Dirimart is pleased to present Güçlü Öztekin’s solo exhibition What’s On Your Mind River. Using various, easily attainable paper and upcycled material in his works, Güçlü Öztekin generally creates at the intersection of the daily life and the fantastic world of kaplankadilak, his alter-ego. He thinks painting as surface: “Surface is the side of what you stand face to face, you have a kind of contact, the side of anything that reaches you fast and first,” he says. An aspect of the glance is related to meaning; we do look, for we yearn for a meaning: an effort of positioning ourselves in this world. What’s On Your Mind River focuses on “glance,” the notion he has been delving into throughout his art practice. With this selection, the viewers face anonymous, obscure portraits; words give way to gestures and facial expressions: portraits invite them to strengthen their empathy muscles.
Güçlü Öztekin (b. 1978, Eskişehir). He graduated from the Department of Painting, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2003. His selected solo exhibitions are Tupsy Turvy! Selpakla Gorili Bitirdim!, Dirimart, Istanbul (2017); Şe Şe Pa Pa… Sometimes You Need to Cry to Fish, Rampa, Istanbul (2015); Everything’s Tickling Each Other, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna (2012); and kAPLANKADİLAk–He Was a Nasty Man But He Washed His Hands Obsessively, Rampa, Istanbul (2010). His group exhibitions and biennials include Sky is attached / Say sound, we meet, with Sinan Logie, Barın Han, Istanbul (2021); All Else is Far, curated by Ceren Erdem, Dirimart, Istanbul (2021); Dirimart Presents VII: Still-life, Dirimart, Istanbul (2020); WORLBMON, with Güneş Terkol, 16th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud (2019); Memory and Continuity: A Selection from the Huma Kabakcı Collection, curated by Huma Kabakçı and Esra Aliçavuşoğlu, Pera Museum, Istanbul (2016); Jahresgaben 2008, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (2008). Öztekin is a member of the artist groups HA ZA VU ZU and GuGuOu. Together with them, he took part in various group exhibitions, during which they enacted performances and showed their works: For Whom Is It Too Late Today? – Between Stamp and Mars, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (2009); 10th International Baltic Art Triennial, Vilnius (2009); 10th Lyon Biennial (2009); Kaserne, Basel (2008); Mercy, Liverpool (2008); Rotterdamse Schouwburg (2008); Bovisa Triennial, Milan (2008); Lokaal01, Anvers (2008); and 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007). He lives and works in Istanbul.
