HALE TENGER

Opening: Thursday, May 14, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Exhibition walk through with Hale Tenger at 5:00 pm

Exhibition runs: May 14 – June 13, 2015
Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00 pm
Westbeth Building, Basement
55 Bethune St. at Washington St.
2 blocks south of Jane Hotel, 4 blocks south of new Whitney Museum

Protocinema presents Hale Tenger’s installation We didn't go outside; we were always on the outside/ We didn't go inside; we were always on the inside, 1995, consisting of an old wooden guard-house surrounded by a barbed wire fence. The work, created on the occasion of the 4^th Istanbul Biennial, is now exhibited for the second time here in New York with Protocinema.

Visitors are invited to enter the ‘isolation zone’ fenced in area as well as the guard-house. Inside the house is a small seat, and many printed images of the nature from around the world, an inner world of fields, waterfalls, idyllic bays. There is also a tiny transistor radio playing music from the 90’s.The radio is significant because when the work was created “it was only a year since the radio broadcast had been released from state monopoly; and the broadcast in the house is reminiscent of radio days past.” 1. From the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, up until 1994, the government had complete control of all radio and television broadcasting. To give some contrast, the site of the installation, the historical Westbeth building, was from 1868-1966 home of Bell Laboratories, “one of the world’s most important research centers. It was here that the first talking movie, the condenser microphone the first TV broadcast and the first binary computer were demonstrated.” 2. Given the current situation in Turkey, and elsewhere, in relationship to freedom of press and government intervention in disbursement and tracking of information, Tenger’s work is as relevant now as it was in 1995. The importance of re-creating a work from the mid-90’s, a reaction to those times, by the same artist now, a reflection on the recent-past, gives perspective on the rapid increase in the violation of human rights across the globe.

Issues of psychological and political aspects of living in “locales of tension and exchange, the problems of opening and closing, of what is inside and what is outside”. 3 are long-standing themes in Hale Tenger’s work. Tenger's interest is to work with space, the uncertainties of the space and to “discuss what space means both as a notion and for individual existence and subjectivity.” 3 The presence of the viewer and absence of an inhabitant are significant elements in the environments created by Tenger, which often enhance an air of expectancy.

Hale Tenger, 1960, lives and works in Istanbul. Tenger has had selected one-person exhibitions at: Galeri Nev, Istanbul, 2013, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 2011; Green Art Gallery, Dubai, 2011; Mannheimer Kuntsverein, Mannheim, 2001; ArtPace, San Antonio, 1997. Her work has been included in selected group exhibitions at: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2014; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, 2014; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, 2013; ARTER, Istanbul, 2013; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2012; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, 2010; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2009; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2009; Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille, Lille, 2009; Carré d'Art-Nimes Museum of Contemporary Art, Nimes, 2008; Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, 2006; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2005; ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2004; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, 2002; Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, 2000; Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 2003, 2000; Centre d'art Contemporain Geneve, Geneva, 1999; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art,1996; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1996; Kunst-Werke, Berlin,1994.

Special Thanks: Alex Smith, SAHA Association, Istanbul; Steve Neil, Galeri Nev, Istanbul; Green Art Gallery, Dubai; IKSV, Istanbul Foundation For Culture & Arts, Istanbul; René Block, Elizabeth Baribeau, Eda Ozdoyuran, Çağla Köseoğulları, Ahmet Demirel/Esat Demirel, Asli Tunaman, Jason Duval, Lina Bertucci.

Protocinema is a mission driven, art organization realizing Site-Aware exhibitions around the world (based in Istanbul and New York). The organization is itinerant and free of 'brick and mortar'. Collaborations, interventions and exhibitions are presented in spaces specific to each artist, while being responsive to context. Protocinema exhibits artists in cities where their work has yet to have been exhibited extensively. Protocinema was founded in 2011 by Mari Spirito. mari@protocinema.org Protocinema.org 917 660 7332 or +90541 468 0214

Press Inquires
Amani Olu
Olu PR
(646) 330–1039
amani@olupr.com

1. Hale Tenger, Stranger Within, , YKY, Istanbul, 2007, p.72.
2. Westbeth.org, Bell Lab photos reprinted permission of Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
3. Enclosures, New Museum, New York, Dan Cameron and Gerardo Mosquera, 1997

WITH SUPPORT FROM

---

PRESS

---