Sümer Sayın – Deal-breaker

25 November – 30 December 2017

In a world where knowledge and perception are trying to be controlled systematically, the border between reality and illusion blurs. In order to perceive beyond previously defined conventions, we create our own methods. Thus ‘play’ becomes the means of perception. As every game has its rules, illusion also exists with its own rules. In her exhibition “Deal-breaker”, Sümer Sayın suggests ironic solutions, which intervene in “the game’s” rules, and expands its boundaries.

The artist, who works with multiple media and materials, usually transfers spatial and temporal elements into new contexts, using reflections, fragmentations, repetitions and loops. She is inspired by systems and tools that define our surroundings, and everyday objects that we interact on a regular basis. By re-organizing the elements of these objects, she explores the boundaries of perception and intends to make poetic meanings and free associations visible.

In this exhibition, Sayın shows a new body of work, primarily in the medium of sculpture and installation. By re-organizing objects that refer to the idea of “exit”, and by intervening the integral elements of closed systems, she re-sets the rules of “the game within the game”.
Objects that are designed to solve personal issues, impossible forms that invite the audience to a physical experience, and a setting that explores the border between reality and illusion… The works that are completed with the participation of the viewer are inviting visitors to re-discover their sense of direction, to extend mental boundaries, and to re-define the rules of physical borders.

Production support:

SAHA – Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey

Sümer Sayın lives and works in Berlin. She completed her Bachelor’s program in Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department, and attained a masters degree from Oslo Art Academy. She works with various media and techniques, including sculpture, installation, drawing and photography. She had solo exhibitions at Dresden Ex14 Contemporary Art Space in 2017, Sabrina Amrani Gallery Madrid in 2013, and Art ON Istanbul in 2012. In 2015, she participated in the exhibition “Rendez-Vous”, as a part of the Lyon Biennial, and in Sinopale in 2012. She participated in group shows in venues and art spaces such as Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Gaia Gallery, Dzialdov Berlin, 42 Maslak Art!Space, O’Art, Versus Art Project, Mixer, Kuad Gallery. In her works, Sayın explores the borders of perception and reflects social and humane issues with a poetic and miminalistic language, to be re-questioned.