Tou Scene, Stavanger
23.9.-24.10.10
Yasim Agaoglu is a renowned poet in Turkey, having Azerbaijani roots. She is well known not only for publishing her poems on yellow paper, but also for using her poems in her art. The exhibition in the bunker at Tou Scene shows three varieties of her work: Poetry installations, photography and people installations.
In the poetry installation her yellow papers with poems are hanging on clotheslines and crubled in a pile on the floor. The visitors are invited to take the poem with them. In other exhibitions the visitors have some times been invited to contribute themselves, or the poetry papers have been presented in a cage, pillow, guitar case or being trown from a tower. This is a striking and vital way of presenting poetry, and make it come more alive than on black&white in a book.
In her people installations she turns everyday objects into a landscape by inserting small human figures. The biscuit box becomes a prison-like fortress, the pc prosessor card becomes a posh apartment, the pile of cardboard becomes a construction site, and the map of Europe an area of travelling and settling.
By photos she is observing the world, both the fluctuous moments of disappearing jet lines and the absurdity of the new and the old together. Her catching of the Stalin bust looking out from the window, while the window sill is adorned by the blind, deaf and dumb monkeys, is hilarious and symbolic at the same time.
