Dirimart is thrilled to present PARADISE ON SALE, the first solo show of the artist duo :mentalKLINIK with the gallery in its Dolapdere space. Based metaphorically on the idea of the cancelation of utopia in the 21st century, PARADISE ON SALE is a promised land for our saturated faces, filtered bodies and extremely fragile souls caged in seductive screenscapes of this hilariously dark age.
Transforming the exhibition space into a massive groundless installation with shifting scents, distorting mirrors, shiny poppers, and floating screens accompanied by surrounding and directed sounds, :mentalKLINIK generously offers an ultimate confessional for the innocently sinful souls to confront the hypocrisy of capitalistic leisure. Implemented structural elements of the entertainment sector as complementary units of the artworks inevitably play with our perception of corporate expectations from an art gallery. The installation functions as a wake-up call to those who fall asleep under the mega ruins in micro times, and as a hypertext for our hyper moods being challenged by the physicality overlapped with virtuality.
The welcoming piece, a meta-human, Frenemy showcases a computer- generated genderless character who personifies a sentiment that has no specific word to describe: a mesh of emptiness, a possible sense of inadequacy and being lost in finding a purpose which inevitably ends up bursting into tears. The large-scale muselet of champagne bottle floats on the mirrored confetti floor as a remnant of an unforgettable party frozen in time-space; once the piece of the moment, later forgotten and lost under the choreographed party lights. Surrounded by the mirrored window films, the installation repetitively reproduces its own reality; each time distorted and rejuvenated with the temporal orientation of the reflective, sculptural panes called Double-Deal. The spectators become the spectacle when they encounter Cute Spy, the charming surveillance camera in the shape of a pet owl interacting with them through movement and eye contact. The shifting scents formulated by :mentalKLINIK Happily Dizzy and Awfully Witty attack the involuntary memory to make this experience much more permanent in the viewers’ subconscious, in collaboration with the sound installation Lunatic Poems, which are located at certain spots of the gallery space as if they are trying to jog the 21st century’s vocabulary to our memories.
Holding up a mirror to the frenzy now and contemporary obsessions, :mentalKLINIK does not only appeal to the spectators’ visual expectations but also deliberately recaptures all of the senses to keep them alert during and after the experience. In PARADISE ON SALE, :mentalKLINIK does not promise you a new paradise but rather asks you to celebrate the end of utopia as accomplices.
Press release from Dirimart
