MASİST GÜL … Perhaps the World’s most long-lasting fireworks show…*

MASİST GÜL
8.09.2011 – 8.11.2011
From Tuesday to Saturday 12pm – 6pm
Thursday 8.09.2011 12pm – 9pm
BAS
Necati Bey Caddesi no 32/2 Karaköy Istanbul

“To make a body of work posthumously visible is a delicate and hazardous task, especially if the artist was not recognized in the context of official art history during their lifetime. There is always a risk that the artist, the work, or both are instrumentalized or exoticized in the process. In this case the artist in question is Masist Gül, whose work and persona are of such a specific nature that presenting him in the local or the international art world is tricky.

Therefore, on the eighthyear anniversary of our “rencontre,” we are both very pleased and somewhat hesitant to show Masist Gül’s work once more at BAS.” 

Masist Gül (1947-2003) with his strong physique was an actor who played obscure roles in more than 300 movies. In his private life, unknown to the outside world, he was an extraordinary artist. He produced a large amount of collages, drawings and poetry. During the ’80s he conceived and made by hand, using a periodical comic book format, a series of six books with the title Kaldırım Destanı–Kaldırımlar Kurdunun Hayatı (Pavement Myth–The Life of the Pavement Wolf). Bent 001, published in 2006, consists of the first existing reproductions of these originals.

Masist Gül’s archive, containing the originals of Kaldırım Destanı–Kaldırımlar Kurdunun Hayatı and various drawings, writings, photographs, and books by the artist, was exhibited for the first time at BAS in 2006. Later on in 2007, the archive was shown at Etablissement d’en Face in Brussels and in 2008 at Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin during the 5th Berlin Biennale.

Bent 001, as the facsimiles of Kaldırım Destanı–Kaldırımlar Kurdunun Hayat,ı are in several private and institutional libraries and collections such as MACBA, Consorci del Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Bibliotheque Kandinsky Centre Pompidou, and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

* Hakan Günday, Dünyanın en kuvvetli doğuştan şairi, Vatan Kitap, 26.11.2010 

Pavement Myth–The Life of the Pavement Wolf is part of the Bent series. To learn more about Bent books click here.