Every exhibition is built on some abstract perceptions, situations, sentiments, all of which are not easy to describe. As I was framing PORT İZMİR 2 International Contemporary Art Triennial with the theme “Silence_Storm”, my aim was to accentuate the characteristics of this city._I developed this concept of two opposites during my preparatory work in Izmir during intervals of more than a year, in total. I felt the existence of an imperative “silence” following me on every step from one night to the next. At meetings, at workshop visits, I grasped the fact that this “silence” was an extremely powerful metaphor marking the artistic production in Izmir. During my later visits to Izmir, I thought about the necessity of transforming this silence and the possibility of expressing it with another abstract concept, “storm”. While setting up an exhibition in Izmir, it was important for me to be related to the air, the water and the wind of this city. Although in the periphery, Izmir, especially since the 1990’s, has been the hometown of artists determining the agenda of Turkish Contemporary Art environment. This creative potentiality of Izmir formed the artery of this exhibition. I founded my exhibition concept on geographical effects. Moreover, as I was wondering if I could reach beyond silence, beyond calmness, I came to believe that this could also be a “dream storm”. Storm was a means, a suggestion, for a way to overcome an ease caused by a prolonged silence. I developed an “open end” exhibition concept which pursued the characteristics of Izmir. As I was bringing together artists working with different techniques on each floor of the building, I aimed at developing a system which would highlight first of all the building and its characteristics. The Austro–Turkish Tobacco Building, having been designed by Austrian architects and built in years 1950–51, had an identity which brought to the front Turkey’s venture into capitalism. However because I realized the exhibition with a very limited budget,_I could not go into extensive long–term research. No doubt that this kind of conceptualizations could cause “Silence_Storm” to go on. As I prepared the exhibition I was influenced by the creative people whose photographs you see around the text. My attempt to abstract “Silence_Storm” was triggered by their imagination and the time I spent in Izmir. The exhibition is founded on the visualization of this.

Necmi Sönmez, September 2010

***

It may sound weird but first of all I want to talk about the traces Izmir leaves on me every time I visit the city. Since I arrive via Istanbul, the first days of my visit are spent grasping the different, calm yet charming flavor of this city. Especially as I walk by at nights in the streets, the old houses that I come across to, the cats and other inhabitants of the streets make me feel that I am in a different place.

As I received an invitation to prepare an exhibition in this city where I love the nights more than the days, I wondered from where I could start. Of course, the name of the exhibition… CALM_STORM is how I named the exhibition and it refers to the conscious refrainment in Izmir perceived in the creative field and the concept of being calm. But the stillness perceived at first sight isn’t a negative element. The reason for this is that, the characteristics generating from the geographic and social structure of this city somehow create a different atmosphere on the artists and artistic life. The exhibition, departing from this point of ‘stillness’ aims to convey to various happenings beneath, around or a few steps ahead of it. In this sense, the storm is a metaphoric case certainly expected, in fact foreseen to happen, On the other hand, calm makes you feel the potential. Just as Izmir originated visual artists who have especially in the last 20 years distinctively rendered their name with their works, is an important event although it can’t totally be considered as a ‘storm’. In order to define the urban character of Izmir through art works, different metaphors were needed. Here CALM_STORM, especially the ‘hyphen’ possesses an important identity.

As an independent curator and art historian; I regard every attempt to define contemporary art, every attempt to shape it (even though with good intentions) suspiciously. In the preparation of an exhibition or a contemporary art activity; some subjects brought forward by some people can’t be proposed as ‘concepts’. One of the most significant dynamics of 21th-Century art is to support the dialogue between the audience and the art work, to present ‘new visual experiences’ to the audience. As this can gain a meaning only with the active participation of the audience, it can also be interpreted as a door ready to open with the touch of his/her hand. I believe that for the fundamental visual experiences to become a current issue, the contemporary art has to follow a different path. Art getting out of the museums, exhibition halls and joining daily life, getting into the ’adventure’ of life is a situation that I’ve always dreamed about. Exhibitions remind me of cemeteries because of the fact that they gather finished, completed works. Maybe the thing that should be discussed is the preparation of an exhibition, the completion of this process. Two facts have been indicators of a direction for me during my studies in Izmir: Participation and Intuition. Therefore I stayed away from nice sounding but meaningless, empty words while determining the frame of the exhibition. All in all, CALM_STORM refers to the dynamics of the city Izmir as an abstract conceptual whole. I have in 2006 prepared an exhibition named ‘Meltem’ (Light Breeze) at the Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum. The opening date of the exhibition, according to the old Ottoman calendar coincided with the ‘Cherry Storm’ and the end of it with ‘Pumpkin Storm’. Therefore, CALM_STORM is, in this sense, the stop in a journey that I have already begun.

I would like to present some information about the model that I have mounted so that the different character of the project can be explained. There are five levels and project areas supporting the ‘exhibition’ located at the center of the activity: Internet, Newspapers and Printed Material, Theater and Performing Arts, Music, Public Areas.

While we are still at the organization phase of exhibition, it isn’t fix how the activities at the five levels and project areas will be arranged. But, with these kinds of projects I aim to reach masses that have had no acquaintance with contemporary art until now, as well as composing activity areas for ‘creative artists’ where they can enter different experiments. Mutual projects that I plan to undertake with different individuals and constitutions intend to bring the inhabitants of Izmir closer to PORTIZMIR2 as well as reviving the ‘formation phase’ which can develop with their contributions. Briefly, I attempt to enter the homes, daily lives of Izmirians by strengthening the connection between art and life: yet with the shyness of an uninvited guest.

Necmi Sönmez, March 2010