The I is Always in the Field of the Other

A selection from The Agah Ugur Collection

Evliyagil Museum

March 09 - July 14, 2019

Curator: Beral Madra

 

Evliyagil Museum is getting ready to host the exhibition "The I is Always in the Field of the Other: A Selection from Agah U?ur's Collection", curated by Beral Madra. The exhibition features the works of 20 artists from Agah U?ur's precious collection that are produced through the male and female images in various continents, cultures and times through the 2000's. The exhibition is open to visit between the dates 09.03.2019-14.07.2019 at Evliyagil Museum.

The title of the exhibition refers to the French psychoanalyst and philosopher Jacques Lacan’s statement. “I, the Other and the Big Other”, which are the concepts Lacan has created, exist between the conscious and the subconscious which are constructed and constantly reproduced within Imaginary and Symbolic processes, as fragmented forms. However, or for this very reason, “I” (the subject) experiences an illusion of a structural wholeness in Lacan’s theories. As Lacan indicates, the main purpose of psychoanalysis is not to fix the “I”s non-existing wholeness but to provide it, and to make the subject realize its structural condition. According to Lacan, I (the subject) is always assuming the existence of ‘an other’. In order to sustain the existence of “I”, there is the need for “the mirror stage” which gives the child the opportunity to see him/herself as the other. In the mirror or in concrete incarnations of “the Other” (parents, siblings, other children etc.), (and which creates the illusion of the wholeness of a reflected body); “the Other” is the foundation of the “I” in the imaginary level. As Lacan suggested, this fundamental “Other”, is the “small Other”. On the other hand, the “Big Other” is the embodiment of the symbolical order itself. It is not a side, but a total of the determinants of the presentation that exists within the symbolical order mingled with inconsistencies. “The Big Other” is the position where we see ourselves as who we really desire to be.“The Big Other” is also assumed to be a whole, but since it is fragmented and formed around a structural absence, it is the area where desire forms. This area is the order which represents the wholeness of the symbolical order for the subject such as the State, God, Law etc.

Although the performances of male and female artists in the videos are all produced in different continents, cultures, times and spaces, this exhibition claims that these performances include some sort of a mutuality or contrast, a conservation or a discussion. The ideological and conceptual contexts of the videos encourage the audience to examine and decode the male and female identities within the present social, political and economic order. 

 

Artists:

mounir fatmi, Nezaket Ekici, Nasan Tur, Iván Argote, Ali Kazma, Adrian Melis, Kate Gilmore, Ferhat Özgür, Marcos Avila Forero, Aslan Gaisumov, Füsun Onur, Jaan Toomik, Zeyno Pekünlü, Fatma Bucak, Jhafis Quintero, Ipek Duben, Didem Pekün, Ozlem Simsek, Farniyaz Zaker, Leman Sevda Daricioglu

 

Ankara, March 2019