Mustafa Boğa is at Gülden Bostancı Gallery with the exhibition “Displaced Memories” between 13.09 – 19.10.2024.
Everyday materials have been recognized for their archival significance in historiography since the mid-twentieth century. Alongside official archives, sources continue to diversify, notably through oral history projects and visual records. Documents pertaining not exclusively to the privileged but also to the lives of ordinary people allow us to witness a variety of existences. This paradigm shift in historiography is echoed in contemporary art. As quotidian life becomes archival material, atypical scenes often reveal the presence of marginalized subjects. Images fluctuating between the objective and subjective, reality and fiction, and the original and artificial continue to inspire contemporary art. Dichotomous approaches are dissolving; archives that aggregate everyday imagery are democratizing artistic practices
Walter Benjamin argues that photography and cinema not only reflect the interests of the ruling class but also have the potential to depict ordinary people as historical subjects. Perhaps, as Hal Foster suggests, we are faced with an “archival impulse” in contemporary art. Foster emphasizes that archival art is as much preproduction as it is postproduction, and mentions that artists are interested in obscure traces rather than absolute roots, and graviate towards unfinished beginnings and projects. These tendencies within contemporary art increase the interest in archives, unearthing lost facets of history.
Mustafa Boğa integrates his family history and the cultural structures of his native land, highlighting the imprints of its conflicting elements on his identity. He effectively translates these archives into forms of expression within contemporary art, working across various mediums such as video, performance, photography, installation, and embroidery. As seen in the works featured in the exhibition, the materials and themes enable an uninhibited dialogue between the viewer and the artist. Who owns these photographs? Who are the subjects in the photographs? In which geography and time do they belong? These questions arouse the viewer’s curiosity while the images harmonize seamlessly with the imprints in our memory. As exemplified by the orange, images that appear highly personal on one hand become anonymized yet resonate deeply with the viewer, engaging their attention. Thus, the stories unfold, proliferate, and ultimately resonate with our own stories. The echoes of forms reverberate in our minds; we perceive their flavors: the sound of water boiling in the teapot, the laughter rising from a joyful birthday gathering, the warmth left by a kiss…
Which story? Whose story?
Archiving is directly linked to practices of power. As a result, the central problematics of critical archival studies and counter-archiving practices include determining which events are deemed worthy of recording, the perspective from which records are inventoried, and methods of distribution and transparency. Mustafa Boğa explores the traces of evolving societal and visual cultures through an ethnographic narrative that challenges the power-centric approach of traditional historical writing. The exhibition raises questions about the archive’s role as a coherent representation. The images, which take viewers on a historical journey spanning about 70 years, prefer nuanced positions where public and private spheres intertwine. By concretizing personal moments, the artist personalizes time.
The moments before and after the act of photographing, as well as the elements outside the frame, combined with the effects of the thread’s volume, color, and tone on the images—essentially the aesthetics of embroidery—are presented as a method that invites the viewer to engage in a double bracketing of concepts such as truth, experience, and fiction. The artist, an embroiderer of the archive, creates a new kind of archival practice. Instead of focusing on the origin of the material, Boğa emphasizes the ambiguous and fragmented nature of the conveyed content. The work features landscapes from diverse geographies and cultures, as well as snapshots of everyday life, which are susceptible to being lost in the anonymity of the mundane.
The diversity of themes offers viewers clues in weaving together the whole, while recurrent motifs reinforce the contradictory historical continuity. The artist frequently employs motifs such as quilts and images of oranges, alongside militaristic visuals that exalt masculinity, conveying traces of Boğa’s personal history and the cultural fabric of his native geography into the present day. Symbols and rituals become evocative key images used by the artist not to indulge in nostalgia for the past, but rather to understand cultural and societal transformations. Images evoking the aftermath of war or another catastrophe, perhaps still resonating as if ongoing, stand juxtaposed with practices of everyday life such as celebrations, hosting guests, sports, and rural activities. This contrast is further underscored through narratives found in pastoral landscapes, still lifes, and portraits. We witness a vivacious (queer) desire clinging to life, alongside the unsettling presence of abandoned, decaying objects and landscapes. Boğa’s interest in the archive materializes in micro-narratives; the artist shifts the focus of traditional historiography, which centers on politics, towards society. Scaling down the subjects to everyday practices and ordinary people, the artist reinterprets the archive with a deepened perspective. The artist gravitates towards archival practices, as suggested by Foster, as a means of making “historical information, often lost or displaced, physically present,” and carries the past beyond the present.
The exhibition’s focus on subjects also brings the concept of privilege to the forefront. It problematizes the relationship between archives and privilege through images like a dog comfortably settled at home, embodying a sense of security, contrasted with another dog photographed on the street (presumably) by a stranger, displaying a vigilant posture and wary gaze. This juxtaposition critically examines the archive’s connection to privilege while highlighting those who are marginalized. In a similar fashion, masculinity is examined within the context of social power dynamics. Military imagery, which glorifies masculinity, is contrasted with queer bodies marginalized in historical records; normative body constructs are dismantled by queer imagery. . As Benjamin refers to Eugène Atget, scenes that “suck the aura out of reality” disrupt the linear narrative of history. The historically idealized form of the human body is now claimed by real and ordinary bodies. One body lies peacefully curled in its own realm, while another embodies moments of playful banter, greetings, and safe physical contact before or after sports. A third body climbs barefoot into a tree, merging with its natural surroundings. This section of the exhibition focuses on particularities of certain bodies. Narratives left outside the frame linger mysteriously unfinished, yet they are portrayed on the periphery of the bodily sphere, inviting viewers to engage in their resolution. Drawing from the artist’s discourse, spectators weave their own narratives, facilitating an imaginative connection with uncharted territories they have yet to explore physically.
The black-white embroidery of artworks transcends mere nostalgia, facilitating a transition between moments of grief amid destruction and the enduring moments of joy and desire within life; thus, it evens out emotional landscapes. This deliberate choice of colors in “Displaced Memories” subtly lays the groundwork for the monumentalization of unseen memories and fleeting moments. With the piece “Mirror Selfie,” the artist invites viewers to confront their memories in the looking-glass, encouraging them to bear witness to their personal narratives.
Yıldız Öztürk
(translator: Ezgi Ceren Kayırcı)
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