Hüseyin Bahri AlptekinActor from M HKA Ensembles

Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin

©photo: Dragos Alexandrescu - Patricia Rodas

1957 - 2007

Born in Izmir (TR), died in Istanbul (TR).

The Turkish artist Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin (1957-2007) studied aesthetics, sociology, and art history at the universities of Ankara and Paris. In the beginning, the young academic takes a philosophical professional approach as a critic, photographer and author, but from the nineties onwards he becomes more and more active in the visual arts, with a strong thematic interest for globalisation, migration and cultural interaction.

Inspired by major geopolitical changes taking place in society – to be specific, the unstoppable force of capitalism, which takes place in all layers of society and almost everywhere in the world – he concentrates on his artistic research, on the quality, the objective truth and morality of the overriding consumption rationale. Concretely, he starts to show the dreams and illusions, which are presented to the population of the world as real, by including them in his metaphoric installations, slogan-like neon signs and confrontational photographic series.

Alptekin belongs to the first generation of Turkish artists, who were active and influential throughout the world. As the protagonist of the of the modern Turkish art scene, he is invited to represent his country at the Venice Biennale of 2007, with the installation Don’t Complain. He exhibited previously at the Biennale of São Paulo (1998), Manifesta 5 (2004), and was granted the UNESCO prize for the entirety of his oeuvre, which can be seen as the aesthetic conclusion of sociological research and political statement.

Alptekin strives for a radical ethnical positioning in his art, without raising the slightest suggestion of moral superiority. Nostalgia and melancholy are softly interwoven with transience and leniency. With that, Alptekin has always remained true to his academic origins: He is an aesthete and a moral philosopher camouflaged as an artist, and vice versa.

Media

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin

>Artist Statement by Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin

>Artist Statement II by Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin

Worksfilter for M HKA works

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Global Digestion , 1980-2007.Print, digital prints mounted on forex, 145 x 935 cm (installation sizes), 9,5 x 15 cm (each).

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Su flux us, 1986.Mixed Media.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Berlin, 1986.Mixed Media.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, J&B, 1986.Mixed Media, mixed media on paper .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Michael Morris , Heterotopia , 1992-2011.Mixed Media, mixed media .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Michael Morris , Ah Odessa , 1993-2011.Print, print on dilbon , 150 x 225 cm, 150 x 45 cm.

>Michael Morris , Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Turk Truck , 1995.Installation, turkish licensed red russian made truck, counterfeit soccer balls.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Michael Morris , Kara-Kum, 1995.Print, plastic bag with digital print , 230 x 148 x 57 cm .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Artist in depression , 1996.Installation, room installation; divan, boxing gloves, clothing paravane, stool, counterfeit soccer ball, coat hanger, coat, wooden massage ball.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Capacity/Capacities , 1998.Photography, panel wit led writing mounted on 36 photographs, 158,5 x 354 cm x 7 cm, 62,4 x 139,37 x 2,76 inches (all), 39 x 39 cm, 15.35 x 15.35 inches (each photograph).

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Winter Depression , 1998-2011.Installation, diagnosis divan, neon, dry fish, wallpaper, 48 x 90 (neon), 73 x 180 x 62 cm (diagnosis divan), dimensions varible (wallpaper) .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Cidade , 1999.Installation, neon, 7.3 x 888.9 x 5.1 cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Kéraban-Le-Têtu, 1999.Print, print on paper , 124 x 115 cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Black Sea Map , 1999.Print, print on paper , 126 x 154.4cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Tremor, Rumour, Hoover , 2001.Installation, sequins mounted on plastic plates , 270 x 445 cm .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Guardians of the Treshold , 2001.Print, print on dilbond, 113.7 x 195.5 cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Bina , 2002.Photography.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Refinery , 2002.Print, print on dilbond, 50 x 116 cm .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Duress de Melancholie , 2002.Print, print on dilbond, 90.5 x 112.5 cm .

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Road to Tirana, 2003.Video.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Capacity , 2003.Print, digital prints mounted on forex, 139 x 847 cm (installation sizes).

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, H-Facts: Hospitality/hostility , 2003-2007.Object, hotel sign, 79 x 106 x 19cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Incident - S Ipanema , 2004.Video, video, sound, 00:08:20.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, H-Facts: Horses and Heroes , 2005.Mixed Media, mixed media, polyurethane copies of quadriga, 28 i̇znik tiles, 3 videos, sound, 23.5 x 23.5 cm (each of İznik tiles),00:19:51 (H-Fact: History: Horses & Heroes),00:07:16 (Potemkin Staircases),00:03:55 (Cupolas Istanbul).

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Stranger in Paradise , 2006.Print, digital prints mounted on forex, 96 x 696 cm.

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, I'm Dreaming About Bombay, 2006.Article, jackets and found images, 157 x 279 cm (installation sizes).

>Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Incident - S, Fact - S, Circumstance - S, Accident - S, Situation - S , 2007.Object, embroidered and used hotel sheets, 80 x 55 x 4 cm (all) 14 x 55 x 4 cm (each).