Meriç Algün »Finding the Edge«

In her second solo exhibition titled Finding the Edge at Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, Meriç Algün has made a series of new works that draws parallels between the separation of the continents and the origins of human desire. Algün’s investigation stems from the Canadian poet Anne Carson’s insightful book Eros: The Bittersweet (1983) where she speaks of love and desire as an issue of boundaries and separation. The first room of the exhibition space is occupied by a freestanding shelving structure that is cut into seven units on site. The measurements of each unit correspond proportionally to the surface area of each continent, whilst the gaps between the rows of shelves correlate to the surface area of the oceans. In their self-contained logic, the shelves hold a variety of objects ranging from plants and animal fossils, to globes, hand made books, videos and sculptures that intertwine notions of geological and human boundaries and connections.

In the second room stands a conversation chair made in cherry wood and rattan. Whilst the chair is essentially designed to allow two people to face each other, it also separates them with the woven material through which they can only partially see each other. The work not only hints at the relationship between two people but also at the relationship between fragmented parts of a whole. Algün juxtaposes the chair with a wall text that is a short passage from a novel she is currently working on. The overall exhibition brings together her interest in understanding what drives people apart and what happens in the space that lies in between.

The artist would like to thank Moa Brännström Ott, Jonas Dahlberg, Simon Goldin, David Larsson and Leonard Gustavsson Bokbinderi.

Meriç Algün was born in 1983 in Istanbul and currently lives and works in Stockholm. Algün has had significant solo exhibitions at institutions including ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus (2016), Kunstverein Freiburg; Moderna Museet, Stockholm (both 2015), MOSTYN, Llandudno (2014); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Art in General, New York (both 2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012). She participated in the 56th Venice Biennial and in the 14th Istanbul Biennial; 5th Thessaloniki Biennial, (all 2015), the 19th Sydney Biennale and the 12th Bienal de Cuenca (both 2014) and the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). Algün has participated in group shows at venues including Fondazione Prada, Athens; Istanbul Modern Museum, Istanbul (both 2017), Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus; Serpentine Sackler Gallery (both 2016) Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2014); Kunstverein Hannover; Marabouparken, Stockholm; MoCA, Detroit and MAK, Vienna (all 2013), as well as at CCA Wattis, San Francisco and Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (both 2012). Algün’s artwork, A Work of Fiction (Manuscript), was published Art Review (Vol 66, No 6).