Istanbul Concept Gallery is hosting painter Coşkun Sami's exhibition Sumerki from 7 January to 29 January 2022.
'Sumerki' means 'twilight' in Russian, but the word also describes the uncertainty of light before dawn. It is drawn from a poem by Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam, a Polish-born Russian poet, who would die in in the Vtoraya Rechka transit camp near Vladivostok in 1938, aged 47. The poem was written to mark the first anniversary of the Russian Revolution. He once wrote: ‘Only in Russia is poetry respected, it gets people killed.’ With the Bulgarian-born Coşkun Sami’s interpretations of what is temporary, what is permanent and what the future may be, the painter invites the viewer to an ambiguous and uncertain journey.
Sumerki features works produced with oil on canvas and ink on paper, as well as a selection of patterns from his 'Eksiklopedi' series.
'Sumerki', 2021. Oil on canvas, 85 x 140 cm.
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
