Mausoleum to Mediocre Architects
November 24, 2023 – January 13, 2024
Mausoleum To Mediocre Architects by Sinan Logie may be visited at Öktem Aykut from November 24th until January 13th, 2023. The opening reception will take place on Friday, November 24th between 18.30 – 20:00.
In recent years, beyond his research on spatial fluidity, Logie’s work has regularly explored the field of monumental architectural forms. These incursions have been mainly guided by the artist’s academic research on the historical layers of Istanbul and its periphery. Recently his focus has extended towards the ever-becoming urban region around the sea of Marmara. The Birth of a Monument in Gümüşlük Akademisi, Bodrum (2017); A Sanctuary in the Sanctuary in Bilsart, İstanbul (2018); Spatial Conditions in Ark Kültür, İstanbul (2019); Prayer Space in Tartışık, Assos (2023) may be listed as Logie’s latest artistic proposals regarding such monumental forms.
For his new one-person exhibition in Öktem Aykut’s gallery space, Logie pays tribute to the sublime mediocrity of architectural production in the contemporary world. In Form Follows Finance (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), Carol Williams indicated that, with the advent of capitalism, the set of rules left to architects are restricted to a singular quest of speculation. Within this scope, only an extremely limited number of professionals are allowed to create exceptions. Meanwhile the mass produced buildings, especially in the developing regions of the globalized world, are fulfilling a landscape of desolation and missed opportunities. Nevertheless, these architects, mostly practicing under difficult conditions to produce these new urbanities, are also the founders of the future. In these generic spaces all around the world; people make love, children grow and individuals question the truth… Future scientists, authors, artists and musicians are busy constructing themselves there, far out of the sight of elites living in central urban areas.
For this exhibition, Logie restricted his artistic production to a set of very strict rules. By creating a new space within the existing space of the gallery, with a narrow scope of forms and methods, Logie celebrates the life and death of mediocre architects producing all around the world.