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Labirent Sanat is pleased to host Emre Celali's first solo exhibition titled "Prytaneion" between 3 February - 12 March 2022.
Prytaneion (Sacred Fire) is a state structure in ancient cities or the fire that the people in the assemblies can use whenever they want. It also defines the heart of the city. Emre Celali's exhibition titled Prytaneion, starting from the human-nature relationship, deals with the shaping of nature by society and the transformation of nature against the artificial. Celali considers fire as the beginning of this transformation and domination process. And we are in the current layer of this process.
The works that start with the fragments pass through many stages as they emerge in rhythms, layer by layer, like the world we live on, until the painting is formed. Although each work that comes out has reactivity to the previous one, it also creates a bridge to the next work. The order of human landscapes contains confusion, contrary to what is clear to itself. Roads that connect people also separate and distance us from each other in parts. The silence in these formations from the past to the present is also a harbinger of a new storm. Even though the corner snatching war is over, the conflict continues. In Celali's paintings, in a way, the landscape that shows the direction of social psychology now is being looked at. These landscapes can also be interpreted as self-portraits of us.
In the landscapes, everyday life seeps into the works. While the portrayals of roads, lands, settlements, and transportation provide an atmosphere and perspective on how life feels; the works also contain perceivable situations that create contrast such as calmness and tension, threat and trust. In Celali's paintings, while the environment and image remain faithful to the traces of life, they also reveal the broad connection to the world and time. These traces also draw attention to different times at the same time. While previous works in the time capsule show signs on this path, it is felt like a sign that we will remain in the future as a trace in the ancient finds noticed in the works. The fire which forms the conceptual framework of the exhibition is like the first loop of these ties and an indicator that we are not the last.
In the landscapes in the exhibition, we witness the large lands that feed the heart of the city and the way people control nature around the cities, just as they control the fire. In landscapes where the intervention of the communities is low, we feel that we are far from the heart of the city. As we move away from the sacred fire, we enter the magical atmosphere of nature. While feeling the calmness towards nature from the heart of the city, on the one hand, there is an uncanny feeling. The more fascinating, the more dangerous; nature now enforces its own law. In a sense, while there is a desire to turn (escape) from the inside out, in fact, a rope/road connects us to the heart of the city. This rope has been preserved from the past to the present, with the desire to establish a bond of trust with the sacred fire.
You can see Emre Celali's first solo exhibition titled Prytaneion, which includes his latest works, at Labirent Sanat until 12 March 2022.