Exhibitions Releases

Naked City Opens at Borusan Contemporary

14 September 2024 Sat

Borusan Contemporary starts the new cultural and art season with “Naked City”, an exhibition by American multidisciplinary artist Doug Aitken. Curated by Jérôme Sans, the exhibition features works produced by Aitken from 2006 to 2024. Alongside this monographic exhibition, which includes a site-specific installation commissioned by the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Necmi Sönmez has curated a selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection titled “Prélude Eternal”. Both exhibitions will be on view at Perili Köşk from September 14, 2024, to August 17, 2025.

Borusan Contemporary launches the new season with a compelling exhibition by Doug Aitken, one of the leading artists in contemporary art. Exploring concepts of individuality and freedom, pushing the boundaries of art production, and provoking viewers towards the limits of consciousness, multimedia artist Doug Aitken’s first solo exhibition in Turkey, Naked City at Borusan Contemporary, offers a glimpse into individual human history and the current human condition.

Pushing the boundaries of contemporary art's different practices and discourses since the 1990s, American multidisciplinary artist Doug Aitken explores the complexities and contradictions of modern life and hyperconnectivity, the meaning of freedom in a neoliberal globalized society, and its possible effects on individual isolation. Aitken's monographic exhibition, Naked City, presents a selection of the artist's works from 2006 to 2024. On view from September 14, 2024, to August 17, 2025, at the Perili Köşk, the exhibition is curated by artistic director Jérôme Sans, internationally recognized for his innovative and versatile approach. Bringing together Aitken's wide-ranging artistic practice with different disciplines, the exhibition invites visitors to move beyond passive observation and engage with the texture and rhythm of cities through a site-specific, immersive experience.

With a particular focus on cities, the works explore today's hyper-connected world and its paradoxical isolation. Positioned between movement and immobility, speed and slowness, connection and solitude, these works question human mobility in urban, physical, digital, and emotional environments. Focusing on loneliness and the feeling of being lost in the mass of sprawling megacities and the boundless digital ocean, the exhibition questions the direction of humanity and seeks answers to modes of existence. Doug Aitken draws attention to the challenges of navigating through rapid technological progress and shifting urban landscapes.

On September 14th, Dr. Kumru Eren, Director of Borusan Contemporary, shared her views on the exhibition, which opened its doors to visitors at Perili Köşk: “We are thrilled to present multimedia artist Doug Aitken, whose first solo exhibition in Turkey will take place at the invitation of Borusan Contemporary, with Naked City, an exhibition specially designed for Perili Köşk. Aitken carries the hope that humanity (and art), alienated from the Earth, without a homeland to return to but can still exist outside these corridors of information or a white cube—from deserts, oceans, the summit of the Alps to the Perili Köşk, rising silently with its red bricks on the shores of the Bosporus. The kinetic sculpture Ascending Staircase (2024), commissioned by the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection and referencing a modernist classic by Marcel Duchamp, one of the milestones of art history, will also be on view as part of the exhibition.”

Aitken, “I wanted to open the door and fall into this vortex”
Reflecting on his work, which focuses on contemporary life, technology, and human interconnectedness, artist Doug Aitken says: “Works in the exhibition deal with modern life in an environment that is not natural or organic in the traditional sense. A series of narratives of different characters move through space and take on various forms and incarnations. It's really about the viewer creating a dialog. The work I make proposes questions. It allows the viewer to take a step away and think about themselves, to form an idea, an echo over time, or to discuss it with a work of art” Aitken expresses that he was deeply impressed by the Perili Köşk (Haunted Mansion), which hosts the exhibition with Borusan Contemporary: “I was very intrigued by this vertical, red-brick mansion, which resembles a mysterious castle in its architecture and layout. The Bosphorus is across the street, and the bridge is to the left. You’re standing in Europe, looking at Asia. There’s this incredible sense of crossroads, a complexity of cultures overlapping, it is fascinating and unlike any other place. For this exhibition, I used the interior spaces and made them infinite. As a result, the installations are quite immersive while each is a different medium and holds different narratives. I didn’t want to walk in and see a series of well-lit pictures on a bright wall, but rather to open the door and fall into this vortex.”

Jérôme Sans, the curator of the exhibition, notes that Aitken addresses the challenges of navigating the rapid pace of contemporary life, technological advancement, and evolving urban landscapes: “In a world that is constantly accelerating, where the human condition is changing at unprecedented speed with new technology, Doug Aitken’s work is an invitation to reflect on ourselves, on what and how we are living, as well as on the changing faces of cities - those of today and of tomorrow.”

Questioning Humanity’s Direction Across Different Eras
Situated between movement and stillness, extreme speed and slowness, connection and solitude, Doug Aitken’s works question human direction in today’s urban, physical, digital, and emotional landscapes. His three-channel film installation Flags and Debris (2021) and textile work Digital Detox (2020), created during the pandemic, reflect the quarantine period that led to a global pause—a rare moment of silence and respite amid the ceaseless flow of information and people. 3 Modern Figures (Don’t Forget to Breathe) (2018), produced before the pandemic but addressing similar connectivity issues, features three glowing figures, solitary and still, clutching a space small enough to fit a cell phone. In line with its theme, the photographic series Windows (2007), installed in the passageway between two floors of the museum, focuses on the interstitial spaces of travel, depicting anonymous characters through train or airplane windows. Following Aitken’s research on mobility and non-linear narratives, sleepwalkers (2007) portrays the fragmented lives of five characters wandering New York City. Similarly, the neon work don’t think twice II (2006), consisting of two concentric, intersecting, and expanding circles, is continuously moving through a sequence.

A Never-Ending Interaction with Space and People
The artist continues to explore the concept of movement with his constantly morphing kinetic sculpture Ascending Staircase (2024). Commissioned by the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, this work is a column of intersecting, light-reflecting discs. Slowly rotating, the work challenges the tradition of static and fixed art, offering new and unexpected experiences as a means of slowing down in the midst of today's fast rhythm. The work gives the viewer the opportunity for an instant and real-time interaction.

Prélude Eternal: An Art Experience Shaped by Technology
Curated by Dr. Necmi Sönmez, the new selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Prélude Eternal, opens simultaneously with Naked City in the captivating setting of Perili Köşk. Prélude Eternal invites visitors to explore an unlimited artistic creation in a new age shaped by technology. The transformative impact of the digital age on art is on display in this exhibition. Artists develop brand new forms of expression by combining traditional artistic methods with digital tools. At every step of the exhibition, neon sculptures, video installations, manipulated photographs and conceptual works provide the viewer with the opportunity to delve deeper into different dimensions of art. The exhibition brings together works by the leading names of international contemporary art, a significant part of which will be shown for the first time, consisting of works produced with different digital techniques.

Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken is an artist who defies definitions of genre. He explores every medium, from film and installations to architectural interventions. Reimagining the nature of what a work of art can be and what an art experience can achieve, Aitken leads us into an arena where time, space, and memory are fluid concepts. His artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Vienna Secession, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Centre Georges Pompidou. He earned the International Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1999 for the installation electric earth. Aitken’s awards include the 2012 Nam June Paik Art Center Prize, the 2013 Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award: Visual Arts, the 2017 inaugural Frontier Art Prize, and the 2019 ArtCenter College of Design Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jérôme Sans
Jérôme Sans is a curator, cultural agitator, and director of the institutions, known internationally for his pioneering and transversal approach to new models of cultural institutions and exhibitions. His combined expertise in fields as diverse as design, fashion, and architecture has pushed him toward experiencing art in various contexts beyond exhibitions, such as brands and urban development. Sans’ visionary perspectives on public outdoor installations led him to organize several city-wide projects. He is the co-founder of the acclaimed Palais de Tokyo in Paris and was the Director of the ground-breaking Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing. In addition to his many publications, he was the Creative Director and Editor-in-Chief of the French cultural magazine L'Officiel Art. Since 2022, he has been the Artistic Director of LagoAlgo, located in the heart of the Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City. He initiated and curated public interventions on Place Vendôme in Paris with Alicja Kwade (2022) and Bernar Venet (2023). He has curated numerous major exhibitions around the world, including the Taipei Biennial (2000), the Lyon Biennale (2005), Erwin Wurm: One Minute Forever at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade (2022), and Noor Riyadh (2023).

Borusan Contemporary
Borusan Contemporary is a multidisciplinary contemporary art institution featuring exhibitions, events, and educational programs based on the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection. It supports new art production and art writing through commissioning. Since 2011, the institution has focused on international artists and new media art, incorporating technologies such as photography, video, sound, light, software, and data into art practice.

Exhibitions and events are held at Perili Köşk, the central office of Borusan Holding. This positioning creates a unique art center within the office environment, offering an innovative and creative model for the business world. Most of the program takes place at Perili Köşk in Istanbul, where Borusan Holding’s offices are also located, essentially creating a unique museum within an office setting. The entire building, including the gallery, office spaces, café, Artstore, and breathtaking outdoor terraces overlooking the Bosporus, is open to the public on weekends.

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Visiting Hours and Important Information:
Borusan Contemporary is open to visitors only on weekends from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Free guided tours are available at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:00 PM, and 5:00 PM, and reservations must be made via info@borusancontemporary.com 

The last entry is at 6:00 PM, and detailed information on entrance fees and visiting details can be found on Borusan Contemporary website.

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