“It is the viewer who creates the artwork.” —John Armleder
Dirimart is pleased to announce EVER, John Armleder’s debut exhibition in Turkey. On view from 24 April to 25 May 2025 at Dirimart Dolapdere, EVER presents a retrospective selection, featuring his iconic Furniture Sculptures, works on paper, and new puddle-and-pour paintings created specifically for the show.
Co-founder of the Geneva-based Groupe Ecart, Armleder emerged in the 1960s in the spirit of the Fluxus movement. His practice challenges conventional boundaries of art through painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. Influenced by composer John Cage, he embraces chance and experimentation, merging found objects with vibrant swathes of colour and reflective surfaces to create environments that question aesthetic norms.
The exhibition title EVER carries a layered meaning, cultivating a deliberate ambiguity open to potential exploration. It encompasses a continuous reinterpretation of aesthetic values, a statement on permanence, or the cyclical nature of artistic ideas all at once.
EVER offers a view into Armleder’s expansive, humorous, and experimental practice, reaffirming his lasting influence on contemporary art. It includes a selection of 31 works on paper from the 1960s to 1983—ranging in medium, including pen and ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylic, oil, and collage, a 10-metre painting that reflects Armleder’s embrace of spontaneity, chance, and Fluxus ideals; dot paintings, puddle-and-pour diptychs, and Furniture Sculptures, as well as two new sculptures and a site-specific installation developed during the artist’s stay in Istanbul.
Encompassing John Armleder’s six decades of practice, EVER invites viewers to reflect on the intersections of chance, form, and meaning. EVER will be on view at Dirimart Dolapdere from 24 April to 25 May 2025.
