Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin
Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin studied aesthetics, philosophy of art, and sociology in Ankara andParis. Part of the first generation of Turkish artists considered to be globally active andnationally influential, Alptekin was fascinated by the difference between the promise ofsomething and its banal reality. This promise could lie in the name of a cheap hotel offeringthe experience of a distant place, or in the branding of a mass-produced productunconvincingly simulating luxuriousness or exoticism. Alptekin was an artist who saw theprofound effects of global capitalism on everyday life, and who observed the circulation ofpeople and goods across different geographies, particularly in the period following thecollapse of the Soviet Union. One of Alptekin's favourite words was “important”: he had a feeling for the importance of the unimportant. He found objects for his art pieces with special liking at rummage sales. The bazaars of memorabilia and global thrown-away goods were his material stock, his cosmic marketplace for a good bargain. In the everyday ethno-kitsch hefound the longing of the exiled for a home; in the urban monuments he discovered the kitschof representation. In 2007, Alptekin represented Turkey in the 52nd Venice Biennale with his installation “Don’tComplain” and participated the exhibition “Global Cities” at Tate Modern, London. From 2000to 2004, he initiated a non-profit artists’ collective called “Sea Elephant Travel Agency”. Hecollaborated with M.D. Morris and Grup Grip-in amongst many others, and was involved innumerous collectives; LOFT meetings, the Bunker Research Group and Barn ResearchGroup, where subject, position and authorship would become irrelevant. His retrospectiveexhibition “Democratic Luxury” at M HKA in 2015, included a selection of studies, drawingsand notes of the works exhibited from the Alptekin archive, offering a closer look into thethought-process and his stream of consciousness.
