Inside & Outside

Galeri 77 is hosting a special selection of works by Gayane Avetissian, Roman Kakoyan, Harut Mnatsakanyan and Arthur Tonakanyan, all of whom they’ve just begun representing, between September 8th and October 23rd. Through the concepts of “inside” and “outside”, which often turn into one another, and the innovative perspective presented by four talented young artists whose works have just been showcased in this geography, the exhibition deals with our search for a “safe space”, which has gained significance especially during the pandemic. Part of the Parallel Events of the Istanbul Biennial, which is considered the most important international art event in Turkey and will hold its seventeenth edition this year, the exhibition can be visited by all art enthusiasts at Galeri 77’s venue in Karaköy.

With the pandemic, we spent several long years in which our habits changed rapidly and we spent more time at home trying to rediscover what is safe and what is not for us. In this process, we pursued the safe environments where we felt most comfortable against this unknown new danger; while some of us could catch this in rural areas with the least human density, many of us have come to the conclusion that the comfortable areas where we currently live in this busy urban life are the safest places. This situation pushed us to question the concepts of inside and outside once again.

The concepts of “inside” and “outside” have developed over time, appearing especially in the early times when humanity adopted a sedentary life, along with the need to feel safe and the instinct of protection. In these early times, when life was simpler, we desired sheltered spaces, that is, being indoors, in order to stay away from the dangers outside, while the negativities caused by the increasing population (unhealthy environments, criminal dangers, turmoil and incompatibility), especially with the development of urban culture, confronted us with the possibility of a better and safer life outside.

At the point we have come to, today's understanding of space points to a fluid space that is homogeneous, impermeable, with coordinates constantly “in between” rather than defined and fixed, multi-layered, transitional, where new gapes are opened at any moment and the inside and outside transpire into one another. The concepts of “inside”, which we consider safe, and “outside”, which we believe to represent all other unsafe areas, often turn into one another depending on time and conditions. Galeri 77 invites us in search of a “safe space” to question this ambiguous and fluid situation, to read and make sense of the works of the newly represented artists Gayane Avetissian, Roman Kakoyan, Harut Mnatsakanyan and Arthur Tonakanyan.

With the innovative and fresh perspective of four talented young artists whose works were exhibited for the first time in Turkey this year, the exhibition titled “Inside and Outside”, which will continue until October 23, at the venue of Galeri 77 in Karaköy, confronts us with the fact that our search for a safe space can be found in both the inside and outside spaces depending on time and conditions we’re in. We can capture this space within ourselves/our bodies, as in Gayane Avetissian's works, in intermediate solutions where the outside is accepted in a controlled way, as in Roman Kakoyan's works, completely cut off from the outside, as in Harut Mnatsakanyan's works, in impervious isolated interiors, or in rural areas that we consider completely safe, as in the works of Arthur Tonakanyan, or in the more hybrid imagination where the parts of the outside that make us feel good are carried inside. The exhibition, which is part of the Parallel Events program of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, will be able to meet with its audience simultaneously online, in order to follow art lovers outside of Istanbul.