Group art exhibitions can sometimes seem too disparate to be cohesive, but in “The Real Challenge is Elsewhere” (“Gerçek Hesap Başka Yerde”), currently on view at Siemens Sanat, common themes and issues create an engaging dialogue among the works of three young artists from diverse countries and backgrounds: Gözde İlkin of Turkey; Javed Mulani, from India; and Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti, who is Moroccan-born Dutch. The works, while differing in style, form, and media, explore themes such as identity and alienation, male-female relations, and the impact of society on the individual. Curator Melih Görgün explains that, along with his co-curator Mürteza Fidan, his aim was to bring together artists of different nationalities who have “a similar [style of] perception,” leading them to create works that are “against taboo.”
    This sort of critique comes out perhaps most strongly in Wafae Ahalouch el Keriasti’s work, which addresses and provokes questions about male-female relationships, power, and women’s identity. The artist, who was born in Tangiers but grew up and lives in the Netherlands, explains that, “I was always dealing with conflicts in my own background, with families, with gender. Then 9/11 happened and this conflict became a big part of my world. The family politics became the world politics.”
    The largest of her works in this exhibit, entitled “Fighting Temptation,” is painted directly on the wall in black and white and in a slightly cartoonish style portrays a tableau of scantily clad pinup girls alongside Hitler and Stalin. Her other works, including two smaller wall paintings and a series of five line paintings on paper, feature similar motifs.
    In describing “Fighting Temptation,” Ahalouch says, “I like the cliché of the pinup, and I want to make a connection between the attractiveness of pinups and the leaders of some countries. They just have to say the right words and people will follow.”
    Gözde İlkin’s work also represents a response to consumer culture and in particular the objectification of women. Though the works look, from a distance, like line drawings, they are in fact made of black thread intricately stitched onto canvas painted in different colours. Many portray headless, misshaped female forms in domestic settings, where they merge with the furniture. In “Dolap Kadını” (“Cupboard Woman”), two naked female bodies seem to be part of and at the same time emerging from a large wardrobe; despite their absence of heads and amorphous shapes, the figures’ femininity is clear from their large breasts and high-heeled shoes.
    İlkin says that in these works she wants to show “the objectification of the woman in the house, for example the state of being a cupboard… From the male perspective, where are the points where women are in the home?”
    Javed Mulani, meanwhile, offers a wider critique of what he calls a “society…misled by politics.” A dozen works done in graphite and watercolour on paper, in a consistent palate of black-grey, green, and orange-brown against a white background, feature quasi-cubist figures that tell stories and comment on contemporary society. Particularly striking is a drawing of a green, robot-like human figure, holding a large black machine gun. The title of the painting is “I’m Not the One”—a critique, Mulani explains, of the idea that all terrorists are Muslims.
    Though Mulani emphasizes that his work shown here is primarily dealing with issues of politics and identity, there are gender themes at play too, for example in a drawing called “Will You Have Four?” The same robot-like green figure, wearing a Muslim skullcap, stands in the centre; on each side are two female figures enveloped in burka-like black robes. The work’s title is a clear reference to the tradition of Muslim men having four wives. But Mulani is quick to point out that overall, his work “is not about Muslims or non-Muslims but about the conditions in which we are living.”
    In this day of so-called clashes between civilizations, and violence in many places in the Middle East and the world, such an approach seems both wise and humane. Overall, the works in this exhibit, rather than dividing people by type, remind us of a predicament that we all face: the alienation of modern life. Or, as the exhibition title puts it, that “the real challenge is elsewhere.”


Siemens Sanat
Meclisi Mebusan Cad. 45, Fındıklı
Free; exhibit runs until Feb. 28.