In the Middle

Borga Kantürk, whose practice spans the realms of artistic expression and curatorial work, brings together everyday objects, photographs and texts, as well as vestiges relevant to his own life, as if reconstructing the fragments of a personal archive. Intrigued by untold microhistories, collective memory, remembrance, and oblivion, the artist meticulously records the ordinary and incidental aspects of everyday life. This endeavour aims to rekindle lingering memories that might fade into obscurity and to highlight those that are frequently neglected when it comes to preservation and sharing.

Kantürk’s photograph "In the Middle" was first exhibited in his solo exhibition "Café Recordis" (Gallery NON, 2011) where the artist brought together various everyday objects that activate collective memory. This black and white seascape not only refuses to offer a shore for the viewer to set foot on, but also hints at a distant and misty horizon, thereby suggesting a journey with no beginning and end. The ship, positioned at the centre of the composition and on the brink of vanishing from sight, has already moved past – yet it also remains abandoned, left behind. Oscillating between remembrance and oblivion, Kantürk’s work resides right ‘in the middle’ of the will to depart, to move forward, and the sense of delay, of missing out, of lagging behind.