Capacity

Defining himself as a nomad and an urban shaman, Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin was interested in his art practice during the 1990s in themes like the transmission and circulation of images and objects among cultures. He produced a personal archive consisting of photographs, notes, and collected objects from his voyages, which served as a resource for his works. His installation “Capacity” brings together photographs of signs on storefronts and cheap hotels that named themselves after various cities around the world. The artist begins this project by photographing hotels in Tarlabaşı and Laleli that bear names like Dallas or Washington, and expands his archive to different places during his travels over the years. “Capacity” forms a visual language of belonging and exile, migration and globalization, documenting the temporary spaces that migrants often use and inhabit.

"What Time Is It?", exhibition view, Arter, 2019.