Ahmet Öğüt – Things we count

22 February – 26 April 2009
Opening: Saturday, 21 February 2009, 7 p.m.

Welcoming speech: Waltraut Steimke, executive director
Introduction: Stefanie Böttcher, artistic director

Ahmet Öğüt's performances, films, photographs and drawings are nimble in spirit. His works mix the private and the public and only unfurl their critical potential on closer viewing. Behind the apparent equanimity is an altogether serious analytical view of his own political, social and cultural environment. Although its deficiencies are exposed, at the same time they give rise to new kinds of perspectives and behaviour patterns. Öğüt's works often have an inherent spark of humour, a positive resilience towards a reality that can be variously shaped. Ahmet Öğüt (*1981, Diyarbakir) studied art at the Hacettepe University Ankara and the Yildiz Teknik University Istanbul. From 2007-08 he was a scholarship-holder at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, where he lives today. Solo and group exhibitions have taken him to, among others, Basel, Stockholm and Seoul. At this year's 53rd Venice Biennale, Ahmet Öğüt will represent Turkey in the Turkish pavillion.

PROGRAM

26 March 2009, 7 p.m. Hausbesuch #9 Guided tour through the exhibition and the studios of Annette Meyer und Thomas Behling
16 April 2009, 7 p.m. Protagonisten, Akteure, Vermittler und Doppelbödigkeit - Über die türkische Gegenwartskunst Lecture by Dr. Necmi Sönmez, freelance curator

Guided tours: 11.03.2009 & 01.04.2009, 7 p.m.