Can Küçük and Cem Örgen's exhibition at imalat-hane in Bursa, Turkey.

“No Entry”
Artists: Can Küçük, Cem Örgen
10 September, 2022 -10 December,.2022
imalat-hane, Bursa, Turkey

No Entry, contradicting its semantic nature, welcomes you with open arms via wiggly stainless pipes, crystal beads, snot, wigs and all sorts of accidental visual stimuli. Having the impenetrable in mind, Can Küçük and Cem Örgen penetrate hermetic areas of the mental abyss and the physical realm. With altered warning signs, obstacles, and even totems, they provide concrete and sincere narratives for taboo phenomena and situations. Following the natural flow of an intimate yet mundane conversation between friends, No Entry, dives deep into the personal but due to its wary disposition, chooses to re-emerge halfway, and floats instead. The conversation spreads out to the exhibition space as fragments of intimacy appear in various forms and conditions.

For each work by Can Küçük, there is a work by Cem Örgen complementing it, and vice versa. Objects remain loyal to their assigned tasks while refusing prohibitions of the status quo and lifting the boundaries of intimacy. Küçük and Örgen orchestrate subtle acts of trespass and disregard for the audience to undermine their rigid title, No Entry. By climbing up the artwork to see a two-channel video, by lighting a wish candle or by accessing the gallery's storage space, the audience yield to this rupture. This way, not only the artists gain accomplices throughout the exhibition, but also, they discern and re-outline the eroded margins of impact of the warning sign “No Entry”.

Text: Ayşe Ertung