Drawing from the history of painting up to the present and synthesizing these approaches with her distinctive artistic language, Perçin adopts an innovative perspective on painting. With her strong visual language and a careful balance between form, color, aesthetics, and subject, she now presents her new series “Mountains Belong to No One” to the audience.
In this series, Perçin turns her gaze toward nature and the ways in which it is consumed by capital. Her painterly engagement with industrial, abandoned sites materializes in works that visualize the impacts of globalization on nature, humanity, and architecture. In this exhibition, the artist reflects on the destructive interventions into mountains, interpreting them as metaphors for how global capital exploits and consumes public spaces. The title of the exhibition takes its name from the expression, “Mountains belong to no one,” adopted by mountaineers.
Landscapes and outdoor views, which had appeared in her earlier works, become the primary subject in this series. The transformation of mountains across Turkey into quarries and mining sites in recent years, the harsh working conditions of laborers in these sites, and the ruthless destruction of public land by foreign capital are conveyed in Perçin’s works as expressions of her concern. In this series, it is possible to observe not only the artist’s ideological stance but also the visual and painterly bonds she establishes through the imagery she produces.
Perçin explains her new series “Mountains Belong to No One” in her own words: “In this series, I focus on how mountains are stripped of their role as habitats and life sources for all living beings and transformed into tools of profit at the service of capital. Through my own painterly language, I attempt to externalize my impressions of the changes brought about in geography by human interventions. The main imagery of the series consists of excavated mountains, stone and marble quarries. One of the questions that frequently came to mind while preparing for this exhibition was: after such reckless and irreversible human interventions, how might nature respond? Beyond the ideological dimension of the issue, the resulting landscapes also present a striking visual richness. These images draw me in artistically as well; the forms, colors, and textures that emerge offer responses to my technical explorations. In this context, the visuality that the subject itself generates has led me toward new formal pursuits, adding geometric and sculptural qualities to my paintings.”
Hints of this series could already be traced in her earlier works, yet “Mountains Belong to No One” reveals Perçin’s deeper focus on outdoor environments while bringing texture and color to the forefront. To create this new body of work, the artist undertook a long-term project that involved photographing various locations at different times and conducting extensive research. Alongside her canvases, the exhibition also includes photographs overpainted with oil.
Burcu Perçin’s new series “Mountains Belong to No One” can be viewed at Art ON Istanbul between April 15 – May 24, 2014.