Arter’s 2025 Exhibition Program Kicks Off

Arter’s 2025 exhibition program begins with Angelica Mesiti’s solo exhibition Future Perfect Continuous. Simultaneously, visitors can experience Can Aytekin’s Wall Drawing, designed specifically for Arter’s entrance atrium wall.

Curated by Nilüfer Şaşmazer, Future Perfect Continuous brings together a performance video by Italian-born Australian artist Angelica Mesiti—where the sound of a rainstorm is re-enacted by eleven performers using hand gestures and body percussion—and a series of prints depicting photographs of fossilized raindrops.

Meanwhile, Can Aytekin’s Wall Drawing (10 Moulds and 33 Shapes from the Reverse Series) consists of site-specific wall drawings created using oil pastels, focusing on the relationship between painting and space through overlapping, evolving, and repeating forms.

Future Perfect Continuous

Angelica Mesiti’s exhibition, curated by Nilüfer Şaşmazer, explores collective actions and nonverbal, even non-human, methods of communication. The exhibition takes its title from the artist’s video of the same name. In this black-and-white video, a rainstorm’s sound—starting as a drizzle, growing into a crescendo, and eventually fading—is performed by eleven participants through gestures like rubbing hands, clapping, slapping thighs, and snapping fingers.

Inspired by a children’s game Mesiti observed in a schoolyard—often used in creative drama practices—the video portrays a group of young individuals mimicking the rhythm of rain. The intricate choreography creates a mesmerizing soundscape and visual composition, transforming the performers into the rain itself and connecting individual and collective experiences through a shared resonance.

During the press conference for the exhibition, curator Nilüfer Şaşmazer highlighted Mesiti’s connection with Arter, which began with her Citizen’s Band (2012) showcased at Arter’s former building during the 13th Istanbul Biennial. She remarked:

“Angelica’s works deliberately avoid spoken language and often revolve around sound and performance, exploring the potential and function of bodily sounds, gestures, and silence. What fascinates me about her work is the hypnotic and captivating power of bodily performance and sound, which requires no intellectual background or expertise from the audience.”

Mesiti, discussing the inspiration for the exhibition, said:

“The idea originated from a children’s game. This game has layers of complexity as well as pedagogical and social dimensions. My aim was to study, understand, and transfer these dimensions from children’s play into the adult world.”

Accompanied by a series titled The Rain That Fell in the Faint Light of the Young Sun, featuring re-photographed images of fossilized raindrops on colored backgrounds, the exhibition highlights fleeting yet historical moments sealed in the Earth’s geological memory. These images underscore the coexistence of different temporalities and the transformative potential of the ephemeral.

Wall Drawing by Can Aytekin

Can Aytekin’s Wall Drawing, inspired by his Reverse series included in Arter’s collection after his 2018 solo exhibition Empty House, consist of 33 shapes based on 10 geometric forms. Designed for Arter’s entrance atrium wall, the site-specific composition uses oil pastels applied directly to the surface. Aytekin explores the dynamic relationship between painting and space through intersecting, evolving, and repeating geometric structures.

Using the evocative colors of red and green, the work delves into themes of line, text, shape, abstraction, and representation. Aytekin explains his perspective:

“Drawing, in essence, is about carving, leaving a mark. The temporary nature of these marks excites me—they’ll eventually disappear. This series isn’t permanent but evolves, reconfigures, and multiplies like a puzzle that can always come together differently.”