Ahmet Güneştekin Click for Artist Information

Ahmet Güneştekin

Ahmet Güneştekin ( 1966 - )

Born in Batman in 1966, Ahmet Güneştekin grew up in the sound world created by the stories told by dengbêjs and the songs he sang, starting from his early childhood. Influenced by these verbal transmissions, in which sounds and words are performed with constant repetition, he meets mythological elements at a young age and begins to paint. He moves to Istanbul, where he still lives. In his first workshop in Beyoğlu, he started to try different production techniques by researching ways to relate to form, material and surface. His work is based on the findings of his ethnographic studies that spanned a period of about ten years and carried out throughout the country. His first solo exhibition, Colors After Dark, shows the practice of combining mythological elements with contemporary elements and structures. Tracing the tales and sounds of his childhood in field research and interpreting them in his works has been decisive in the formation of his style. In his documentary series titled In the Trail of the Sun, he examines traditional practices that build the field of material culture and produce contemporary forms. He uses photographic and cinematic images produced during field research as material in his documentaries. During her research period, she organizes joint exhibitions with local artists and conducts workshops for children. More than ten thousand children participated in these activities during the research process. He establishes the Güneştekin Art Center in Beyoğlu, where his workshop is still located. Begins to work with a wide variety of media such as video, installation, painting and sculpture. He tends towards a multi-disciplinary approach that he will continue throughout his art life. His works, whose memories are intertwined with history exhibited in Confrontation, serve as counter-memory by subverting the narratives of history. The exhibition makes Güneştekin known in the art circle of Istanbul. The international audience first met him in Venice at the Memory Acceleration exhibition, where he used video installations. It explores how the phenomenology of video intersects with current memory politics, and shows how this medium of expression can create counter-images to official historical narratives. Marlborough Gallery begins to represent their work internationally. His works, which are exhibited at the Marlborough Gallery in New York, are sculptural forms that feel like they are flowing off the canvas with their intricate and detailed line layers and color modulations. His treatment of objects such as convex mirrors and metal cages, which he combines with optical illusions, geometric abstractions and color transitions, integrates with the use of mythological elements.