AHMET ÖĞÜT

Artists Making Music, 2021
Premiering via YouTube livestream
Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at 7:30 pm EDT

youtube.com/asiasociety

Protocinema and Asia Society Museum premier artist Ahmet Öğüt’s co-commissioned essay documentary film Artists Making Music (2021), as part of the inaugural Asia Society Triennial entitled We Do Not Dream Alone. Asia Society will present this new video via YouTube livestream on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, at 7:30 pm EDT, followed by a conversation with Ahmet Öğüt and Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, Vice President for Global Artistic Programs and Director of Asia Society Museum. After the event, the video work and recording of the conversation will be posted on AsiaSociety.org/Triennial through Friday, June 18, 2021.

Artists Making Music is a journey through the recent history of music made by visual artists. It is the second in an on-going series of essay documentaries initiated by Öğüt in 2020, which shares artists making artworks in specific conditions, formats, and times. The artist’s first video in the series, Artworks Made at Home, portrayed a lineage of artists making art in domestic settings. Öğüt’s essay documentary series bring together several aspects of his practice, such as collaboration (Happy Together; Collaborators Collaborating, 2015), knowledge sharing (The Silent University, 2021-ongoing), and inspiring others to take action in their own ways (Bakunin's Barricade, 2015-20).

Artists Making Music explores the long love story between the visual arts and music. In addition to a new original soundtrack by Sub-Botnick (Ahmet Öğüt & Maru Mushtrieva), the work features sequences from music videos made by international artists over the past forty-five years, the earliest from the collaboration between Art and Language and The Red Krayola in 1976. Other artists featured include Kim Gordon, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Nastio Mosquito, Alexandra Pirici, Pippilotti Rist, Raed Yassin, Laibach, Rodney Graham, Isabel Lewis, Cevdet Erek, Mariechen Danz, Hassan Khan, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Nathaniel Mellors, along with writer Dan Fox and curator Sohrab Mohebbi. 

The inaugural edition of the Asia Society Triennial takes inspiration from a line in Yoko Ono’s 1964 publication, Grapefruit—“A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality.”  The title of the Triennial, We Do Not Dream Alone, suggests the healing potential of art to unite and empower. Öğüt’s Artist Making Music expands cross-cultural conversation with a close look at ‘‘context switching between art and music [1],’’ which generates energy in both fields by opening up new levels of perception. Öğüts new work is about cross-disciplinary practices and the significance of learning from each other, beyond our own established terrain.

[1]  Jörg Heiser, Double Lives in Art and Pop Music. Sternberg Press, 2019. 

Ahmet Öğüt (b. 1981 Silvan, Diyarbakır) lives and works in Amsterdam and Istanbul. Recent solo exhibitions were presented at Kunstverein Dresden, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Chisenhale Gallery, and Van Abbemuseum. Group exhibitions include: In the Presence of Absence, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2020); Zero Gravity at Nam SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art (2019); Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale (2018); the British Art Show 8 (2015-17); the 13th Biennale de Lyon (2015); Performa 13, the Fifth Biennial of Visual Art Performance, New York (2013); the 7th Liverpool Biennial (2012); the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011); SALT, Istanbul (2011), the New Museum Triennial, New York (2009); and the 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2008). Öğüt has been a guest mentor, guest professor, advisor and research teacher at: The Universität der Künste Berlin; Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht; Sandberg Institute Amsterdam; Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki; TransArts - Transdisziplinäre Kunst, Institut für Bildende und Mediale Kunst Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien; and DAI (Dutch Art Institute). He co-represented Turkey at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009).

The Asia Society Triennial is the first initiative of its kind in the United States, focusing on contemporary art from and about Asia. This inaugural edition of the Triennial, titled We Do Not Dream Alone, is composed of a multi-venue exhibition, interdisciplinary panels, forums, and performances. The Triennial reflects the diversity of contemporary art from Asia and the diaspora and celebrates the rich tapestry of Asian cultures that comprise a significant, yet historically underserved, demographic within New York City. The Asia Society Triennial is on view from October 27, 2020 to June 27, 2021. Find out more at AsiaSociety.org/Triennial.

Protocinema is a cross-cultural, mission-driven art organization, commissioning and presenting site-aware art in Istanbul, New York, and elsewhere. We produce context-specific projects of the highest artistic quality that are accessible to everyone. Protocinema evokes empathy towards an understanding of difference, across regions through exhibitions, educational public programming, and mentorship. Founded by Mari Spirito in 2011, Protocinema is a registered 501(c)3, free of 'brick and mortar', sites vary to respond both to global concerns and changing conditions on the ground. protocinema.org

Press and more information: Alper Turan, alper@protocinema.org, +49 17670518587, +90 5068706808, Mari Spirito, mari@protocinema.org +19176607332

Protocinema is supported by FfAI - The Foundation for Arts Initiatives; The Cowles Charitable Trust, New Jersey; 601 Artspace, New York.