Cem Mumcu’s exhibition, Inhibition/Exhibition (Çile Bülbülüm Çile), held at Beyoğlu Municipality Istiklal Art Gallery, reveals human psychology, feelings, and troubles in both linguistic and visual dimensions. In the exhibition curated by Derya Yücel, we see how Cem Mumcu deals with human psychology and the stuckness of the times we live in. On the other hand, Yücel presents a portrait of the author as an artist.
Cem Mumcu says that the exhibition is a visual metaphor for repression and expression, two fundamental and contradictory aspects of human nature. In fact, the most important point Mumcu addresses is the courage to express oneself on a social level. In this context, the artist constructs a story. In this story, the title of the exhibition gains great importance in the semantic context. ”The ordeal in the title of the exhibition means not ordeal, but ordeal, that is, when used for a nightingale, it means to sing sweetly. It even means to be happy and have fun, and in this context it is used in the sense of exhibition – that is, to open oneself outwardly, to express oneself outwardly. On the other hand, the meaning of Inhibition in the title of the exhibition is the beginning of this story in the sense of being suppressed and restricted.”
It is not a coincidence that Cem Mumcu puts these meanings and expressions into words in this way; what we see in this exhibition are works that he has created even though he has suppressed them emotionally. The artist courageously shares his world with the viewer and even encourages the viewer to reveal their own repressed selves. Thus, the exhibition actually creates a kind of confrontation space. The artist not only confronts herself in this space, but also invites the audience to confront themselves in this space.
The figures in Mumcu’s paintings actually resemble amorphous substances; they are there in front of our eyes in the context of a substance, but they do not always have to look like something, and their existence is clear and certain… In the paintings, we do not only encounter figures whose existence does not exist in and of themselves, but we also see figures that reach us, even figures that reach the whole society, figures that can come out of their own existence. In a sense, it is possible to say that the figures express us, the viewer, society and the collective existence or spirit of society.
“I have been blocked from expressing myself by writing for a long time,” Cem Mumcu says, and he expresses that he has been blocked and has been using colors and figures instead of writing for a long time.
Cem Mumcu’s paintings are, on the one hand, a reference to a collective consciousness, but they still have a personal and subtle point: It is revealed in the notes written above or below the paintings. Curator Derya Yücel came up with the idea of bringing the paintings together with these notes and even framing some of the paintings by taking them out of a notebook. In this context, Yücel presents the paintings of an author without distancing them from the author’s inner world and with delicacy.
Works and Their Names
The names he gives to the paintings have an important meaning for the artist. He suggests that the viewer should definitely look at the names. On the other hand, Mumcu is not interested in giving a direct message to the viewer, but he cares that the viewer is in a state of emotion or feeling. ”The viewer will both read the texts and look at the painting, both of which can be in front of or behind each other, it doesn’t matter. The audience can look at these paintings and writings, become happy, angry, confused, angry with me and experience many things,‘’ Mumcu says. The biggest aim of the artist is to reveal the emotion. For this reason, the figures we see in the paintings are not extremely clear, but when we look closely or try to understand them, the reality behind the figures becomes clear.
What Does the Exhibition Say About Existential Crises and Life?
For Mumcu, every restriction reveals a kind of existential crisis, and the situations in which people are confused, stuck and confused about what to do actually mean for him to be renewed from an artist’s point of view and to recognize that state. ‘‘When I make the paintings, I proceed in whatever mood I am in at that moment.’’ In Mumcu’s art, there is no prior plan or preparation process.
In the Çile Bülbülüm Çile exhibition, when the works come together, they can be read as works of fiction that reveal one’s emotions. This is what Mumcu wants: “I believe that people need to look at their emotions more now. We won’t be able to solve many things mentally,” he says. Thus, he uses his paintings and figures, and even the different materials he uses in his paintings, materials other than paint, such as coffee and ink, as metaphors. Mumcu’s figurative abstractions reveal all forms of repression and stuckness within metaphors. In the meantime, it opens a space for confrontation about personal and collective liberation and questioning one’s own stance in life.
