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Merve Kiliçer

Spoken word, printen (2D), performance, installatie, Geschiedenis, Geluid, Experimenteel, Etsen, Artistiek onderzoek

I am a Rotterdam-based female artist born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. My practice combines artist books and images created with traditional printmaking techniques with spatial installations and performances videos, objects, and sound. Throughout the working process, I try to embrace elements of surprise and curiosity by using different production methods; thus creating a ground for constant learning and growing. To comprehend current landscapes of identities, ideologies, and belief systems, I refer to alternative narratives of history. I draw inspiration from historical modes of culture-art production and try to translate them into contemporary experiences. My practice urges from personal experiences and try to find a non-didactic yet politically engaged position in relation to my background and history. I often work in collaboration with other artists and form a collective artistic language. I believe in the power of collectivity and reflect this idea to my daily life by living and working as part of an artist community in Rotterdam.

When The Gods Have Been Done (ongoing)
When The Gods Have Been Done (ongoing) - The work titled 'When The Gods Have Been Done' looks at the climate crisis through the historical and anthropological evolution of human’s relationship with nature. The field research of the project was carried out in West Phrygia (Western Central Anatolia) and the Aegean region of Türkiye. The route followed currently active mining sites for coal, gold and granite as well as the remains of shrines built for Cybele, the archaic goddess of Anatolia. Cybele was believed to maintain the balance between wildlife and human settlements. Her shrines were positioned at the peaks and slopes of mountains to express the unreachable power of the divine. By comparing the historical and contemporary landscape, the work examines the shift from worshipping the land to its commodification. Following this view on technological developments, the visual content for the project was created with analogue mediums 16mm film and 35mm photography. During the installation at Saha Open Studio presentation, a six minute long analogue film was projected on a custom made porcelain screen with a 16mm projector with looper. The screen was created with custom made porcelain tiles which were tied to each other in a grid form hanging in the middle of the space. The tiles were produced using dried luffa plants which is a technique often used in Kılıçer’s practice. By overlaying the porcelain soil from Western Anatolia with the landscape footage captured in the same region, the work gets materially layered with meaning. The repetitive and mechanic sound of the analogue projector fills up the space and captures the focus of the viewer in a different way when compared to digital imagery.
When The Gods Have Been Done (ongoing)
When The Gods Have Been Done (ongoing) - The analogue photographs taken during the field trip comes together in an old album with two interviews; a volunteer from Muçep (Muğla Environment Platform) and with one of the leading figures of the Akbelen resistance. The photographs include views from archeological sites of Phyrigian Valley, Pergamon, an antique granite mine in Dardanelles as well as coal mining site in Akbelen, Milas and gold mining site in Lapseki in Çanakkale. The viewer is invited to sit with the album, flipping through the photographs and to read about the struggles that the local communities have been facing with. The two images that the viewer faces at first glance are a Cybele shrine in Phrygian valley and a granite mining site next to a concrete factory in the Dardanelles. Album brings together the stair structured shrine image with a view from mining site and invited the reader to read about the struggles beyond these landscapes.
Fresh Myths Different Times – 2023 edition - This performance piece, in collaboration with Ulufer Çelik, is an ongoing and ever-changing research that allows the artist duo to comprehend and reflect on the past and present events of their homeland by creating a moment for dialogue between generations. Oral histories of myths, stories, poems and songs inform their common heritage and they activate this knowledge with the tools of translation and sound. The title ‘Fresh myths Different times’ refers to a way of myth making and knowledge sharing while facing pain, traumas and bodily memories. The creation process for the Berlin edition of the performance was influenced by the recent earthquake that took place in Turkey and Syria in February 2023. The fresh myth that is created by the duo’s performance becomes the space for this experience to be transferred, remembered and processed in different times. The performance will consists of poetry reading with live, sampled sounds, accompanied by improvised Illustrations by Carmen Jose projected to the space. The performance night and the development of this edition was supported by CBK Rotterdam.
Balanced we were / Never to be (2022) - Balanced we were / Never to be is the first solo show of Merve Kiliçer realized between 5 March — 10 April 2022 at artist run space Available&The Rat in Rotterdam, Charlois. The exhibition came together as an installation of new sculptural works, poetry, etchings, wood carvings, and watercolour drawings. The production of the new works was funded by Mondriaan Fonds and the exhibition space was supported by Stichting Droom en Daad. Artist and the founder of the project space Lili Huston-Herterich wrote an exhibition essay which can be reached on the web page of Available& The Rat along with some exhibition photos: https://www.availableandtherat.com/2022-mervekilicer.php
Luffa (2022)
Luffa (2022) - Luffa plant has been part of the artist's practice since 2013 through various mediums such as printmaking, installation and recently with b&w analogue film. The making of this porcelain luffa sculpture is directly connected with the artist film 'Nest Egg' (2021). In the film, the luffa is at focus as the representation of artist's practice and we watch the dried luffa plant being dipped inside liquid porcelain. Following up on this process, the luffa was dried in this specific shape that resembles the clitoris and fired to become a fragile porcelain sculpture.
Bukağı
Bukağı (2022) - The work titled ‘Bukağı’ was produced as part of the solo exhibition ‘Balanced we were / Never to be’ to represent the family bonds and expectations that can often become hard to escape. This installation consists of a ready found woven band that gets spread in the space with support of nails that hold and guide it into a pattern form. The pattern is taken from traditional Anatolian tapestry and it symbolizes family unity. The title ‘Bukağı’ is the name of this pattern and ironically it translates as ‘shackles’. The installation has the capacity to adapt into different exhibition spaces and situations depending on the spacial conditions. It has also been exhibited as a wall piece in Istanbul as part of a group show.
Nest Egg (2021) - 'Nest Egg' is a short artist's film that documents the artist as she goes through the procedure of human oocyte cryopreservation (egg freezing). The procedure is held in the Netherlands rather than her home country, Turkey, because of the maritime law restrictions on the later usage of the frozen oocytes. With a drive to approach this control mechanism over her body and reproductive rights, the story shares the effects of this process from medical and emotional aspects while discussing the position of the artist in the society in relation to traditional family structures. Borrowing from the staging of the Hidden Mother Photography of the Victorian era, the artist invites the viewer to think about holding the possibility of a child 'stable' while fulfilling the expectations of the society and establishing a professional career in the current precarious conditions of the world. The combination of 16 mm black&white film and the smart phone camera footage emphasizes the dilemma of this new technological procedure which deals with the natural cycle of life.
Sketch For Summer (2020) - Still from the 16mm black&white film (9min.) produced in collaboration with Rotterdam based artist Jake Caleb.
Fresh Myths Different Times (2020) - Performance & Sound installation  An ongoing project in collaboration with Rotterdam based artist Ulufer Çelik.
Volitional Volutions of the Volatile Waters (2019) - This project comes together as a result of a research focusing on cultural heritage and transfer of knowledge through artistic production. The install consists of plexiglass plates with hand and machine etched images and texts. Same plates are also used to install a sound piece that plays through out the exhibition from three different sources spread in the space. Whole install creates a memory space which also functions as a stage for live public moments occurring during the exhibition.

Wells of Knowledge

Locatie: Online

'Hybrid Publication' commissioned by Willem De Kooning Academy consists of a poster-zine and an online platform. It focuses on the transfer of knowledge through cultural production in the oral folkloric traditions of Anatolia. The online platform acts as an active archival space that gives the possibility to revisit the elements in a non-linear historical approach focusing on the transference of oral knowledge through musical and poetic practices of story telling.

https://wellsofknowledge.wdka.nl/
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