What would you expect me to produce as an artist if I had been born at Hjørring hospital on the 12th of March 1976? Maybe I was...

IF I WERE YOU
By Adnan Yildiz

Instead of producing an art piece, Christian decided to invite me – or let’s say – to exhibit a text by me, and charmingly as he always is, asked me to write one. I suggested him to show this text under a new name: “Adnan Yildiz as Christian Hillesø,” instead of letting him leave the stage to me…

What he is doing is not only a challenging artistic practise, but also a very decisive curatorial discourse; and he also likes to play with it within a cultural context sensitive critical framework. He is exhibiting me or himself as me in his home town. He is not inviting a French or a Japanese guy. He invites me – from Istanbul. Maybe because I am from Turkey, maybe not! But then we also have to ask these questions to you or even better, you should ask? What do you think about Turkey? What do you know about Turkey? What is a typical Turk? What is his/her construction/image in your head? And in such a context, in an exhibition of a young Danish artists, what is he/she doing here? How do you position him/her?

So at the end of this research, we decided to ask to you –as well as ourselves – this list of questions:

“HOW ARE WE LOOKING AT THE ART WORKS?”
“ARE WE POSITIONING THEM IN RELATION TO THE NAME/ AND ORIGIN OF THE ARTISTS OR ART WORKS THEMSELVES?”
“WHAT KIND OF WORKS DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE WHEN VISITING A SHOW IN HJØRRING?”
“WHAT WOULD I EXHIBIT IF I WERE YOU?”
“HAVE YOU SEEN DOGVILLE?”
“HAVE YOU SEEN FAHRENHEIT 451?”

The context of these questions and the need for them to be asked are much more significant today then they were 10 years ago. Maybe because of over-internationalism and the post-globalization era: Google is the new GOD. Artists are not travelling as “easy-riders”, but as a part of an obligatory process in their mid-careers. To be international! What is the level of professionalism, and when somebody becomes international? What is local / global / glocal? And what kind of survival strategies are artists developing in relation to struggles with(in) an international art market context? Is what you produce local enough to be international?…

The discussion of the role of the artist as “a universal traveller” is not new; we all know the story; the archetypes, Gulliver or Evliya Celebi . But this mobile identity of the artist who can shifts between cultures/cosmologies still seems to be an interesting starting point from where to think about what we see as being (contemporary) art. Or what is institutionalized as art today.

And maybe biennials, big curatorial shows, art fairs (that are becoming biennials already) etc. need to be culturally correct as well as they have to be ‘politically correct’, but what about us, as audience? What is this multi-cultural discourse about, or let’s be honest, do we all understand Edward Said?

And personally… if I have to choose one of them,
a) the orientalism or exocitism that still goes on from Westerners side,
and
b) the-self-orientalism that East produces on/for itself.
I would take orientalism, but not self-orientalism! which is the worst! And text generally begin with -written in italic- quototionmarks, but maybe better to put them at the end!

“nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison!”

(Gulliver's Travels / Jonathan Swift)

1 Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, is a novel by Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is widely considered Swift's magnum opus and is his most celebrated work, as well as one of the indisputable classics of English literature.
The book became tremendously popular as soon as it was published (Alexander Pope stated that "it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery"), and it is likely that it has never been out of print since then. George Orwell declared it to be among the six indispensable books in world literature. It is claimed the inspiration for Gulliver came from the sleeping giant profile of the Cavehill in Belfast.

2 Evliya Çelebi: Famous traveller, he is the first and the greatest representative of travel literature. He has visited almost all cities and towns of the Ottoman Empire and took long trips to foreign lands. His travels covered Anatolia, Rumelia, Syria, Egypt, Cerete and Hejaz, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Crimea and Caucasia. He tried to cover history, buildings, customs and traditions and the famous people in his writings. His travel journal are published in several volumes.

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2 A1 Poster-text installation, 27 January - 18 March Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum 2007. Adnan Yildiz as Christian Hillsoe.