Volkan Aslan: The Perfect Day

“The Perfect Day” at Pi Artworks Istanbul opens in parallel with the 14th Istanbul Biennial.

During the Biennial’s previous iteration in 2013, Volkan Aslan exhibited one of his neon installations (Games, Games, Games, 2013) at Galata Greek Primary School, and this year he produces an even more enthusiastic project. For The Perfect Day the artist will transform the gallery with an immersive, site-specific installation that will dominate Pi Artworks Istanbul’s space and act as an unconventional platform for new iterations of his neon series.

Volkan Aslan will create an autonomous space within the gallery, where the visitor will be left alone to experience his work without external visual references. Viewers will be in a direct engagement with his quotidian elements that have been given strange and illogical new functions.

The Perfect Day follows on from other recent projects such as, Any Given Day (Arter, Istanbul, 2010); Don’t Forget to Remember (Arter, Istanbul, 2013); A Day Not Lived Yet (Pi Artworks London, 2014) that share the common reference of the passage of time. Time is a trajectory segmented into regular, repeatable, and measurable units. The artist does not link the concept of ‘day’ with emotional and private connotations, instead he points out his common reference about time all around the world. An ordinary day for someone can be ‘the perfect day’ for the other. The ‘perfect day’ described by Aslan is the day he excitedly started the production of a new work.

In this exhibition, Aslan presents the materials such as neon and clay in their basic states. He avoids the spectacular expression and forms that would easily point to obvious meanings. This reflects the fact that this exhibition consists of not only new work but also that the installation will give the impression it is still under construction. The materials in the work will stand close to their unrefined state but they still exist within the story that the artist creates.