Cumhuriyet
NEWS about N. Erkan solo exhibition
in PRESS MUSEUM
1992, Istanbul
The young artist Nurettin Erkan, a graduate of the Painting Department of Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts, opened his second solo exhibition at the Press Museum in Çemberlitaş.
Having participated in various group exhibitions so far, the artist held his second solo exhibition at the Press Museum again in just seven months.
We spoke with Nurettin Erkan about his exhibition:
"As far as I can remember, I have never been fully immersed in any atmosphere. Based on this statement, one might conclude that I was never able to fully feel or experience anything. However, I am actually trying to express the opposite situation. There is another, perhaps more accurate meaning to this. That is, one of the best ways to better and more clearly perceive or feel something is to step outside of it, to look at it from a distance and from a critical perspective. In other words, this is, in my view, the best way to touch the truth, and while trying to exist in this way, I also look at myself from outside. This is my perspective.
For this reason, in an interview conducted for my previous exhibition, I said: "If a person could look at the world they are part of from above, from a higher perspective, the most intense thing they would probably do would be to smile with a sadness mixed in. We would be protected under the light of this smile. However, our ability to do this is very limited, and we are left alone with this sadness mixed with a smile, suffering as human beings." When this external perspective is realized, everything becomes so alienated. Everything we have created to protect ourselves will seem ridiculous. But this action, while putting us face to face with this feeling, will also give us the opportunity to find more human, familiar things beyond alienation.
The traces of our identity are elsewhere, far from our culture, beyond ourselves. This is because culture is mostly not something inherent to our nature; rather, it is something that invades us. I believe the antagonism of culture or art towards itself stems from this reason.
The pressure of culture on human nature can distance us from our nature, but it is hard, perhaps impossible, to completely eliminate it. I believe that humans can abandon their nature, but they cannot destroy it. Even if the abilities inherent to human nature are abandoned, these abilities will continue to live on their own, deep down, somewhere, and will eventually judge us. In this sense, the world will always remain intense. However, considering our alienation or the development of the world, it can be thought that the destruction may be great. If it is considered that it is not right to find a reason, an explanation, or a justification for human emotions, then of course, none of what I have described can be a complete reason for the paintings I have made. But this could be a starting point."
