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Two exhibitions bringing together photography and textile-based contemporary art have opened at Baksi Museum in Bayburt, eastern Türkiye, featuring works by Turkish filmmaker Zeki Demirkubuz and American artist Mike Berg.
Demirkubuz's exhibition, titled "Hayatta ve Fotografta En Iyi Pozu Yalnizlar Verir" (Loners Strike the Best Pose in Life and Photography), brings together photographs he took across Europe, the Americas and Asia, while Berg's "Kuramdan Arinmis" (Free from Theory) uses kilims, traditional flat-woven textiles, to explore relationships between surface, volume, line and empty space.
The photographs in Demirkubuz's exhibition revisit the introspective perspective associated with his filmmaking through still images stripped of narrative and dramatic structure.
Demirkubuz said visitors would encounter different geographies, lives and people through the exhibition, adding that he hoped each person would find something that connected with their own personality and outlook.
Reflecting on the museum's remote location in Bayburt, Demirkubuz said he had initially been surprised to learn where it stood before being struck by what had been created there.
"Every person, I hope, will find something in line with their own personality and their own world. That is why we go through all this effort. When I first learned that the museum was in a remote corner of Bayburt, I was surprised. This place is an incredible act of imagination. It is a very valuable and refined museum in every respect. I am very happy that my photographs are being exhibited here."
Berg's exhibition approaches boundaries between exterior and interior, surface and volume, and line and space through works incorporating kilims.
Sharp lines drawing on architectural forms are translated through loops and knots, creating both two-dimensional and three-dimensional perceptions across the textile surfaces.
Berg said he was happy to be at Baksi Museum and felt fortunate to have the opportunity to show his works there, while thanking museum founder Husamettin Kocan.
Speaking at the opening, Kocan said one of the museum's main priorities when putting together exhibitions was ensuring that art could reach people.
He said the museum had sought to work with leading creative figures while keeping a strong connection with local culture and carrying that perspective onto a universal platform.
"We tried, as much as possible, to reach the best minds in our country and carry out these works together with them. Locality is present in all our exhibitions and events, but taking it onto a universal line is certainly our primary goal," Kocan said.
He also described cultural heritage as something passed down between generations, arguing that people inherit stories from the past and use them to speak to those who come after them.
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