MERVE YEDEKCI Curated by Julia Kaganskiy, UVA: The Threshold of Chaos invites art lovers to reflect on the universality and subjectivity of experience. This exhibition, which stirs the senses of the audience in ways that arouse curiosity or surprise with sculpture, performance and site-specific installations where light, form and movement are intertwined, will take visitors on a journey from the cosmic to the worldly. Curated by Necmi Sönmez, ‘Hybrid Spaces’, which presents extraordinary visual experiences to the audience in Perili Köşk, will reveal the convergence between contemporary art and architecture. Borusan Contemporary Director Dr. We met with Kumru Eren and curator Necmi Sönmez. What awaits us this season? KUMRU EREN: Actors who remained silent during and after the pandemic; I interpreted the meeting of artists, galleries and institutions with art lovers through exciting programs, the art scene gaining new local and foreign actors, and the return of the Istanbul scene, which aroused interest all over the world at that time, to its glorious 90s. As a matter of fact, you could say it was a wish. In line with our annual program, our temporary exhibition, consisting of both a new selection from our collection and works produced mostly by Borusan Contemporary’s order, meets the audience. The relationship between the two exhibitions in terms of their context makes our annual program themes stronger. It deals with both ontological and practical ideas of space and space, which have been discussed from the ancient Greeks to the present. Through UVA’s work, art lovers will witness how new media functions as an interface between the positive sciences and the social sciences. I think that they will catch the inspiration of new narratives shaped by the combination of engineering and human sciences. Our viewers will experience a more holistic and inclusive experience than ever before. In this combination, the works specially produced for Perili Köşk are mentioned… KE: The installation titled ‘Phases’ within the scope of the UVA: The Threshold of Chaos exhibition was produced completely specific to the new space. Likewise, the installation titled ‘Vanishing Point 3:1 #3’ meets our audience with a new version. Two new striking murals, ‘Etymologies’ and ‘The Shock of Present Time’, were produced as site-specific from the exhibition. These works can be viewed until 27 August 2023, the end of our temporary exhibition. As part of the ‘Hybrid Spaces’ exhibition, a selection from the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, 55 works from our collection, some of which are on display for the first time, meet with art lovers. These include Keith Sonnier’s Ballroom Chandelier Installation; Jamie Salmon’s hyperrealist sculpture named Asım Kocabıyık; Istanbul Wall Painting by Jerry Zeniuk; Feel at Ekrem Yalçındağ’s House II; Andrew Rogers’ works titled Solved will be permanently available at the Haunted Mansion. How do you evaluate the role of art in Turkey’s social and economic change? KE: The best evaluation was made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk before: “If a nation is deprived of art and artists, it cannot have a full life.” The completion of economic and social change is only possible with art; an immature society in this field lacks human values and virtues; will be doomed to be deprived of refinements in social and individual life. 
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