Discussion: curator Yulia Aksenova and artist Köken Ergun

DESCRIPTION

Köken Ergun’s exhibition Young Turks is accompanied by a comprehensive public program of lectures, discussions, and film screenings. The program will open with a discussion between the artist and the curator of the project.

Köken Ergun and Yulia Aksenova will discuss the double function of the schools, which educate young people and also foster intercultural dialogue by creating new kinds of relations between people representing different traditions. Ergun and Aksenova will touch on the problem of neocolonialism, which is another recurrent theme in Ergun’s work, and will discuss its role in the proliferation of knowledge. The artist will also talk about the making of his film on Turkish schools in Indonesia and Kenya, now featured in the exhibition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Istanbul in 1976, Köken Ergun studied acting at İstanbul University and completed his postgraduate degree in ancient Greek literature at King's College London, followed by a master’s degree in art history at Bilgi University. After working with American theater director Robert Wilson, Ergun became more involved in video and film. His multi-channel video installations have been exhibited internationally at institutions including Palais de Tokyo, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, KIASMA, Digital Art Lab Tel Aviv, Casino Luxembourg, Protocinema, Queensland Art Gallery, SALT, and Kunsthalle Winterthur. His film works have received several awards at film festivals, including the Tiger Award for Short Film at the 2007 Rotterdam Film Festival, and the Special Mention Prize at the 2013 Berlinale. Ergun’s works are included in public collections such as the Centre Pompidou, Stadtmuseum Berlin and the Kadist Foundation.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Yulia Aksenova: after graduating from the Russian State University of the Humanities in History of Art (2002), Yulia Aksenova worked at the Department of Current Trends at the State Tretyakov Gallery from 2004 to 2007. She attended the International Curatorial Training Program de Appel in Amsterdam in 2007, and held a curatorial position at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art from 2010 to 2014.

Her recent curatorial projects include Sots Art. Political Art in Russia, Tretyakov Gallery, 2007; Masters Hamfrey’s Clock, De Appel, Amsterdam, 2008; New/Old Cold War, Red October, 2009; Russian Utopias, Garage, 2010; The Phantom Monuments, Garage, 2011; Necessary Art, Gorky Park, 2011; 33 Fragments of Russian Performance, Performa, NYC, 2011; Nathalie Djurberg Jan Švankmajer, Garage, 2013; Personal Choice, Garage, 2014; Russian Performance: A Cartography of its History, 2014; Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Theory, Garage, 2015.
Our Land/ Alien Territory, Moscow Manege, 2015.