Zilberman Gallery is pleased to announce the group show “Restless Monuments”, curated by Bettina Klein and Naz Cuguoğlu. Assembling works by Guido Casaretto, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Antonio Cosentino, 

Lara Ögel, Mykola Ridnyi, Walid Siti, Christine Würmell, “Restless Monuments” can be seen at Zilberman Gallery Istanbul’s main gallery in Mısır Apartment between March 6 – April 28, 2018.

                “Restless Monuments” is an exhibition in response to the rapid transformation of the city as a result of political ideologies. Blunt, authoritarian, decision-making processes that exclude collective input lead to the disappearance of places, objects, habitudes, and eventually to a strong feeling of loss by those who are often most directly affected by them. This exhibition explores the idea that diverse objects and situations, outside of any sanctioning by authorities or agencies of the state can, over time, begin to serve as “monuments” for individuals, small groups and communities.

                The title carries a contradiction in itself, as none of the works in the show represents a monument in the strict sense, instead they’re dealing with public sculptures and their symbolic and economic value, with objects that trigger or represent personal memories, and with monuments that could have or should be built. The term “restless” addresses here the insecurity and unsteadiness of a contemporary situation, but also the physical fragility of the objects themselves. Challenging the idea of monuments as objects that are no longer remembered or found relevant, the works in the exhibition instead suggest reconsidering them as objects providing a space for debate and encounter.

                Guido Casaretto’s work re-activates the ceiling from the artist’s grandmother’s old house in Tarlabaşı (Istanbul). Preserved alone and intact in the rundown house, Casaretto replicated the ceiling by casting the wood with its burnt cracks and textured engravings. This work brings the memory of Istanbul’s Levantines* to the gallery space, who have been living in the city since the Ottoman Empire, and have left significant marks, e.g. on its cultural life and its architecture.