With generational melancholy as a driving force in his artistic practice, Özgür Kar constructs environments inhabited by large screens. In his installations, populated by silhouettes of figures that are both delicate and eerie, the artist merges machine-driven technological thinking with the most sensitive aspects of human experience.
Skeletons, a recurring motif in his work, take center stage in his piece for the 14th Mercosul Biennial. In this work, Kar scatters several utilitarian cases throughout the space, each containing monitors and speakers spilling over from within. Apathetic and resigned, the rudimentary drawings deliver despairing monologues, staging a contrast between childlike innocence and an array of insecurities, traumas, and disorders.
Echoing the television animations of the 1990s, Özgür Kar materializes contemporary existential emptiness by orchestrating tragic dramaturgies: in each symphony, the compositions are performed repeatedly at a slowed-down pace, where the passage of time toward death is transposed with delicate theatricality.
Henrique Menezes
Özgür Kar (Turkey, 1992) works with video, sound, performance, and installation. His practice reflects contemporary existentialism, focusing on the interconnections between digital media and the human body. He draws inspiration from Ottoman and Persian folklore, experimental theatre, early animation, and 1990s MTV cartoons. Kar creates his works as theatrical scenes, with each character playing their role within a non-linear script. His work has been exhibited at the Sydney Biennale, Sydney, the Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, and the Lyon Biennale. He lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
