Chisenhale Gallery presents a major new commission by the Istanbul, Amsterdam and Berlin based Kurdish artist Ahmet Öğüt. For Happy Together: Collaborators Collaborating Öğüt will stage a public discussion at Chisenhale Gallery, bringing together people of various professions and nationalities with whom he has previously collaborated. The gallery will be transformed into a TV studio for the duration of the exhibition with a specially constructed set used to stage the discussion and, afterwards, to present a film documenting the event. The project opens with a performance of Reverb, a concert by the artist in collaboration with Fino Blendax, to welcome the collaborators to Chisenhale.
This is the first solo exhibition in a UK public institution by Öğüt and is commissioned as part of How to work together, a shared programme of contemporary art commissioning and research devised by Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire. The other commissioned artists for 2015 are Sanya Kantarovsky at Studio Voltaire (16 April – 7 June and Wendelien van Oldenborgh at The Showroom (29 April – 20 June). This second round of exhibitions builds on the success of last year’s commissions by Gerry Bibby (The Showroom), Céline Condorelli (Chisenhale Gallery) and Ella Kruglyanskaya (Studio Voltaire).
Ahmet Öğüt, Happy Together: Collaborators Collaborating is commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery. The commission is supported by SAHA Association, Mondriaan Fund, Maya and Rasamny and Yana and Stephen Peel.
Chisenhale Gallery's Exhibition Programme 2015-16 is supported by Nicoletta Fiorucci.
How to work together is supported by a capacity building and match funding grant from Arts Council England through Catalyst Arts, with additional funding in the second year from Bloomberg, Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Resolution Property and Bilge & Haro Cumbusyan. For more information visit www.howtoworktogether.org.
Reverb is commissioned and produced by Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven, as part of the exhibition Ahmet Öğüt: Forward (7 March – 14 June 2015).
