention concerning space also involves an ideological transformation. Space is a fact of existence. All fiction pertaining to the human being is intertwined with space, and transcending space is one of the most significant philosophical problems. In the final analysis space corresponds to identity, memory and belonging. Although they do not appear to be so, the most multi-layered cultural debates are realised through spatial references. The abstraction of space will open on to the metaphysical meanings of existence. And ultimately, the dynamics of space encompass the cultural references. The fact that contemporary art treats space as a fundamental premiss – with political and philosophical motives as much as artistic ones – derives from the complex structure of the problem. As Tabanlıoğlu and Tümertekin design and compose their buildings within different structures, different geographies, and different identities and senses of belonging, they address the mentioned complexity in a middle ground between action and physics, and vision and abstraction. From that chaos they generate an abstraction that is not linear or organic, that involves an intervention but is also not afraid to resort to utilising a personal reservoir. What’s left is the questioning of that abstraction, again in another space. Is each space a space far/o/ther, or does every space contain the here, the now, and the existing?