All The Good Memories Are Stored, a collaboration between Ankara-born digital artist Cem Sonel and Manisa-born artist Ramazan Can, presents a blend of digital art, neon, and LED installations that explore the themes of time, and memory.
Central to the exhibition is the recurring motif of carpets, explored both as physical objects and digital motifs. One work features a carpet on the wall, its image gradually disintegrating into smaller puzzle-like pieces, creating a sense of loss and fragmentation. However, the symbolism behind this unraveling remains unclear, inviting further interpretation. This uncertainty is echoed in All the Memories Are Stored (2023), a nearly 1.5-meter-tall concrete sculpture adorned with vibrant mosaics and a rolled-up carpet at its center. While striking in its visual appeal, the sculpture lacks a clear connection to the exhibition’s broader themes, leaving its significance open to speculation.
As if it’s not your home (2024), juxtaposes a traditional carpet laid on the floor with a digital projection of the same carpet on a screen. The surrounding room is filled with binary code—ones and zeros—projected onto the wall. This interplay between the physical and virtual worlds captures the exhibition’s broader exploration of memory and perception, though the thematic connections between the works are at times fragmented.
Another inscription on the wall that reads, “I used to be a stranger in this place. Now I am the owner.” Rendered in a playful, almost Comic Sans-like font, the text is filled with yellow and blue carpet patterns. Is it neo-expressionist graffiti?
The exhibition is an interesting experiment where the symbol of Anatolian carpet meets the binary digital world. It is an art geared towards those whose understanding of aesthetics is optimized and organized by our new instagram-oriented world. It goes without saying, it is highly instagrammable.
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
