Un Coup de Dés Jamais N\'Abolira Le Hasard

30 SEPTEMBER 2016 - 12 NOVEMBER 2016

Artists: Özgür Demirci, Elmas Deniz, Didem Erk, Lee Garcia, Leyla, Hacer Kıroğlu, Alican Leblebici, Ali Miharbi, Ceylan Öztürk, İrem Tok, Şener Özmen, Seda Yıldız

Pilot launches the new art season with a group exhibition entitled Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard, which runs between 30 September and 5 November. Featuring works by 12 artists, the exhibition is an attempt to explore new possibilities as well as the complexity inherent in the evolving relationship between art and language. The works on view challenge the idea of a language, full of rules and restrictions, which compels immediate readings; instead, they embrace pliable and even subjective versions.

Many works in the exhibition use a range of strategies to free the written word from the conventional surfaces and functions it has been associated with, and to divorce language from a linear narrative. Other artists concentrate on the material qualities of language by displaying text, words and books as objects.

The exhibition borrowed its title from the 1897 poem by French poet Stephan Mallarmé. Un Coup de Dés was printed 16 years after the author’s death, following his meticulous instructions. Spread over 11 open-face pages, the poem that flows along irregular lines amidst blank spaces inspired artist Marcel Broodthaers, over half a century later, for his namesake artist’s book.