Galerie Nordenhake is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Meriç Algün Ringborg in Germany. A Work of Fiction (Revisited) is a complex exhibition generated through a single source: the Oxford English Dictionary. Employing a methodology of only using example sentences found in the dictionary, Algün Ringborg created an author character whose output is strictly prescribed by this constrained methodology. The exhibition challenges the concept of authorship, the role of the writer and thereby that of the artist and explores our relationship to language, expression and meaning.
The ground floor of the gallery is transformed into in the ground floor gallery an installation comprised ofan environment reminiscent of an author’s space. Right upon entering, a list-like description is presented on an overhead projector. This list is then manifested in the space through furniture, objects and general ephemera; a framework to the artworks created during the process of constrained writing. On the author’s coffee table lies A Work of Fiction (Manuscript). The 24-page manuscript assembles sentences found in the dictionary into a seemingly conventional narrative and adopts the style of a generic romance, thriller and mystery tale. It follows the characters Mark, Maria and Peter whose relations evolve into drama, unfaithfulness and murder. A recording device on the author’s desk plays the self-reflexive narrative Metatext. As the author reveals the methodology of her authoringprinciples of writing, the narrative meanders, eventually loops and turns in on itself. The two videos Infinity and Eternity focus on hands performing meditative and repetitious tasks, one of which is to tie a decorative knot, the other to perform a trick with a pen. Moreover, Men in Buckram is a series of monochromes made by stretching buckram, a type of cloth used in bookbinding. The title refers to the phrase “men in buckram”, originating in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, defined to mean “hypothetical men existing only in the brain of the imaginer.”
The video installation A World of Blind Chance, which is on view on the first floor, adds another layer to adds another chapter to Meriç Algün Ringborg's intricintricate exploration ofproject by reflecting on the matter of fact and fiction language and the act of writing in order to see what can and cannot be said. Using the same constrained writing technique, the artist has composed a script for a theatre play. The play is structured into three acts, each approximately ten minutes long. In eEach of them “act consists of an actor—played by the Swedish actor” (played by Michael Nyqvist)— enterings the stage where herehearsing a monologue, ; a philosophical rambling on subjects such as acting and being on stage, representation of time and space, the search for truth and the essence of existence, language, chance or the origin of the universe. Whilst the actor is performing his lines, his movements are directed by the author’s voice directs his movements, making the gap apparent the gap between what i's written and what happens in reality apparent.
Meriç Algün Ringborg was born in 1983 in Istanbul and currently lives and works in Stockholm. The contrasts between Istanbul and Stockholm as well as her movement between the two cities play a key role in her practice. Her work concentrates on issues of identity and the notion of self, borders and bureaucracy, language and translation through appropriated and “ready-made” texts, collections and archives. This autumn, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm will feature a solo presentation of Algün Ringborg’s work (Oct 18-Jan 11, 2015), following solo exhibitions at MOSTYN, Llandudno (2014); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Art in General, New York (both 2013) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012). She participated in the 19. Sydney Biennale and the 12. Bienal de Cuenca (both 2014) as well as the 12. Istanbul Biennial (2011). Algün Ringborg’s work was also part of group shows at Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2014); Kunstverein Hannover; Marabouparken, Stockholm; MoCA, Detroit and MAK, Vienna (all 2013), as well as at CCA Wattis, San Francisco and Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (both 2012). A Work of Fiction (Manuscript) was published in the current issue of Art Review (Vol 66, No 6).
