Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU), Faculty of Fine Arts (GSF), Graphic Design Department Res. See. Zeynep Abacı was interviewed by Yıldız Technical University Art Management Department undergraduate student Ece Çakır.
“WHAT YOU WANT TO EXPRESS, THE FORM ALSO SUPPORTS IT”
EÇ-My guest today is Zeynep Abacı, an academician artist. First of all, thank you for accepting my interview offer.
ZA-I thank you.
EÇ-2013, you took a professional step in your art life by graduating from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department in 2013. Before that, what was your first trigger, your first inspiration, that pushed you to engage in art?
ZA- First of all, Mimar Sinan was my dream university and I graduated from my school in 2009 with honors in 2013. In a classical way, I can say that I have been drawing and painting since I started holding a pencil. I used to cartoonize my friends in elementary school. I have always had an interest in art, although it is difficult to define a specific driving force. Before I started primary school, my mother taught me to read and write using a method she developed herself. For example, he compared the letter A to a tent, the letter E to a comb, and the letter H to a ladder. I think this is an element that improves my visual world.
After your EC-Graduation, I see that you continue your master's and proficiency in arts education at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. How did you decide to pursue academic studies in the field of art?
ZA-I am a very curious person who loves to read and learn. I also love the idea of being a student. I am hungry for experience and knowledge, so I chose the path of academia. I also love to teach. In this sense, academics is something that feeds my motivation to learn and teach.
There are many opinions that criticize the relationship between EÇ- Art and academia. I see that you have been continuing your studies at Okan University and Gelişim University as an academician since 2016. As an academic artist, how would you evaluate the relationship between art and academy?
I studied at ZA-Mimar Sinan in a traditional and relatively strict discipline. But we were also trying to raise our own voices. We were doing experimental work using different materials. Our teachers supported us in this matter, of course, without exceeding the limits they had drawn. We were also in a period that tried to exist by going back and forth between those borders and infinities. Namely, I would like to touch on a different point beyond thinking critically about this relationship between art and academia. If the person is both an artist and an academic, the job becomes even more difficult. On the one hand, he needs to close his workshop and produce works, on the other hand, he needs to focus on his academic readings and articles. On the other hand, he has responsibilities at the university, he has students. He has to divide himself physically and mentally too much. This sometimes leads to a dead end. For example, I have an unfinished painting in the workshop right now, my body is here at school, but my mind is in that painting. At this point, I would like to draw attention to this difficult process in the relationship between art and academia.
EÇ-Does this situation affect you in terms of quality while producing your works of art?
ZA-Actually, this situation triggers my desire to produce. But at the same time, I have to suppress myself, to restrain myself. Being aware that I cannot go to my workshop all of a sudden, I find myself in a situation of compulsory waiting and a mental journey. However, when I find the opportunity and return to my workshop, I can consider this as a moment of reunion, and in this sense, beautiful works can emerge.
EC-I see that you use various tools in your works; What is your reason for applying to this diversity, such as cinematic tools, graphic arts tools? What is the contribution of the materials you use in such a wide range to your language of expression?
ZA-Art is a form of expression. This format does not have a single method. If there was only one form of expression, there would be no branches of art anyway. Even if the problem you will tell in painting, sculpture and music is the same, you can tell it in different ways. Sometimes I can explain what I want to share with the audience with a video art, sometimes I can convey it with a digital drawing or stop motion animations. There are a thousand and one ways of expression. Whatever you want to express, the format also supports it.
EÇ-A little I would like to talk about your latest exhibition, “False Memory”, which was exhibited at Galeri Kambur. I did not have the opportunity to visit your exhibition, but when I read your exhibition manifesto, I can say that it impressed me a lot. Because I am a person who can achieve integrity by establishing relationships with places in my social life. Can you tell us a little about “False Memory”, its journey of emergence?
ZA- False Memory is my first solo exhibition and my PhD thesis. I examine this concept in the context of the relationship between space and memory. In fact, I can say that it developed organically. I have been reading about this field for three or four years. I set out from the places I saw in my dreams. in my dreams
There is a colorful phenomenon of space and place. Most of my dreams take place in places I have never experienced before. When I wake up in the morning, I can remember every detail of the place in a way that I can delicately draw. In this context, based on my readings, a question mark arose: “Can these unexperienced places I see in my dreams be a corrupt copy of my stage memories?” Because space cannot be considered separately from memory, the two move forward together. We can't remember anything that we haven't put in the space. Therefore, when we transform our memories, we transform the space in the concept we call false memory. This exhibition is based on my readings about False Memory.
EC-What are your thoughts on working with a curator?
ZA- My last exhibition was opened at Ovooart Gallery in Nişantaşı. It ended on the 16th of March. It was a three-person and curatorial exhibition. Our curator was dear Ceren Atasoy. The exhibition named “Inside, Outside and Our Dream” consisted of three parts-stages. Nihal Martlı represented the inside part, the academic painter Seydi Murat Koç the outside part, and I represented the dream part. Although the works of all of us seem to be independent of each other and touch on a different issue, when we came together in the exhibition, the works were as if they were made by a single person. There was an incredible harmony between the paintings. Because our curator Ceren Atasoy brought the right people together with the right concept and manifesto. I can say that he wrote a story himself for the pictures that have a story. As a result, a very sincere and harmonious exhibition emerged. That's why I welcome the idea of taking part in curatorial works.
INTERVIEW: ECE CAKIR
